great device with a few kinks

*UPDATE - 10/23/2007*
Over the last couple months, "in air" use of the mouse has become more and more intermittent to the point that it is unusable. It still seems to function ok as a tabletop mouse but I'm sad to see the main novelty of this device die. I've gotta knock a star off for it. (down to 3 from original 4) I hope the newer models are more reliable.

The Story

I've been a heavy computer user during both work and free time over the last 15 years. Not surprisingly, about 5 years ago I started getting frequent wrist pain.

Since then I've tried many things to fix or avoid the pain. The first thing I did was to switch the mouse back and forth between my right hand (dominant) and my left hand. Giving the right hand time to rest helped... for a couple years. Then I started getting pain in the left wrist too.

I've been aware of my posture and my hand and wrist angles and I've tried varying them in every possible way to find the most comfortable positions. This has only helped a little to reduce pain.

6 months ago I bought a 3M Vertical Mouse and an adjustable keyboard by Goldtouch. These reduced my pain for about 4 months. Typing at a keyboard has never been the most uncomfortable aspect of computer use - it has been mouse use. When I started experiencing pain using the vertical mouse I became discouraged.

So I went back to the web to see what other kinds of input devices were out there. I had seen the Gyration mice in the past but was a bit sketchy that they would not be precise enough for me to do my work efficiently. (lots of programming and engineering design using graphical software that required lots of mouse use and clicking and dragging)

Despite the negative reviews here at epinions.com, I decided to give the device a try. I liked the idea of a wireless mouse that I could hold in any position, and use subtle wrist motions to control.

How to Use
System Requirements:
(from http://www.gyration.com)
* PC running Microsoft Windows 98(2nd Ed.)/2000/ME/XP or Macintosh system running OS 8.0 or later; other systems supporting USB 1.1 or higher may be supported
* CD drive for GyroTools™ software installation
* Available USB port

To start, you must remove a piece of plastic inside the mouse's battery compartment which is there to prevent the mouse from being on while packaged. It doesn't have an on/off switch but the mouse CAN be turned off by holding the connect button (found on the underside) down for 7 seconds. This is useful when transporting the mouse.

The manual recommends allowing the battery to charge for 8-9 hours for its first charge. The battery is charged by resting the mouse in its charging cradle.

Next you plug the small USB stick, which is the radio frequency receiver into a USB port on your computer. I have Windows XP Pro, Service Pack 2 and the USB stick was immediately and automatically detected. I did not have to install any software. After that you press and hold the connect button on the USB receiver stick for 2 seconds. An orange LED will flash on the USB stick while it tries to connect with the mouse. Hold the connect button on the mouse for several seconds to establish the connection.

The mouse has a fairly ergonomic construction with a matte finish that I liked. It sits comfortably in either the right or left hand and allows the hand to sit in a neutral and natural position. It is somewhat like holding a gun and even has a trigger button which is used frequently. To those familiar with Star Trek, it's even more similar to holding a phaser. :)

The trigger button is used to enable the mouse to respond to wrist movement. The user can either click and hold the trigger while making wrist movements to move the cursor and then release the trigger after moving the cursor to its destination - or the user can double click the trigger to allow continuous mouse cursor movement, without holding the trigger down. Continuous movement can be disengaged by clicking the trigger again.

As the manual describes, it's important to "park" the mouse cursor over the place you want to click. It is extraordinarily difficult to click or double click a precise place if the mouse cursor movement is still engaged!

I've read some reviews suggesting it takes several weeks to get used to the device. I felt quite comfortable with it within a couple days. I also sometimes use it in my left hand.

As the manual suggests, I usually rest my arm on the armrest of my chair when using the mouse. But I can also lean back and sit cross armed or even hang my arms over the side of my chair and use it from there. It doesn't really matter where you hold it because the device contains dual axis accelerometers that can determine from any position, which direction the device is moving - relative to where it was before.

*added 11/29/2006*
I forgot to mention that this mouse can also function as a standard, optical tabletop mouse. There is a sensor under the front tip of the mouse that detects when the mouse is approximately 1" from a surface. If a surface is detected, accelerometer based mouse movement is disabled and optical tabletop tracking is enabled. This switch takes place instantly both when placing the mouse on a surface and when removing it.

This feature gives people concerned about switching to a new mouse input a familiar mouse experience to fall back on. It could also be useful when precise tracking is needed. I only used the tabletop feature enough to see if it worked. It did. Due to the pain I experience using tabletop mice, I use it exclusively in the air.

Conclusions
I've been using the GC1005M for 3 weeks now and it's done wonders for my wrist pain. Before, my wrists would ache terribly within 15 seconds of putting my hand on either a standard or vertical mouse, I can use the Gyration mouse for an hour or two before I get any sense of discomfort - and I'm not yet sure if this discomfort is a fatigue that will go away the more I use it... or a sign that my wrist pain will return.

Sad isn't it? :) But for me it is an enormous improvement. I also like to sometimes watch videos or do other tasks on my computer from the comfort of my bed and the Gyration mouse works great for this.

Regarding my productivity at work, I'm much slower with this mouse than with a standard tabletop mouse. Perhaps further use will improve speed. For now it's my best option, since I can't really get anything done with mice that cause stinging pain with less than a minute of use.

On the negative side, there have been a few problems. I've used the device at 4 different locations. (home, office and two different rooms in a different house) Periodically, at home, I find that though I'm continuing to move the mouse, the mouse cursor stops moving. Sometimes it will resume 1/2 a second later, sometimes not. But usually my wrist is at the end of its range of motion anyway. So I have to release the mouse movement trigger, move my wrist back to the neutral start position and then re-depress the trigger. I haven't figured out why this is only happening at 1 of 4 locations but I wonder if its radio interference (the mouse communicates with its receiver at 2.4 Gigahertz). It seems to be happening in the evening when my two roommates are also around.

Another problem that occurred at only one location was losing the connection between the mouse and receiver. When this happened I removed the USB receiver stick, plugged it back in and repeated the steps to connect.

*Note* I do not know for sure that the problems experienced above had to do with location or interference. I haven't done any thorough testing. It is possible that it was an issue with the device or battery.

Battery Life
Over the 3 weeks I've had this mouse, I've tended to use the mouse all day and then leave it on the charger over night. I haven't yet experienced any failure of the device that would suggest to me that battery power was dwindling and then running out.

The mouse also has 3 programmable buttons on it. To use them you must install the Gyrotools software that comes with the mouse. I have not installed this software to experiment with using these buttons.

Package Contents
(from http://www.gyration.com)
* GO 2.4 Optical Air Mouse
* RF Receiver with USB connector
* Rechargeable NiMH battery
* Desktop Charging cradle with AC power adapter
* GyroTools™ PC Edition software for Microsoft Windows
* Quick Start guide