Your back hurts from sitting slumped over the computer keyboard. Your shoulders ache from too much mouse action. Your eyes sting from staring too long at your monitor. And, to top it off, you suspect that the piercing pain in your wrists might be an indication that you have carpal tunnel syndrome.

What can you do? You can take an immediate leave of absence and hope that you recover fully--if your employer can do without you for two weeks. But, if you are self employed, closing up shop is probably not an option.

And, on what do you blame your aches and pains: your computer equipment and office furniture, or the way you sit at your desk or type on your keyboard? Experts in the field of ergonomics and human factors will tell you to blame both causes.

In order for ergonomics in the workplace to be taken seriously, people first need to understand what it is. Then they need to demand products designed with ergonomics in mind.

Webster's definition of ergonomics involves, among other things, the study of the problems people have in adjusting to their environment. But, for many people, the meaning has changed. "It [ergonomics] has been so over hyped, ever since it was associated with hand tools 12 years ago, because the interventions were meaningless and didn't affect the biomechanics of the tools," explains Dr. David Rempel, associate professor of medicine at the University of California in San Francisco. "I think this is now happening with computers."

In today's workplace, where people spend long hours at their workstations, employers and product manufacturers are under pressure to make life more comfortable for workers.

According to Rempel, about 50 percent of people who work more than 40 hours per week experience some sort of muscular skeletal disorder to a degree that it changes their behavior patterns and decreases their productivity.

The U.S. Labor Department reports that the number of repetitive stress injury (RSI) cases has doubled between 1989 and 1993. And the number of lawsuits against product manufacturers is mounting also. Digital Equipment Corporation was sued this year for $6 million by a New York law firm alleging that Digital's keyboards caused three of its employees to get carpal tunnel syndrome.

"The ergonomics issue is getting weird," says Craig Gates, general manager of giant keyboard maker Key Tronic Corporation in Spokane, Washington. "We take the issue as seriously as cancer, because we are concerned about lawsuits. But none of the original equipment manufacturers [OEMs] we've seen are making claims that their products are ergonomic. To make any kind of ergonomic claim, you have to back it up with reams of statistical data."

Unfortunately, many vendors agree that there isn't enough conclusive evidence showing a direct link between physical injuries and office equipment. "It's not like cigarettes where there is a direct correlation between smoking and cancer," notes Mike Kroll, group product manager for consumer desktops at Acer America Corporation in San Jose, California.

Manufacturers, however, are trying to take some responsibility. Compaq Computer and Microsoft, for example, have warning labels on their keyboards telling users that prolonged periods of use may result in injury. Both companies also provide user manuals that show how to properly use the keyboards and set up a workstation.

Many computer vendors have in-house research teams that specialize in ergonomics and human factors issues. Design engineers at Microsoft's hardware division study physical, cognitive, emotional, and social interactions when developing input devices. "We do in-house and field research to see how people use our products," says Edie Adams, manager of hardware usability at Microsoft.

Compaq, which started a human factors laboratory in 1989, recently added a lab that tests products in context of their use, such as in a home, an airplane, or a car. "Typically, we measure user preferences and performance in these situations, and we do longitudinal intervention studies to watch how people work in order to know whether or not some widget is in fact causing a particular injury," says Cynthia Purvis, a human factors engineer at Compaq.

Much to the dismay of ergonomic specialists, there are no U.S. government regulations that enforce ergonomic standards. "The government should intervene," says Hartmut Esslinger, founder of industrial design firm Frogdesign, headquartered in Sunnyvale, California. "They made it illegal to drive without a seat belt. They need to outlaw bad keyboards," he adds.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) is working on a campaign designed to reduce workplace cumulative trauma disorders. But it is running up against some barriers. According to published reports in CDTNews, a newsletter covering RSIs in the workplace, Congress is doing what it can to stop OSHA from developing an ergonomics standard.

In the meantime, certain industry groups do have standards in place. For instance, the Human Factors Society (HFS) is revising the 1988 American National Standards Institute HFS 100 standard for computer workstations. The current standard specifies conditions and requirements for computer equipment, associated furniture, and the working environment. Revisions will go out for comment this summer to manufacturers, end-user groups, and individuals. "If there is enough research that shows that comfort has improved, there will be further recommendations to the standard," says Lynn Strother, executive director of the HFS in Santa Monica, California.

Ergonomics is a science that deals with incorporating human abilities into a design, and human factors is a key piece of the ergonomics pie. In regard to computers, human factors says there must be a range of keystroke forces that is optimal for users. Otherwise, injury can occur if a user has to push too hard on the keys. Manufacturers have addressed this problem by improving the tactile feedback of keys. This won't eliminate RSIs, but it can help to reduce further injury, as long as the user does not repetitively bang on the keys.

A lot of problems occur because of poor working habits such as bad posture while seated at a workstation or improper positioning of the hands on the keyboard, explains Stephen Marshall, director of Ergonomic Sciences, a consulting firm and equipment vendor in Mountain View, California.

As the ergonomics debate continues, manufacturers are doing what they deem necessary and within their budgets to address the needs of workers. For example:

An innovative product is in development that will dramatically change the way we use a keyboard. After much research in the anatomical study of arm, hand, and finger structures and movements, Benjamin Rossen, principal of Ergo Sum in The Netherlands, designed the TouchEasy ergonomic keyboard aimed at eliminating incorrect positioning of the hands, wrists, forearms, and elbows. "I also knew it was time to take action after the Digital Equipment lawsuit," says Rossen.

Highly unconventional and whimsical in appearance, TouchEasy's keys are arranged on a complex curved surface on the back of a device that accommodates the fingers when they are poised in their natural position. The device is held in much the same way an open book is held. In this position, the fingers type on the back surface.

After four years of silence on the ergonomics front, this summer Key Tronic will unleash a new ergonomic keyboard that will be made to "fit the human body." Gates wouldn't give specific details, except to say that the new device is "cool" and will be more comfortable to use than conventional keyboards.

To reduce keystrokes, some manufacturers are introducing scanners and smartcard readers. This summer, Hewlett Packard will ship its new line of Net Vectra business PCs. The $1,000 smartcard-enabled systems will let users log on to an intranet without having to key in their passwords from any other smartcard machine.

Further work is being done in the area of gesture recognition technology for input devices. Based on electromagnetic technology, gesture recognition lets users move a cursor via their eyes or by waving their hands over certain parts of the keyboard.

Developments will continue in touch-screen technology, but they will be slow in coming. "We find it is still a problem, because it limits how much flexibility we have in the design of interfaces," says Microsoft's Adams.

Companies continue to work on improving monitor resolution. "Where most of today's screens are 100 dots per inch, the ultimate goal is to get the clearest screens possible," says Ruth Soenius, manager of industrial design at Siemens Corporation in New York.

Maneuverable LCDs and virtual touch screens may be the wave of the future. The latter, however, is more of a vision right now than a trend, explains Soenius. She says a virtual touch screen could theoretically be a projector that displays an interface onto a wall. The user would then interact with the interface via a camera-like input device.

Voice recognition technology will become more acceptable as a tool for maneuvering around interfaces. Some new products show promise in this area. For example, Dragon System's NaturallySpeaking, due for release as this issue goes to press, is the first voice recognition technology that recognizes a user's ordinary speech and digitizes it as text.

If you thought ergonomics applied only to hardware, think again. Software interfaces are the next challenge in ergonomics design. "When you talk about ergonomics, you are talking about making technology easy to use and intuitive," says Collin Cole, vice president of new media at Frogdesign.

Frogdesign is working on a number of products aimed at eliminating keystrokes and click-and-point transactions. One way is through a design Cole calls "softkeys." Softkeys are graphical buttons on the screen that let the user perform functions by touching the screen, rather than using additional hardware.

Future versions of email software also will have ergonomic features. Currently on Microsoft Mail, you have to double click on a message to open it. If you have a lot of mail to view, this can become a physically repetitive task. "We've come up with a button, similar to Apple's Mac Finder, that expands the item to show you the full message," says Cole.

Efforts are also under way to eliminate the use of the scroll bar. Microsoft is working on technology that will let the user click anywhere on a Web page in order to scroll through it, rather than work from one area repetitively.

Functional furniture is an important part of a healthy work environment. Ergonomic designs in furniture will continue to call for rounded desk corners, L-shaped work areas, and adjustable furniture. When buying furniture, remember that just because the label says the product is ergonomic doesn't mean it is, says Bob Bettendorf of the Institute for Office Ergonomics in Manchester Center, Vermont. Bettendorf advises against the $99 special, particularly when buying a chair, because it won't last longer than one year. A good chair will cost between $300 and $600.