It vibrates to remind you to take your hand off the mouse when you are not actively using it.

Because muscle tension is as high (even higher!) during passive mouse use as during active mouse use.
Because you are using your mouse up to 5 hours a day.
Because this leads to pain and discomfort, RSI and MSD.
Because frequent relaxation can prevent these problems.

Rest your hand on the table next to the mouse, in front of you or in your lap.

Because no-one knows who will get problems; 28% of all people will at one time get a problem from using a mouse. It is much like using a safety belt in a car: when you find out you need it, it is too late. Because RSI/MSD is irreversible. Once you have it, you are stuck with it. It may terminate your career. Even if you have no problems, it will increase your comfort.

Whenever you hold on to your mouse for more than 10 seconds without using it. Moving the cursor does not count as mouse action. There are virtually no situations where pointing the mouse is useful, most of the time it is better to let go.

If you hold your hand next to or just over the mouse, its presence is still detected. This position is even worse then just holding the mouse. You don’t want to hover over the mouse, so the Hoverstop mouse reminds you not to do that, even if you don’t touch.

Training yourself to take your hand away automatically (even before the vibration occurs) is most efficient at this 10 second setting. You also save the most time holding your mouse. At 20 seconds you still hold your mouse for 20 seconds several hundreds of times a day, summing up to an hour or more. We want to prevent that from happening.

The mouse does not know what exactly you are doing. It can’t “see” your are browsing a menu, doing something useful. To prevent vibration in menu’s, simply click on each item instead of just pointing and waiting for it to open by itself. It’s faster and does not change the function of the menu. Even better: use your keyboard.

Moving the cursor without clicking or scrolling is hardly ever useful (except for in menu structures). So it is better to let go of the mouse if you do that for longer periods of time. If the system would recognise mouse motion as “valid” mouse action, you would soon start to learn shaking the mouse frequently, just to avoid the vibration. That is to be avoided.

The mouse really only vibrates when you keep your hand on it passively for more than 10 seconds. So if it vibrates often, you must be doing this often, even if you don’t realise that. By taking your hand away frequently, you quickly learn to hold the mouse only when you really need it. Soon you will start releasing the mouse even before vibration occurs, reducing the frequency of the vibration.
The standard position should be hand OFF the mouse, not ON the mouse, that is what we are trying to achieve.

Because it enhances the vibration sensation
Because it reduces the sound on a hard table top.
Because it helps you to work in the right zone, in a proper position.
Because optical mice work better on it than on most surfaces.

You may get an occasional startle in the beginning. Train yourself by putting your hand on the mouse and deliberately waiting for the vibration. Then, remove your hand and put it in front of you in a relaxed position. This will help you get used to it. You won’t be startled any more, after a while you won’t even notice it any more.
You may even be irritated by the vibration. Strange as it sounds, but this irritation is actually helping you to learn new behaviour. You would not remove your hand if the feeling was just nice.

This mouse is set to 800 DPI, a very sensitive and high-accuracy resolution. It also makes it move twice as fast. You can set the cursor speed to your own preference using the standard Windows setting dialog screen. ( Start>Configuration>Mouse>Properties>Cursor Speed). At lower speeds it will seem to work more accurate and less jumpy. You do need to make larger hand movements to move about the screen.

Actually, it does. It is rounded off in the right places, tapered down towards the fingertips, easy to pick up, one-size-fits-all. Just not elaborately shaped or just fit for right-handed use. Personal preference plays an important role in choice of mouse. When more mouse models with Hoverstop built in will come on the market, everyone will be able to choose a model they like most.

Standard mouse functions (click speed, cursor speed etc) can be set using the normal Windows configuration screen. Hoverstop settings can’t be changed, because we work without a driver or software. If for some reason you need to temporarily disable the vibration, hold both buttons down for 5 seconds. Until you do that again or until the next reboot, the mouse will no longer vibrate.

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Yes, that is correct. We define mouse action as clicking and scrolling. Just moving the cursor (usually) does not have any effect, it does not serve a purpose and is not considered to be work. So, when you do not click nor scroll and you do move the mouse around, you are still reminded to take your hand away.

No, only 10 seconds after the last input signal (click, scroll) has been detected and the hand is still on the mouse. When you are working very intensely with the mouse, and click or scroll at least every 10 seconds, the mouse would never vibrate. You work will therefore not be interrupted.

Yes, but in varying degrees. Some people already use a lot of keyboard shortcuts, they tend to have less mouse-time. Others already take there hand away from the mouse more frequently. However, there will still be a lot of times when a user has there hand on the mouse unnecessarily. In those cases, Hoverstop will create free, non-disturbing microbreaks. Tip: just try it out, watch yourself when using the mouse and try to be aware of the passive use: you will see it happens a lot of times.

This varies with each person, but it could be anywhere from within one hour to a week. There always remain some instances when you do become aware of the vibration, which is good, because it reinforces the awareness that keeping the hand on the mouse is not good for your health.

There is some learning effect. After a while, you will start to anticipate and avoid the vibration, by taking your hand away. This behaviour will even be transferred to other situations where you do not have a Hoverstop mouse. However, under time pressure, when concentrating on your work very hard, when getting tired, you do tend to forget to take the hand away again. You need to constantly reminded to avoid this from happening.

They must be made aware that this is the right response. If they find the sensation enjoyable and never take the hand off the mouse, the conditioned reflex will no be “installed”. However, it is a “natural” response to take the hand away, they must make a conscious decision not to do that. If a user make a conscious decision to do something that is bad for him, that is his responsibility. (In later stages, software will be able to monitor this behaviour, and employers will have tools to detect and correct).

No, hovering your hand closely above the mouse will already be detected, touch is not necessary. However, to feel the vibration, in most cases some part of the hand must touch some part of the mouse.

The duration of one vibration cycle is set to maximum 4 seconds. As soon as you take the hand away, or click or scroll, it will stop. If you hold the mouse for the entire 4 seconds and do nothing, it will stop vibrating and star a new detection cycle. So, 10 seconds later, a new vibration will occur.

Basically, anybody who uses a mouse as a computer input device. Hoverstop is aimed at prevention of RSI, MSD and other mouse-related health problems and NOT JUST for people who already have problems. It will also increase comfort and productivity.


The more time a day you spend at your computer, the more important it becomes to be aware of the health risks.