A mouse that does not tire you

By N. N. Sachitanand

HANNOVER, MARCH 31. Those who do a lot of web browsing with a PC are familiar with the mouse arm syndrome. This refers to pain around the elbow. The usual computer mouse forces the arm into an unnatural position which creates muscle tension in large muscle groups which were intended for entirely different tasks.

Now a Swedish doctor, Dr. Johan Ullman, has come up with a new design of a computer mouse which is ergonomically designed to avoid the elbow strain. The Ullman mouse is held like a pen. The forearm and underarm are at rest while the hand and fingers do the task they were intended to do. It is the hand muscles, which are intended for the fine motor movements needed for controlling a mouse. Explains Dr. Ullman, ``This is also understood because a large portion of the brain's capacity is used for control of the hand and fingers."

Although PC pens that use a mouse or digitiser board have been around for many years, the difference in Dr. Ullman's mouse is that it is a standard optical mouse which will work on any surface.

Sanyo's futuristic mobile phones

What will the mobile phones of the future be able to do? The Japanese company, Sanyo, gave a tantalising glimpse of this at the CeBIT fair this year, showing three prototypes from its developmental effort Project 2000. The AC-2000 is a pendant shaped receiver to which earphones in the form of jewellery pieces were attached. Built into the lid which flips open is a Liquid Crystal Display made of low temperature polysilicon reflective thin film transistors. The receiver has a CCD camera. This phone, besides of course, voice communication, can transmit and receive moving pictures, download material from the Internet, receive and play music and has a built-in geographical positioning system to enable the wearer to locate himself.

The technologies employed by the phone include 153 kbps bi- directional live image communication (1X compatible), 2.4 mbps high speed/large capacity data transmission (1XEV compatible), MPEG-4, MP3 and Bluetooth.

Another model, the MC-2000, has similar capabilities but is fashioned like a mouth organ with the lid incorporating an electroluminescent display for high quality image. The third model shown , the VC-2000, is shaped like a conventional small size mobilephone but has an ultra-thin slide display LCD screen display made of the same material as the AC-2000. It is also a mobile videophone with similar capabilities as the other two models.

Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Section  : Business
Previous : Local car makers happy
Next     : Terms for used car imports