Description of technology

The Quill Mouse, now called AirO2bic mouse, is a computing input device that manages and reduces muscular activity through design. It permits access to computing by a wide range of persons who cannot use a standard mouse device.

Got involved in access technology issues through

When he had a “real job,” Tom was a clinical biochemist. He began Designer Appliances as a start-up using research on dynamic bio-mechanics of muscle and blood flow. A block of wood helped formulate his first conceptual model, leading to 5 or 6 fundamental iterations before going to market.

Intrigued by

Tom wants to know why users who “are extremely delighted” with the transparency and effectiveness of the Quill Mouse, and who say their physical “issues seem to go away,” have not asked him to develop a keyboard!

Finding out about needs

Design Appliances set up its own website to gather information on prospective market needs. However, Tom indicates the results were probably skewed to some degree because of selection bias in who responded, and who was able to respond. Tom says he is “from the school of going out to test” even if testing must be briefer than optimally desired. Designer Appliances also “went out and talked to people” in likely user groups – those on worker’s compensation were a good pool.

Seeing the world in new ways

Tom de-emphasizes ergonomics as a term that has “lost itself in form.” He cites confusion between strain and repetition: “The example I always quote is that by the age of 70, your heart will have beaten 3 billion times. So repetition is not going to lead to failure. What you have to look at is the consequences of the work under the system that is designed and what are the vectors that you can alter.” Tom uses knowledge of human evolutionary design itself to create technology that matches what limbs and mind are meant to do. He has a passion for preventing injury and disability in the first place with ‘functional-neutral’ design that produces minimal limb impact and strengthening. Palm-down gripping on a conventional mouse produces an increase of 11-14% in muscle-tone, the result of damage. The Quill Mouse results in mere 1.2% to 1.4% increases in muscle-tone. With 500 million clicks occurring daily, this is a significant issue. Tom knows he’ll never know how many people the Quill Mouse might help to accomplish that goal because “you can’t measure things that don’t happen!“

On design principles

“Functional-neutral is a design that says that you don’t use the muscles that are most at risk.” Tom designs for maximum relaxation and natural input, aiming to “design the couch mouse.” Instead of the typical “separate camps” in which a “product with software support makes products work,” Designer Appliances has “crossed” both to enhance products. By combining software that makes “Quill Mouse clickless with a mouse that we say is gripless, you now have a totally functional-neutral mousing system.” In regard to interface, Tom says, “The best technology you don’t notice. The things about a product like ours is if you have a pair of shoes with a nail in it, you know about it. You take the nail out, do you ever remember it later? No. The best technology you don’t notice.“

On users

“All sorts” of people with physical injuries and disabilities, including those with arthritis, use Quill Mouse. Many are those who cannot bend their knuckles. While this and other issues cannot be directly simulated, there are ways to reproduce the issues in order to orient to user needs in design.

On training and use

Designer Appliances currently focuses on text-based support that is easily accessed by many groups of users, but they are looking at various user information methods for the future. “We are even at the point now designing talking packaging because people don’t read menus. It could be as something as corny as using those greeting cards things that sing Merry Christmas or whatever to you… that technology is inexpensive.“

Views on the market

Citing inherent market conditions, Tom indicates that affordability does not permit the development of the “best design.” He does expect future iterations of Quill Mouse being more adjustable and flexible to meet a wider range of user needs, however. In the short term for the market, he sees “30 million plus baby boomers who will need technology in the next 3-4 years.” However, he envisions “bringing up” future markets by providing technologies to education and government at very low cost to develop familiarity to avoid the issues of “retraining” that may be necessary with some populations now. He sees an unfortunate challenge in the market for “preventive” technologies because “unless people hurt, they don’t see the need.“

Success indicators – making a difference

Tom expresses pride that, “We are the first product to be commended for use by the Arthritis Foundation. You see now that in and of itself was a design validation.” He feels that such endorsements are greatly beneficial, in this case giving potential access to a market of 17 million persons with arthritis. He states, “For me the most important thing in product fulfillment is how [users] feel about things.“

On challenges, information exchange, and research

Tom cites frustration in repeated cycles of innovation, development, and product failure in which investors lose money, and then the process simply begins again in large-scale industry. He says that, “Good ideas don’t get funded… one of the biggest challenges on the design front is the little guy who sits in a back room has a good idea but never ever takes it to market. Rather it has to be some ‘idiot’ like me who is too stupid to be scared that goes out there on his behalf. A lot of good technology and design you will never hear of.” Additionally, Tom cites a preponderance of what he calls “catastrophe data” that emphasizes consequences, not actual populations, and studies that focus on muscles, “not at the processes behind muscles.“

Wants to know more about

Tom wants to know, in more detail, “Who our customers are,” and about particular “technology blocks” users experience with various technologies.

On new horizons

“The new horizons are going to be in the market of awareness and approach.” Tom also sees his new product, the “Clickless Web,” as a critical aspect of preventing strain injuries given widespread Internet activity. Users can navigate the web without clicking mouse buttons at all (http://www.theclicklessweb.com/).

Provocative views & quotes

“You see, here is one of my many propositions on the subject…that I describe ergonomics as managing molecules, not work. Therefore in terms of the design, we want to make sure that we can accommodate the normal human variability and by doing that we achieve our design objective.”