Wearable sensors: with this approach, you wear a sensor (usually on your head), and as you move, the motion of that sensor controls the mouse cursor.This means the joystick must be positioned near your face, but there is nothing to wear and no wired connections between you and the device. Lip/chin joysticks: this is a hardware device that allows you to move the mouse cursor and control mouse buttons with your chin or lips.OK, enough preliminaries - let’s get started! We focus on the following 6 families of hands-free mice that can be used to directly control all mouse functions: The purpose is to provide useful information to help you narrow down the choices to determine products that may meet your specific needs. And the goal is not to recommend one family or device over another. Please note that this listing is meant to be thorough, but there’s no guarantee that it is exhaustive. The focus is on objective features this is not a subjective review of how well each product works (perhaps that could be a future post, and if you want to share your experiences with any of these devices, please post a comment below). These tables are also available as shared Google sheets. You might want to open up the comparison tables for reference while you read through this post. We’ve tried to include the key points directly in this post, while giving links to more detailed tables and handouts that you can download for future reference. With so many features and products to sift through, it’s been a challenge to decide how to best present the information. (Note that for iOS support, you’ll need to be running iOS 13 or later - see this article on using a mouse with your iPad for some good info on the setup and caveats.) Those that are USB Plug and Play or Bluetooth-enabled will also work with platforms like Android, Chrome OS, and iOS. These include products that can replace a traditional mouse for computing platforms such as Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux. We’ll first review the main features for each family, then delve into specific products within each family. We’ve structured this guide by grouping the available hands-free mice into 6 main categories, or families, based on their basic approach to controlling the mouse cursor. In addition to general updates to all links and information, we’ve removed 3 devices that have been discontinued (Enabling Devices Air Mouse, SmartNav 4, and AccuPoint), and added 2 new devices (Sesame Enable for Windows, IrisBond Duo). This guide was updated in November 2019, based on the original posted on Nov. Here, we examine 24 specific hands-free mice that are available and see how they stack up on those considerations.
In our last post, we described 13 considerations to think about when choosing a hands-free mouse. The key is to make an informed choice to make sure your hands-free mouse truly meets your needs. If you have a physical limitation that makes it difficult or impossible to use a traditional mouse with your hands, a hands-free mouse can be critical to accessing a computer comfortably and efficiently. A hands-free mouse allows you to perform computer mouse functions without using your hands.