Augmental is celebrating Global Accessibility Awareness Day with the first public demo of the MouthPad's head-tracking capability, their latest leap toward universal access to technology.
Watch the MouthPad^ in head tracking mode in action.
Watch the MouthPad^ in head tracking mode in action.
San Francisco, May 16, 2024: MIT Media Lab spinoff Augmental, a hardware startup focused on creating human-first technology accessible to all, today announces the MouthPad^s new dimension of hands-free computing: head-tracking.
Resembling a smart retainer, the MouthPad^ is a fully bespoke intra-oral device with a tongue-based trackpad perched on the roof of the mouth. Now with head-based motion sensing, the MouthPad^ offers cursor control as fast as a conventional mouse, augmented by the tongue’s natural dexterity and stamina. While in head-tracking mode, users can use the device’s tongue trackpad for expressive gestures such as left and right click, click-and-drag, swipe, and scroll.
The MouthPad is built for everyone — customizable to people’s unique abilities and context. Users can switch between tongue- and head-tracking modes and calibrate each to their taste in our companion app. The MouthPad^ pairs perfectly with voice control, but users can also type precisely upon onscreen keyboards using the tongue.
“We’re all different — we all have different abilities,” said Augmental CEO Tomás Vega. “Yet, we use the same devices. So far, humans have adapted to their personal devices, instead of devices adapting to us.”
“At Augmental, we design for the human mind and body,” Vega added. “We create human-computer interfaces that work, designed for the ways that humans operate. We meet users where they are and not the other way around. We design for everybody.”
Unlocked via the latest firmware update, head-tracking is a fully functioning feature, available to all current and new MouthPad^ users starting this week.
Head-tracking is enabled by a pair of motion sensors — an accelerometer and gyroscope — that translates tilts of the head into glides across the screen. There are no cameras or external setups required.
The MouthPad^s tongue-based trackpad, meanwhile, harnesses the innate dexterity of the tongue — considered by Augmental as “the 11th finger.” The device converts the user’s tongue position and pressure into cursor actions by processing signals through a machine-learning algorithm inside its processor. The commands are sent via Bluetooth to the connected device and expressed as cursor movements and clicks.
The MouthPad^ is compatible with iOS and Android smartphones, Windows, Mac, and Linux-based desktop and laptop computers.
Each MouthPad^ is fully personalized for the user through a process of intra-oral scanning that generates a 3D model of the mouth. Using this model, a custom device is designed and printed with dental resin.
Each device encapsulates a flexible circuit board with sensors, a processing unit, and a Bluetooth module — all sealed in a watertight casing with an innovative technique to protect the electronics from saliva. The “wet touchpad” — smart enough to deal with issues introduced by saliva and other liquids — and out-of-the-box connectivity via Bluetooth make the MouthPad^ a truly game-changing piece of technology.
In a CENMAC piece about empowerment through assistive technology published in April, Esther Klang said this about her experience with the MouthPad^: