Look, no hands

I&#x27;m Michelle (the girl in the video). This thread is really fascinating to me. I&#x27;ll add some more details to the discussion below. I was diagnosed with epicodylitis (tennis albow) and I tried a range of different treatments: electrical therapy, accipunture, anti-inflammatory tablets and some kind of light therapy(?) But without any results (probably why I can&#x27;t remember the last treatment).<p>Also notised there were some questions about neck pains, If I adjust the nose-pad to the right level and angle it right it forces me to sit up straight. However, in the video my back is arched quite a lot because I was sitting at a table that was too low (but it was only a temporary setup).

The elasticity of the brain is incredibly impressive. Very neat solution. My parents are surgeons, and I know they worry at least a little bit about the safety of their hands. While my hands are definitely very important to my being able to work I know I don&#x27;t worry as much as they do. That&#x27;s funny, because for the most part I think about Carpal Tunnel Syndrome as a career-ending condition.<p>I recently suffered some amount of tendonitis in my wrist and it prompted me to make quite a few changes:<p>* Better posture<p>* Better seat adjustment<p>* A nicer (mechanical) keyboard<p>* Practising touch typing more (i.e. correcting myself any time I use the wrong finger)<p>* Resting my wrists evenly<p>I made all these changes simultaneously so I don&#x27;t know what changed it or if it was a one-time thing and resting fixed it. An interesting thing is that I found that I overuse my right hand.<p>`vim` binds simple movements to hjkl and that&#x27;s fine because they&#x27;re on the home row, but it also means that a lot of the time I&#x27;m holding down one key while reading code. I&#x27;ve switched to moving around code better now, using larger jumps, and when scrolling a lot I use my left hand. I&#x27;ve also rebound some other things so that they&#x27;re easier with home row keys. Anyway, learning to be faster at all this took very little time. I am very impressed with how fast we learn new acts if they keep repeating them.

Sincerely... all I can think about is not that she found a good solution to her problem, but the fact that she &quot;achieved the same level of accuracy&quot; (and I suppose speed).<p>This is not something about her capabilities, but about the limitation of current input devices regarding our hands.<p>This is the proof that using a touch pad with your nose is not worse that using it with your hand. There is something wrong in this: try using any real-world interface with your hand, how the shapes, the stiffness, the flexibility of any handle, pen, button, spring you interact with give you some kind of information and let you operate with a superior kind of consciousness.

I wonder if her neck started getting tired from all that movement.<p>It seems that it&#x27;s mostly people who grip their mouse <i>really</i> tightly&#x2F;type with tense fingers that experience the most problems - I remember when I first started typing, my fingers tired too easily because the keys were heavy, and I was exerting a lot of force trying to get the fingers to exactly where I wanted them to go. Later, when I got a &quot;looser&quot; keyboard and discovered that I didn&#x27;t really need to hit the keys <i>exactly</i> in the middle but whatever could actuate them worked, my speed more than doubled and I could type for hours without feeling tired at all. The relaxation really helps. Same with mousing - if you find that you have to grip your mouse tightly to make precise movements, turn down the DPI and try lubricating it so it requires as little effort as possible to move. Personally, I don&#x27;t really like using trackpads because of that friction.

File in the &quot;for what its worth&quot; file:<p>When I started to get some pain in my wrists, I noticed it most when I was using photoshop and clicking a great deal. I tore apart an old USB mouse and wired a pair of foot switches in so I could click with my feet as well. It helped quite a bit. Now I rather prefer it, especially the right click action.

Have you checked Dr. Sarno&#x27;s approach for RSI and related problems. If you have tried all those options and they didn&#x27;t work you should definitely give a try.<p>You can check a story very similar to mine: <a href="http://www.pgbovine.net/back-pain-guest-article.htm" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.pgbovine.net&#x2F;back-pain-guest-article.htm</a><p>Disclaimer: I am CS PhD student in a top tier US school. Suffered from RSI, tried everything. Was cured by Dr. Sarno&#x27;s technique.

I stopped using mice, knobs (IBM&#x2F;Lenovo) and touchpads (built-in or external) probably twenty years ago. A few months into an intense design project I started to feel burning pain on my wrists. I was working 18 hour days, 7 days a week. Yes, if I was awake I was in front of the computer.<p>This was a hardware and software project and I was doing it all. This meant lots of precise motion at times. Running Solidworks or Altium Designer often meant very accurate tiny movement while pressing down on a button. Horrible stuff for your wrist.<p>I had been exposed to just how bad this could get. I was friends with several people who did visual effects for motion pictures. Same kind of work. They ran 3D workstations for a dozen or more hours per day, every day. One fellow had to have surgery on both wrists due to the damage he caused. His was always in pain after that.<p>I decided I had to deal with the situation. I didn&#x27;t want to end-up like that.<p>First decision was that mice and touch pads where horrible input devices. I tested everything and concluded that low friction thumb-operated trackballs were the best.<p>Beyond that, the relative angle of the hand to the forearm seemed to have a HUGE effect on causing inflammation, pain and injury. The flatter and more relaxed,the better. In fact, the most relaxed position had my hands drooping over the keyboard and trackball with virtually no tension on the upper tendons. This meant my standard desk had to go.<p>What I needed was a desk with a cavity into which my hands would droop and meet the keyboard or trackball. My forearms had to be fully supported in order to remove pressure from shoulders and posture.<p>I welded together a few iterations of the idea and ended-up with a desk that was just fantastic. I could work on this thing for 16 to 18 hours a day and have no wrist burn whatsoever. Of course, I also implemented regimented breaks and exercises, but the desk, as well as switching to a trackball, made the most difference.<p>I can&#x27;t help but think this girl did herself huge damage by using the touch-pad for long hours. I particularly dislike touch-pads on laptops (of any make and model) the are in the wrong place and add tension to your tendons precisely where you don&#x27;t want it.<p>As for Michelle, wow, what an amazing person she must be.

She mentions being excited about the Leap Motion. That&#x27;s not very accurate so she probably had to give up. There is better hand tracking software under development. This company&#x27;s Kickstarter project got canceled when Oculus bought them: <a href="https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/nimblevr/nimble-sense-bring-your-hands-into-virtual-reality?ref=discovery" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.kickstarter.com&#x2F;projects&#x2F;nimblevr&#x2F;nimble-sense-b...</a><p>And Control VR uses gloves but might prove to be very accurate: <a href="http://controlvr.com" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;controlvr.com</a><p>The VR headsets are driving the development of this technology.

Beyond the obviously admirable content of the story, just wanted to say: beautiful website, the pacing of the story was really well done. Loved the animations, the optional extra reading, breaking up the story with pictures. Very simplistic but well done.

That&#x27;s got to be tough on the skin at the tip of the nose, that&#x27;s not exactly the most rugged spot to be rubbing on something all day long.<p>Related:<p><a href="http://www.mfpa.uk/" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.mfpa.uk&#x2F;</a>

I had RSI 3 times. The first time I did not know what it was and ended-up not being able to hold a pen. Took many months of recovery and I was lucky my doctor knew what it was. I had heat treatment, some sort of laser and vibration therapies and a couple of other things. Don&#x27;t know which of them helped, but they sure did.<p>The second time, I was in a different country and was sent to a surgeon. He had no clue what RSI was and said that I should not worry until it gets worse and ready for Carpal Tunnel surgery. I said &quot;no thanks&quot; and found a sports therapist instead who was ready to help.<p>The main lesson here is that &quot;see a doctor&quot; does not always work. I am sure if I saw surgeon the first time, I&#x27;d be having some stitches on my wrists right now. Back then, RSI was not well known thing at all. Hopefully, it is more easily recognized now.

SmartNav by NaturalPoint (<a href="http://www.naturalpoint.com/smartnav/" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.naturalpoint.com&#x2F;smartnav&#x2F;</a>). I&#x27;m using it for over 8 years for moving the cursor. Clicking is via a regular mouse, though voice and switches are supported. All typing is done through an on-screen virtual keyboard (Hot Virtual Keyboard). After short self-training the speed and accuracy are above of a regular mouse. Neck fatigue is a rare issue even after 8-10 hours of daily usage, the &quot;trick&quot; is calibrating the settings for minimal movement. I&#x27;m using this setup for everything from programming to some light gaming (RTS). Adjusting and configuring the environment can bring substantial improvement. For example, using ReSharper for Visual Studio vastly reduces typing.

Hi, your article was really inspirational, very well written and indicative of your amazing motivation and passion for your career. Dystonias are neurological disorders that can cause muscle spasms and cramping and do not go away with rest, anti-inflammatories, trigger point therapy, etc. Unfortunately dystonias are often misdiagnosed and untreated, even sometimes by well-trained specialists. The main treatment for dystonia-related conditions is Botox. I have cervical dystonia and have had wonderful success with Botox. To correctly diagnose a dystonia you need to see a neurologist that specializes in movement disorders.

I remember CMU (or a site that was linked from a links page in CMU vision site) had a project called Nouse where you can operate the computer with a video camera using your nose. The nose doesn&#x27;t touch anything.

Great example of adaptability and resilience. I understand a little bit about her pain as I had to move to my left hand after experience pains in my right. Though I did nothing as extreme as the OP.<p>Thanks for the inspiration Michelle

Just reading the responses here - am I the only person who has zero problem using a trackpad and keyboard with my hands for &gt;=8 hours a day? Maybe it&#x27;s that I&#x27;m not a designer and so the precision of my motions isn&#x27;t such that I&#x27;d experience problems like this. I think the only problem I&#x27;ve ever had was back when I tried using a Microsoft Natural keyboard, and my hands were sore after an hour.<p>Also, good for her, finding a solution that works well for her, strange though it seems at first blush. I like her work, too.

I&#x27;ve tried head tracking devices and found my neck and shoulders get stressed. I imagine the same thing would happen hunched over a trackpad with the nose. The small neck movements are similar to head tracking.<p>Check out the Imak SmartGlove with Thumb, I can&#x27;t use a computer without it. Well, of course I can but it is much less comfortable. The glove plus a Kensington Expert Mouse (which is actually a trackball with a scroll ring) plus a good chair (eg Steelcase Leap) will help a LOT.

Dominic Wilcox created something similar to this in 2011, I think as a satiric art project. It looks like a plague doctor&#x27;s mask: <a href="http://dominicwilcox.com/portfolio/finger-nose-stylus/" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;dominicwilcox.com&#x2F;portfolio&#x2F;finger-nose-stylus&#x2F;</a><p>To see a proper implementation, which allows someone to work at a high level, is awesome.

My cousin was born without hands. He is using his feets for most things. Today he is 22, he drives a car, handles computer and tablets... His typing is ok, so he could be programmer if he chooses to. And he wants (and probably will) to move to his own place.<p>He does not use special devices, just big mouse and large AT&#x2F;IBM keyboard.

I just wonder if she could&#x27;ve easily fixed all the issues by changing her mouse or how she hold it instead of opting for this nose-touch-pad.<p>If she is still doing thous 11-15 hour work days and her neck doesn&#x27;t get tiered, I really think she might have had too hard of a grip on her mouse or just a bad mouse in general.

This is really amazing and inspiring to see. Every now and then, I get scared when thinking about what would happen if my eyes or my hands started to lose functionality.<p>I sometimes feel pain in my pinky fingers when typing, forcing me to adapt to using only my other fingers.

This is something that might sound tangential, but using nose as an input medium is not the worst idea, even with perfectly capable hands.<p>I&#x27;ve been using my nose awkwardly a lot on Android Wear, and honestly, this article makes me much better about it. We have so many screens, so many interfaces, yet only two hands. Anytime I&#x27;m typing, driving, running, my nose does the job on the smartwatch. I&#x27;m sure a lot of people have been doing it.<p>I wish there was more studies regarding these, most that I find keep talking about gestures, which I think is overdoing things, which humans tend to do at first with every problem we try to solve.

Or: how I developed carpal tunnel in my neck<p>Just kidding. Glad to see such resourcefulness.

This is awesome. Fun to see someone trying something new and pushing the boundaries of how computer interaction is done, considering how stressful on the body it can be to use a mouse.

Hi Michelle, I was wondering if you had tried the Tyler Twist or the reverse Tyler Twist. I had tennis elbow and golfer&#x27;s elbow and nothing worked until I tried those exercises.

Upon watching the video, my first thought was: I should try this! Not because I have RSI (used to though), but because it seems an excellent solution for keeping my hands on the keyboard whilst having a third &quot;hand&quot; for the pointer, thereby increasing overall speed and efficiency. If it is possible to achieve the same accuracy, this should be great.<p>I even happen to have one of those touchpads.

Also worth taking a look:<p>&quot;The Association of Mouth and Foot Painting Artists of the World&quot;<p><a href="http://www.vdmfk.com/worldwide/en.html" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.vdmfk.com&#x2F;worldwide&#x2F;en.html</a><p>&quot;VDMFK supports and promotes artists who, due to disability or disease, cannot create their works of art with their hands, but have to use their mouths or their feet.&quot;

I also have hand problems. I use speech recognition to type everything, including code, and a game controller to move around the mouse. The controller I&#x27;m currently using, a PS4 controller, has a trackpad in the middle, so I was able to mash that against my face and give her technique a shot.<p>It works better than you&#x27;d think. The PS4 trackpad isn&#x27;t exactly brilliant, but I can move around the mouse and click on what I want to with some accuracy. Of course, the trackpad on the controller is very small and not very accurate, so it&#x27;s not really practical for artwork or anything. But, with a better, larger trackpad, I can imagine this technique actually working. I might give it a shot at some point.<p>I am a bit worried about the inevitable neck and nose pain, though. I wish she had gone into a little more detail about how she avoids that. Maybe she just has a neck of steel?<p>For the curious, these are some other resources I&#x27;ve found about people working around RSI. Most of these are about using Dragon NaturallySpeaking to code by voice, since that&#x27;s what I&#x27;m most interested in, but I think it&#x27;s still interesting.<p>There really needs to be a list somewhere for open-source workarounds to disabilities. To the best of my knowledge, there really isn&#x27;t one.<p>Natlink + Dragon NaturallySpeaking:<p>(NatLink, which lets you make custom speech commands for Dragon in Python, is currently being developed at <a href="http://qh.antenna.nl/unimacro/index.html" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;qh.antenna.nl&#x2F;unimacro&#x2F;index.html</a>, but that site&#x27;s pretty incomprehensible. The original author&#x27;s site is at <a href="http://www.synapseadaptive.com/joel/welcomeapage.htm" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.synapseadaptive.com&#x2F;joel&#x2F;welcomeapage.htm</a>. It&#x27;s pretty out of date, but explains the fundamentals of the system better, I think.)<p><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8SkdfdXWYaI" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.youtube.com&#x2F;watch?v=8SkdfdXWYaI</a> (don&#x27;t bother looking around, the source code of this was never released)<p><a href="https://github.com/simianhacker/code-by-voice" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;simianhacker&#x2F;code-by-voice</a><p><a href="https://github.com/tgrosinger/aenea-grammars" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;tgrosinger&#x2F;aenea-grammars</a><p>Libraries for using Dragon NaturallySpeaking on Linux with VMs:<p><a href="https://github.com/dictation-toolbox/aenea" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;dictation-toolbox&#x2F;aenea</a><p><a href="https://github.com/russell/damselfly" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;github.com&#x2F;russell&#x2F;damselfly</a><p>It seems a post about this kind of thing pops up about every other month or so. I&#x27;m thinking of showing off my system here when I polish it up a bit. It&#x27;s not nearly as complicated as some of these other ones, but I&#x27;m beginning to get pretty close to normal typing speed coding by voice.

Great story, and great reminder not to let minor pains progress to the point where they cripple you. I say this as someone whose right thumb is in a brace due to deQuervain&#x27;s tendosynovitis, brought on by banging too hard on spacebars.

Speaking as someone who has done quite a few of these Carpal tunnel surgeries, the story do not fit very well with it. The symptoms are worse at night and tremors are unusual. Common complaints are pain, pin and needle sensation, weakness

Reminds of this TED with Phil Hansen: Embrace the shake - <a href="http://www.ted.com/talks/phil_hansen_embrace_the_shake?language=en" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.ted.com&#x2F;talks&#x2F;phil_hansen_embrace_the_shake?langu...</a>

I know that this is off topic, but what a beautifully designed website!

This is an excellent modern example of the tenacity of humanity.

You obviously have a nose for good design.<p>Seriously though, that is awesome.

And here I am complaining about the weather. You are a true inspiration. Great going Michelle and I hope that one day your epicondilytis gets cured.

Wow, impressive!<p>Had pain in my arm as well in the past (it was not very severe but annoying). Using a mouse with a trackball solved the issue for me.

A need or problem encourages creative efforts to meet the need or solve the problem - Necessity is the mother of Invention. Kudos!!

Am I the only one that can&#x27;t load the site? There are just blank spots everywhere. Chrome 39.0.2171.95 (64-bit), Arch Linux.

Just FYI - if you&#x27;re interested, make sure to read the full story in No.2. &quot;Read more&quot; shows the rest of it.

Wow, I bet The Setup would love to interview you:<p><a href="http://usesthis.com/" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;usesthis.com&#x2F;</a>

I just went &quot;Holy shit&quot; when I read this article and realized what a lazy dumba*s I am.

This, my friends, is a good ole fashioned &quot;hack.&quot;

Don&#x27;t we all use our nose for a keypress or swipe every now and then? :P

This is amazing.

I salute your perseverance.

Neat, but something tells me this won&#x27;t be catching on.

Most people tend to get RSI when they first he very active in computer work,and after a year or so they find a healthy posture and their hands strengthen and it isn&#x27;t an issue.<p>This article seems like a gimmick by someone who wants to be special instead of using perfectly effective solutions. Or it is a joke.

Only one mention of a doctor, once in the whole page, and he says to give it a rest and she&#x27;ll be ok. Then she says she spends 50% of the time using her hands normally? No mention of further deterioration, or further attempts to figure out the problem? It seems like it&#x27;s more important to her to say &quot;look I am clever&quot; than actually solve the problem here.

Integrate a tissue on the nose pad and you&#x27;re ready for any season!

tl;dr. Young ambitious person gets first chance at job she is trained for, feels pressure to work long hours without complaint. Because of too much work, now she can&#x27;t use her arms half of the time, instead draws with nose and made portfolio site with nose-drawing as central focus.

RSI is curable almost always! Read &quot;Pain Free at Your PC&quot; or &quot;Pain Free&quot; by Pete Egoscue. Message me and I&#x27;ll gift either to you.