It's a pneumatic pick-and-place tool (not a vacuum cleaner as I had initially assumed). And its creators really grok ergonomics:

> two foot pedals, what’s really nice is that you can use one of the them to operate the pump and the other one can be used as a “keyboard” and types the letter “n”

Yes, the letter "n" advances through the list of components on the computer, while your both hands are busy holding the tool and the PCB.

I wonder if foot-operated controls could be more widely useful. Imagine having a scroll control as a pedal, for instance. (And yes, of course the ESC key.)

I understand vacuum grippers to be very popular in robotics so I am not surprised to find them useful for manual work as well.