According to TechCrunch, a news source for high tech and startup companies, one in six people live with a disability, worldwide. For disabilities of all kinds, the technological advancements in communication and operational movement have allowed people to experience the world in new ways. And as the advancements continue, so, too, can their qualities of life. Especially for physical impediments, the science has come a long way. But TechCrunch reminds us that there’s always room for greater advancements. And Augmental, an MIT Media Lab spinoff, has developed something potentially groundbreaking in physical aids with the new MouthPad.
Corten Singer, one of the founders of Augmental, explains that “Augmental’s MouthPad enables eight degrees of freedom to control it. The tongue can operate through the X and Y axes, as well as by deploying pressure. There’re motion sensors that can detect head tracking and activity monitoring. And there’s even a possibility for bites to register as a click. The wide variety of control options embedded into the MouthPad means that it can be used in conjunction with many different devices,” as reported by TechCrunch.
“We have gamers that have quadriplegia, and they can only use a joystick,” says Tomás Vega, one of Augmental’s co-founders. “In order to play, you need two joysticks; we were complementing a setup, so they can now strafe and aim at the same time.”
“Then we have another user who is a designer that has issues doing click and drag in very accurate ways,” says Vega. “So we’ve created a clutching gesture so he can click in and click out.”
While the uses for gaming and for work mobility are extraordinary, there’s another capability that the MouthPad has made strides in: the MouthPad has also successfully been connected to remote-controlled sex toys to enable individuals, such as those with spinal cord disabilities, to engage in autonomous sex play.
According to TechCrunch, “Singer explained how some people have been surprised by this use case, but that really, it shouldn’t be regarded as peculiar or extraordinary: it’s a function that helps to make people’s lives better.”
What makes the design so cutting edge is that the MouthPad is an assistive device that’s not operated by mouth-controlled joysticks, which can be obtrusive, exhausting to use and can have other negative impacts, such as on the wearer’s teeth.
“We created a mouth pad which is an intraoral interface that allows you to control a computer with no hands,” says Vega.
The MouthPad is customized to the user’s dental scans, like a dental retainer, so that it perfectly aligns with the user’s anatomy. The device provides its wearer the opportunity to comfortably control Bluetooth-connected devices of all kinds with their tongue, sex toys included.
Read the original story on TechCrunch and see the video demo here.
