This is a movie of my homemade footmouse (or "foot mouse").
In the movie I explain how it works.
First prototype: 2003.
Made with aid of 4 others.
Rotating left-right motion by a horizontal ball bearing.
Front up-down tilting motion by a vertical door hinge.
An optical mouse on the front side of the right pedal moves along a concave surface.
Concave shape (the opposite of a sphere): made of construction foam (PU-foam).
Wood: plywood, 10 mm thickness.
The right foot controls the position of the cursor.
The left foot controls four mouse buttons.
• It relieves the neck.
• There is no need to lift the hand to change between
the mouse and the keyboard.
• It is possible to type and move cursor around, at the same time.
• The position of the right foot defines directly the position
of the cursor. That is much more efficient than setting a speed and
a direction for the cursor.
• The weight of the feet and legs always rest fully on the pedals.
There is never any need to lift a foot to move it around.
• There is almost no practice time necessary, the foot motion
is in a natural way. Only precise motions need a number of weeks
to practice. After that the mouse speed in the mouse driver
can be set higher, which is more convenient.
• The footmouse on its own can be used to control the computer.
But it is however better to have more input devices, like
an ordinary mouse,
• The legs can't be stretched. Because at that
moment it is not possible to control the cursor, and you need to place
your feet properly on the footmouse again.
• It increases the muscle tension in the legs.
This reduces the blood flow and might increase the risk of thrombus.
• It is slower than an ordinary mouse, and it is less accurate.
• The cursor on the screen is sometimes stuck to a side while
the right pedal is in the middle position. So the right foot has the move far
in a direction to get the cursor somewhere in the middle of the
screen. This is a minor problem. After a while you
don't even have to think about it.
• There is no scroll-wheel. There are ways to add one,
but I don't know a good solution yet.
If you want to build your own footmouse, check the