SoMo / Soft Mouse
Industrial Design
SoMo redefines the human machine interface providing a strain-free and fully customizable computer mouse.
A traditional computer mouse has fixed buttons, and as a consequence, only has one right way to be held and operated. This has led to millions of people worldwide suffering from discomfort and pain in fingers, arms, elbows, shoulder, neck and back. SoMo has been specifically designed to remedy this.
SoMo provides full ergonomic user experience with endless small and large variations in how it can be held or used. The soft body of the mouse is filled with sensors to detect pressure from any finger. Pressed in a certain way initiates left or right mouse click. To move the cursor, SoMo is moved on the table as a traditional mouse. This gives the user very low learning barriers, and he can start using SoMo right away without any training. To maximize comfort, SoMo is designed with an interchangeable surface so the user can change it to the right size and surface he prefers. Its symmetrical shape makes it perfect to be used with either hand, meaning you can give your preferred hand the chance to rest.
In addition to standard computer mouse clicks, SoMo also enables customizable gestures that initiates one or more shortcuts for the program that the mouse cursor is hovering over. Gestures are built up by combining pressure from one or more fingers in any number of ways. SoMo can also be rotated to zoom and scroll, as well as combining rotation with pressure gestures to enable elaborate new gestures. This literally places the shortcuts at your fingertips, speeding up your interaction with software programs and games, and vastly reducing the number of clicks and movement needed. This in turn minimizes muscle strain from repetitive motion. Users may also share his/her custom-made gestures with other SoMo fans via the open community.
SoMo is invented by Tariq Maqsood and his team and the design is made by me // Michelle Nordal Santos. SoMo was submitted to the Red Dot Award.
