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MouthPad – In-Mouth Bluetooth Mouse Uses Tongue Sensitive Trackpad

augmental.tech

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

#161

Post by kyle-rb »

kayge wrote: post #147
dmd wrote: post #140

A lot of people - especially people with impairments whom it would help a lot if they know about it - are unaware of the fantastic pointer-accessibility stuff that's built into MacOS: https://support.apple.com/guide/mac-help/move-the-pointer-us... You can control the pointer with head movements, and click with things like blinks and smiles. All built into the OS, no 3rd party software.

I've been looking for settings like this on my iPhone -- I'm probably in the minority here but I'd love to be able to do a couple of simple gesture-based commands on my phone. E.g. when I'm driving and my phone is mounted just slightly out of reach, and I no longer need my screen on and displaying Maps, it would be great if I could do some kind of hand wave to lock the screen. Sure I could mount my phone closer, or j…

That was only available on the Pixel 4. They got rid of the chip in later phones, due to battery life issues and cost:

https://www.androidpolice.com/google-pixel-4-killed-motion-s...

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

#162

Post by npunt »

passwordoops wrote: post #116
Sunhold wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Product 1 never reached the market. Product 2 and 3 are very different.

Product 1 - failed (why?) Product 2 - identical use case Product 3 - identical use case I want to be clear - it's awesome they are putting in the effort to work in accessibility. But why will Product #4 prove profitable when it is a rehash of an approach that has been tried for years without gaining much steam above and beyond what is already there. What is the evidence that their tweak in technology will be a major…

Agree that learning from past efforts can be helpful, but I think you're shooting things down way too early here. I'm not seeing any specific critique you're making about mouth-based input being a bad pursuit, in fact the three efforts you linked hardly qualify as evidence against the opportunity:

GlassOuse - very different form factor, bulky and limited appeal to a narrow set of the most extreme users (quadriplegics). Probably too early to market too (2017).

Smart Mouthware - what looks like a crowdfunded two person team, seems more like a brief project than a company. Doesn't seem like a serious enough effort.

Quadjoy - completely different, plugged-in product tied to a chair, very expensive ($1400).

There's all sorts of reasons for having many separate groups pursue the same idea over a period of time until one 'gets it' and defines a category [1]. This includes market timing, tech timing, component costs, financing, eng & biz talent, how the market opportunity is understood and pursued, the myriad of specific product decisions that make subtle but important differences in UX, etc.

Just from a tech timing perspective, a serious company building something in this category today would have a product that is considerably smaller, cheaper, and longer lasting than one launched just a few years ago, due to component & supply chain improvements. A smaller, cheaper device means access to a broader market, including out-of-pocket purchases and selling to users who are in a wider spectrum of disability.

[1]: I wrote about this process of getting to category defining products here, in case its of interest: https://nickpunt.com/blog/category-defining-products/

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

#163

Post by cortensinger »

Hello everyone, I am Corten, one of the co-founders of Augmental. I must say that it’s pretty amazing to see the MouthPad^ make some waves in this forum - thank you for your support and interest! As you can imagine, things have been busy on our end, but I’ll answer as many questions as I can.

Our main goal in designing the MouthPad^ is to provide universal digital accessibility for all, and to explore alternative input modalities for wearable hands-free interaction. The MouthPad^ is designed for anyone interested in using their tongue and mouth to control their personal devices, including computers, tablets and smartphones. In particular, we have worked closely with the disability community as this alternative input modality provides immediate value. We strongly believe that, in working with this community, we can build a better interface for everyone. As such, we envision a future in which anyone could have a MouthPad^!

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

#164

Post by kelnos »

It's weird that the FAQ doesn't include how much it costs, including the 3D dental scan. You'd think that'd be a pretty obvious, frequently-asked question.

Anyway, aside from the obvious use-case of people with motor impairment in their hands, I could see this being useful to help with the "keep hands on keyboard" mindset that causes a lot of people to eschew the use of a mouse or trackpad. You can get the best of both worlds here, keeping your hands on the keyboard at all times, but still able to move the pointer around, even while simultaneously typing.

My initial reaction was that it would be hard to learn to use a device like this, but then I started moving my tongue around on the roof of my mouth, and realized there's a lot more dexterity and fine control there than I realized. Maybe even as much as a finger. After watching their "trailer", they mention they liken the tongue to the "eleventh finger", which actually seems like a pretty apt description to me.

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

#165

Post by kelnos »

Aachen wrote: post #144
dmd wrote: post #140

A lot of people - especially people with impairments whom it would help a lot if they know about it - are unaware of the fantastic pointer-accessibility stuff that's built into MacOS: https://support.apple.com/guide/mac-help/move-the-pointer-us... You can control the pointer with head movements, and click with things like blinks and smiles. All built into the OS, no 3rd party software.

A feature nobody knows about which I loved back when using Windows was the cursor defaulting to the confirmation button in dialogs. Nowadays where everything is web it's less useful I suppose, but makes clicking through those dialogs nicely faster also as someone who doesn't have a mouse-related impairment!

I feel like there's a lot of room for accidents here, though. If you aren't expecting a dialog to come up, but are using the mouse, you might accidentally click to accept something you didn't want to do.

And I'm glad web pages can't make use of this; that's just ripe for abuse. Though I suppose what might be acceptable would be a more limited protocol where a webpage is allowed to ask the web browser to move the pointer to a particular non-hidden UI element, and only in response to some sort of user interaction. Still, this sort of thing seems concerning.

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

#166

Post by [deleted] »

fwlr wrote: 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…

[deleted]

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

#167

Post by lucubratory »

schappim wrote: post #156
lucubratory wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Abled is the correct term, yeah. Sometimes we call them pre-disabled if we're being cheeky or trying to make a point.

You mean tongue in cheek.

I meant what I said you cheeky bugger.

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

#169

Post by cortensinger »

molasses wrote: post #79

I guess you can't talk while it is in.

Due to the fact that we incorporate each user’s custom 3D dental scan into the design process, the MouthPad^ is actually quite thin and doesnt prevent speech when worn. With our earliest test users, we have already explored using the MouthPad^ as a complementary tool to voice-control systems.

One example is asking a voice assistant to open “today’s news”, and then using the MouthPad^ to navigate through the options and select the desired link, which is captured briefly in our promotional video (a scene where Krystina is controlling her smart phone). Another example that can be found in our video is when Rocky NoHands uses his MouthPad^ to call his girlfriend, during which he is able to speak with ease. Of course, results may vary, but we have found all our test users are able to speak just fine so far.

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

#170

Post by cortensinger »

kotaKat wrote: post #106

I 100% would love to try this but seeing the FAQ and the "prioritizing close to San Francisco" does kinda suck. I know it's still a stupid early prototype but I wish I could register a "please let me override your location demands" because I'd be willing to travel/go through /some/ hoops.

If you are considering signing up to our waitlist, I encourage you to enter information like this in the optional text box at the end of the sign-up form to let us know. We are mainly interested in prioritizing Beta customers who are in close proximity so that we can provide amazing, personalized support during the onboarding process and in the ensuing early days of usage, but we are not absolutists by any means. If there are any other interested Beta customers who would be willing to travel to us, we would be happy to know that and will take it into consideration as we move forward in processing all the incoming waitlist requests. Thanks!
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