Hi,
We use the Evoluent Vertical Mouse 2 and the 3M EM500GPL at work. They are aimed at preventing RSI and both make you hold your hand on its side so you use the major muscles in your arm to move them rather than your wrist. If you're having shoulder problems they may not be the right thing for you unless your problem is micro-movement related as they increase rather than reduce whole arm movement.
Evoluent: 5 button optical, on-the-side USB mouse with scroll wheel. Physically large. Works fine with Linux.
3M EM500GPL (Large also EM500GPS - small): USB optical pointing device. Resembles a joystic but doesn't tilt. You move the whole base with the handle. Has 3 buttons: a left/right click toggle under the thumb (note can't press both at once to get paste) and a press bar under the fingers to turn the mouse motion into scroll.
The EM500's scroll button is presented to the OS as a middle button press. So you either have to do without scroll or one button paste. Does anybody know if it is easy to unmap the middle button from paste in KDE and Gnome and make it turn mouse motion into scroll?
I believe Logitech make a mouse ("air mouse"?) that you wave in the air and detects motion. I think if you have bluetooth you may be able to so the same thing with a Nintendo Wii Remote.
One of the guys at work doesn't have use of his hands and has a Natural Point TrackIR (
http://www.naturalpoint.com) which is a head tracking system. It's a small IR camera that tracks where you look so the pointer always follows your head.
On the subject of work. If you are employed and are having physical problems related to your work then I believe your employer is required by law to provide you with an Occupational Therapist consultation and whatever equipment is needed to remedy it. That is certainly what happens at our workplace.
You may find that your problems are a consequence of bad ergonomics on your workstation and that altering your chair/keyboard/screen height and poisition may fix them.
Good luck. Let me know what you find,
Paul.
Sent from my BlackBerry® wireless device
