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MouthPad – In-Mouth Bluetooth Mouse Uses Tongue Sensitive Trackpad

augmental.tech

121–130 of 183 posts

Re: MouthPad – In-Mouth Bluetooth Mouse Uses Tongue Sensitive Trackpad

#121

I worked in accessible tech for the blind for a few years. It's awesome that these guys are doing something that could be genuinely useful to a swathe of society who really needs the help, and I do wish the space got more attention and money. However, and I hope I'm wrong here, this is looking like another case of techies with a nifty looking device that will be "available soon" but, more importantly, already tried m…

[deleted]

Re: MouthPad – In-Mouth Bluetooth Mouse Uses Tongue Sensitive Trackpad

#123
post #114

From the way the cursor moved on the screen and the visualization of input with those orange squares, it looks like it operates similar to the thinkpad trackpoint. (There’s a dose of serendipitous humor here - the trackpoint has an infamous anatomical nickname, and this device seems to be reminding some commenters of a related activity.) I wonder if they’ve explored trackballs? Conventional trackballs are operated wi…

> I wonder if they’ve explored trackballs?

I'd be concerned with the mechanical interaction of saliva with any mechanism, size concerns (this seems like it could be operated with clenched jaws if needed, opened mouth for extended periods of time can cause pain), and having moving pieces that can break or be lost (hopefully not during operation, that could be hard to swallow).

Re: MouthPad – In-Mouth Bluetooth Mouse Uses Tongue Sensitive Trackpad

#124

I'm able bodied, but years back suffered tremendous pain, that led to me having to lie down on my back and use the computer with a keyboard. And TBH even that was a pain. I got quite far under OSX tiger, and browse the web. Use a terminal etc. But at the time it led me into thinking about alternative interfaces. And the one thing that did catch my eye was 'dasher' for text entry. Which could be controlled with a simp…

Since when we talk, our tongues tap patterns on the roof of the mouth and the back of the teeth, I wonder if AI processing could infer what words you are shaping from these sensors. Maybe it’s possible to input text by mouthing words silently, but without opening your mouth. Kind of like how it’s possible to eavesdrop from just the sound of keyboard clicks: https://github.com/ggerganov/kbd-audio

I think you're talking about subvocal recognition [1]. People are indeed using ML for it, but it looks like it's more complicated than it appears. Still, I think it's only a matter of time before it's available to the average consumer, which I can't wait for because I've wanted something like this for a long time. I do my best thinking when I'm hiking, and I'd love to be able to dictate my thoughts on the move without looking like I'm talking to myself out loud (even though I am, I guess) in public.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Subvocal_recognition

Re: MouthPad – In-Mouth Bluetooth Mouse Uses Tongue Sensitive Trackpad

#126
post #114

From the way the cursor moved on the screen and the visualization of input with those orange squares, it looks like it operates similar to the thinkpad trackpoint. (There’s a dose of serendipitous humor here - the trackpoint has an infamous anatomical nickname, and this device seems to be reminding some commenters of a related activity.) I wonder if they’ve explored trackballs? Conventional trackballs are operated wi…

> I wonder if they’ve explored trackballs? I'd be concerned with the mechanical interaction of saliva with any mechanism, size concerns (this seems like it could be operated with clenched jaws if needed, opened mouth for extended periods of time can cause pain), and having moving pieces that can break or be lost (hopefully not during operation, that could be hard to swallow).

What if that part would be in software - interpret the movement of the tongue as if it was rolling a ball vs sliding across a surface. The device could have a spherical-shaped sensor pad instead of a flat one.

Re: MouthPad – In-Mouth Bluetooth Mouse Uses Tongue Sensitive Trackpad

#127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Since when we talk, our tongues tap patterns on the roof of the mouth and the back of the teeth, I wonder if AI processing could infer what words you are shaping from these sensors. Maybe it’s possible to input text by mouthing words silently, but without opening your mouth. Kind of like how it’s possible to eavesdrop from just the sound of keyboard clicks: https://github.com/ggerganov/kbd-audio

I think you're talking about subvocal recognition [1]. People are indeed using ML for it, but it looks like it's more complicated than it appears. Still, I think it's only a matter of time before it's available to the average consumer, which I can't wait for because I've wanted something like this for a long time. I do my best thinking when I'm hiking, and I'd love to be able to dictate my thoughts on the move withou…

Several years ago, I was on a long solo drive and thinking about how I would like to be able to communicate with my computer in a subvocal manner. I stuck my pinky finger in my ear canal and "listened" to the deformations of the canal as I spoke, and thought "with a deformation scanner and good machine learning, this could totally work". Later, I registered the domain silentbuds.com to trial the idea but never pursued it. Just did some Googling and see that there are a few new research papers on this approach.

Re: MouthPad – In-Mouth Bluetooth Mouse Uses Tongue Sensitive Trackpad

#128

I worked in accessible tech for the blind for a few years. It's awesome that these guys are doing something that could be genuinely useful to a swathe of society who really needs the help, and I do wish the space got more attention and money. However, and I hope I'm wrong here, this is looking like another case of techies with a nifty looking device that will be "available soon" but, more importantly, already tried m…

Even copycat competition might help in that it can lower prices for consumers. I use a Penguin mouse and they cost a lot for what is just generic electronics in an unusual-shaped housing. But I can't find any other ambidextrous vertical mouse.

> I use a Penguin mouse

I couldn't help but chuckle when I saw what it looked like. I'm curious, what are the advantages to using this over a regular mouse?

Re: MouthPad – In-Mouth Bluetooth Mouse Uses Tongue Sensitive Trackpad

#129
This is very cool. IIRC, in William Gibson's The Peripheral, characters in the future timeline would control their "phones" with their tongues just like this. I believe they had implants on the roof of their mouths instead of a prosthetic, but basically the same concept.

Re: MouthPad – In-Mouth Bluetooth Mouse Uses Tongue Sensitive Trackpad

#130
post #114

From the way the cursor moved on the screen and the visualization of input with those orange squares, it looks like it operates similar to the thinkpad trackpoint. (There’s a dose of serendipitous humor here - the trackpoint has an infamous anatomical nickname, and this device seems to be reminding some commenters of a related activity.) I wonder if they’ve explored trackballs? Conventional trackballs are operated wi…

Don't feel too bad, in the video on their website one of the users mentioned using it to control her dildo.

Vibrator. :-)
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