Space-Age Mouse

Just wanted to share my new futuristic ergonomic computer mouse. 

Thumb sits on the left.

Rest of the hand sits fully supported and swoops down towards the right. 

No wrist movement up and down. 

Left and right clicks buttons are at the top.

No bending of the fingers and no reaching.

Mouse helps protect against repetitive movement disorders like carpal tunnel syndrome. 

The HandShoe Mouse fits like a glove. 

It’s made by Hippus in the Netherlands. 

Comes in wireless or wired. 

Choose right- or left-hand model. 

And make sure you order the right size: small, medium, or large. 

Until we have full voice recognition or gesture control like in Minority Report, I like this space-age mouse. 😉

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal) 

Ergonomics Ah!

So today I went for an ergonomic training and assessment. 

Never did this before. 

It was pretty awesome. 

The person had 4 degrees in ergonomics and really seemed to know what they were talking about. 

They got me set up in a special ergonomic chair with a footrest, bio-design mouse, and task lighting.

I tell you that I never sat so straight, perfectly contoured, and completely comfortable. 

They almost had to pry my butt out of that chair after I test drove it for over an hour in training. 

OMG, there is a difference. 

Don’t need carpal tunnel.

Don’t need sciatica. 

Don’t need neck, shoulder, and back pain. 

I even learned that the standing desks can be BAD for you–they put undue stress on your musculature and may actually result in a notable DECREASE in concentration and productivity. 

Anyway, from the stupid chairs that I’ve seen most people have–and the lousy posture they sit with–I’d recommend seeing the ergonomist. 😉

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

Oculus Rift Has My Attention

This picture is an older version of Oculus Rift–larger, heavier, more clunky than the streamlined version coming out this April for $599.

Zuckerberg’s Facebook announced the purchase of Oculus virtual reality (VR) in March 2014.

I can’t think of another piece of consumer technology that I want to try out more than this. 

Initially for immersive 3-D experiences in all sorts of entertainment, including gaming, movies, television, and more. 

But soon to follow are use cases for virtual meetings, classrooms, doctor’s appointments, and anything requiring our interaction and communication. 

Hush-hush is the more intimate use for things like virtual sex. 

Also, there are opportunities for augmented reality where physical reality is supplemented with computer sensory input making your real-experience that much richer and informed.

With the Oculus Rift, I imagine myself immersed on a safari in Africa, flying into the reaches of space, relaxing at the most beautiful beaches, praying at the Western Wall, fighting my way through first person shooter and action adventures, and reliving biblical and other major historical events.

I don’t see VR for myself as an escape from reality, so much as being able to experience many more of life’s realities and possibilities out there. 

My only fear is that as VR gets better and better, it becomes easier and easier to fall away from our challenges in the real world, and just live inside a mask with a controlled environment where our virtual choices and experiences seem all too convenient and real. 😉 

(Source Photo: here with attribution to Weston High School Library)

Voting Firsts

With voting, this was the first time I’ve ever:

– Voted early–even though it was on the last early voting day.

– Had to wait on any sort of real line to vote–this one was about 30 minutes long!

– Waited outside in the cold on a line snaking around the building–until the election volunteers had a heart and let us all in and out of the cold. 

– Had electioneering occurring right outside at tables and people handing out “information” until maybe 25 feet before the doors of the polling center–in the past, this activity was always kept far away and and they didn’t have the nerve to approach you as you were literally going inside the polling stations. 

– Got to sit down at a voting machine–always had to stand up previously, but from the sitting position and the “ergonomics” of the voting machine, you could hardly see them properly. 

– Had virtually no voting privacy–the machine faced the walls with the touch screens facing inward towards everyone else in the auditorium.

Despite all these voting firsts and most of them disappointing, the one voting first that I would have liked to see and didn’t was Internet voting, where we would usher voting into the 21st century with ease of voting, convenience, and privacy.

For some reason we can bank, shop, and pay taxes online, but to vote, we’re still stuck in the dark ages and it seemed like overall it was getting darker. 

(Source Photo: Andy Blumenthal)

>ZyPAD + iPad = Wow!

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This is great–the ZyPAD by Eurotech.

A true wrist-mounted computer.

Rugged, wearable, ergonomic, GPS, bluetooth and Wi-Fi enabled.

Turns off when arm is down and lights up when arm is up.

According to Trendhunter, sales are initially targeting military, law enforcement, emergency services, and healthcare.

I can see this expanding to sales, delivery, production, warehousing, and loads of service-based jobs–such as in “may I take your order please?” or “how would you like to pay for that?”

Runs on Windows CE–ugh!

I’d like to marry up the function and operating system of an iPad with the fit and form of the ZyPAD and then I think we may just have a real winner!

>The iWatch Does It All

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>Eat, Pray, Fly

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http://plus.cnbc.com/rssvideosearch/action/player/id/1592127836/code/cnbcplayershare

Imagine your airplane flight with 40% more people than today’s already crammed cabin…

(Pretty unimaginable right?)

Well check out these new airline seats called Skyriders, marketed by Italian company Aviointeriors.

The catch is that the Skyrider seats are only 23 inches narrow and passengers are expected to be in this crazy, half-sitting, half-standing “ergonomic” position for up to 2 hour flights.

The company’s advice to larger size people: “You have to lose some weight!”

This certainly doesn’t seem like a very customer-centric attitude, nor a very practical way to fly, no matter how much their spokesperson tries to “sell us the Brooklyn Bridge” on this one.

GONG! Back to the drawing board on this “innovation.”

>Man to Machine–How Far Will It Go?

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This is an amazing video of the new FemBots from Japan. These robots are incredibly lifelike for nascent androids. With or without the background music, it evokes an eerie feeling.

The vision of iRobot and elements of Star-Trek (remember the character “Data”) are becoming a reality in front of our very eyes.

This is a convergence of humanity and technology, as scary as that sounds. (No not our hearts and souls, but definitely recognizable physical dimensions).

No longer are we talking about simple human-computer interfaces, computer ergonomics, or user-centric architecture design, but rather, we are now moving toward the actual technology with emerging human semblance, charateristics, even some notional speech and affect, etc.

I came across this video the same day today that I saw on FOX news a breakthrough in robotic limbs for people. A man had actually been fitted and was using a robotic hand that responded to his muscle movement. Obviously, this offers huge possibilities for people with disabilities.

Man to machine and machine to man. How far will it go?

>IT Leaders–In Service to User Diversity

>A colleague sent me this article about “Electronically Challenged Seniors” with the comment “I think this sums up my abilities to a “T”.” While in her case, she was grossly exaggerating–she is a highly intelligent, technologically proficient, and experienced professional–I though this was a fascinating commentary on how IT leaders need to take into consideration a wide variety of end-users when planning and rolling out new information technology.

For example, too often we treat IT training as a after-thought, communications with our users as a sidetrack from the “cool technology” itself, and the rollout and adoption of technology in our organizations as “you’ll take what we give you, when we give it to you, and you’ll like it!”

Certainly, generational differences have long been acknowledged in terms of IT awareness, understanding, desire, usage, and expectation. Those generations who grew up with the computer, PDAs, internet, social media and so on and so forth are not only versatile in them, but expect basically the “latest and greatest” to be available to them at work. While prior generations who did not grow up with these modern technologies, although fully capable of learning and using them, may not intuitively understand them or feel the same level of desire to adopt them.

As IT leaders, we need to work with people from many generations and walks of life–with various levels of breadth and depth of technical prowess, desire, and expectation, and we need to serve them all by understanding their particular IT requirements, service levels, and training needs, and tailoring our approach to servicing them to help each group–based on user segmentation–to be as productive, engaged, and comfortable as possible.

Of course, we can’t make everyone happy all the time, but perhaps, we can work ever harder to be more understanding, empathetic, and helpful to our variety of users–“challenged” or otherwise.

>Man-Machine Interface and Enterprise Architecture

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A critical component of User-centric Enterprise Architecture is designing technology solutions to meet end-user requirements, and this includes making the man-machine interface simple and user-friendly. Often, this is referred to as ergonomics, defined as “the applied science of equipment design intended to maximize productivity by reducing operator fatigue, safety and discomfort. “ (www.spyderco.com/edge-u-cation/glossary.php)

According to Federal Computer Week, 4 August 2008, “Air Force researchers aim to help pilots and others operate increasingly complex aircraft and mission support systems.”

Unfortunately, all too often, the man-machine interface is not dealt with up front. “Traditionally, the machine and the technology are designed first and then the pilot has to deal with what’s left over, usually through training,” says Maris Vikmanis of the Air Force Research Laboratory.

Not designing in ergonomics from the get-go is a failure to consider the human capital perspective of enterprise architecture and will result in technology solutions that are sub-optimal to the end users and to the performance of the mission.

Dan Goodard, chief of the directorate’s Warfighter Interface Division, states, “There’s now so much reconnaissance data flowing down into the AOC (Air Operations Center) that it’s information overload. You need a much better human-machine interface to be able to get actionable information out of this very quickly.”

One example of enhancing man-machine interface is “deciding the best interface for people to use with onscreen data. A regular mouse turns out not to be so good for this; it would be better if someone could actually reach into the data to interact with it, which means devising more tangible interfaces.” (Remember the movie Minority Report…) I do not know if this type of 3-D data interface even has a name yet, but I would call it something like virtual data manipulation (VDM).

Another example goes beyond the senses of sight and touch to that of hearing. “Sound perception can play an equally important role in combat scenarios. On the battlefield, people often pick up aural cues about what’s happening before they see it. Developing technology that can take advantage of that is the goal of Battlespace Acoustics Branch of the Warfighter Interface Division.”

We’ve got to change from the “build it and they will come” mindset of the failed dot.com era to a more User-centric EA approach that demands that we design IT with the end-user in mind.

As Goodard summed up, “there’s been a lack of awareness about the importance of the man-machine interface in the early designs of weapons systems.” It’s certainly time to change that and not only for military and law enforcement systems, but for IT across the board.