Mionix is developing a mouse that can track the vital signs of the user. The mouse looks a little different from the traditional designs. The NASO QG Mouse is a tad flatter and also sleeker. The mouse aims to track the heart rate of the user and the skin response to any activity that the user engages with. The primary purpose of the mouse is to track vital signs of gamers. There are gamers who spend hours and often entire days and nights playing competitive games, either online or offline. The mouse seems to be targeted at those gamers.
Mionix is a gaming peripheral manufacturer based in Sweden. It is likely that they would focus this product solely on gamers but there could be some additional use among normal professionals who should know their stress levels while working long hours at office or at home.
The NAOS QG mouse monitors the change in blood flows in the fingers, the level of sweat or moisture buildup in the palms and the heart rate which the device would possibly do by recording the pulse. The data would be obtained and the user would be notified in real time. With the data at hand, a gamer or a professional can determine if he or she wishes to take a break. The device actually suggests taking a break when stress levels are too high.
In simpler words, when your palm is sweaty, you are engrossed in a game and when your palms continue to sweat for a long time, you are likely to be stressed. It is better to take a break when the body is stressed and the heart rate rises significantly. However, there are many shortcomings of the Mionix mouse.
First, the mouse doesn’t account for environment or external stimuli that could cause palms to sweat. Not everyone would be living in the temperate or frigid zones where palms don’t sweat. Besides, people with certain physiological conditions or even higher blood pressures would have sweaty palms. Such realities are not accounted for by Mionix. Sweaty palms are not always indicative of stress. Likewise, increasing heart rate is also not always indicative of stress and an increased heart rate is not always bad. What’s bad is erratic spikes or dips in the heart rate.
Tracking one’s vital signs during any activity or inactivity is always good but it has to be effective and useful. The mouse may not meet those two requisites.
