If you’ve ever tried to use a computer or smartphone without using your hands, you’ll know how hard it can be. The folks at Augmental, a human–machine interface lab in San Francisco, obviously figured something should be done about that, so they created the MouthPad and VOX.
The MouthPad initially debuted at CES a few years ago, but those were still early days of the prototype stage. Now, the company thinks it’s ready for in-mouth operation. It has opened public sales in the US, along with making VOX available via a beta release.
Look, no hands
In case it wasn’t obvious from the headline, the MouthPad is essentially a 10g mouth retainer combined with your laptop’s trackpad. Augmental uses custom mouth scans for every order (our mouths are all special and different) so that it fits snugly while not hampering your speech.
The pressure-sensitive trackpad rests on the palate and, when combined with head tracking, can be used to move a cursor like a mouse, click, and swipe. Users can customise every gesture through a companion app. In an update earlier this year, Augmental added support for tongue-triggered keyboard shortcuts. It even supports WASD key remapping for gamers.
That, plus the claimed 10.47 bits per second achieved in an accuracy test, could make this a salty COD player’s worst nightmare. It supports a multi-point Bluetooth connection, and battery life is around 7 hours, with charging from the custom case taking 1.5 hours.
While the MouthPad might get you most of the way, trying to type into a text box seems like an arduous task. TV users inputting a long password using the remote one letter at a time will know what we mean. That’s where VOX comes in. This small pendant is Augmental’s clever way of allowing private voice prompts.
“VOX uses a stethoscope-like microphone to hear your voice through your body, not the room around you. It’s built for quiet voice input with less background noise, so you can write a message, prompt your AI, or capture a thought without everyone hearing it.”
At $1,400 (~R23,000) and $200 (~R3,300) for VOX, the pair aren’t cheap. They aren’t widely available either. Augmental says US regulations mean it can only ship to, and accept returns from, a US address. But nothing is geo-fenced, so Aramex Global Shopper should be all you require to use the MouthPad “freely outside the US.”
“We design our products with the people conventional interfaces leave out: people who cannot rely on their hands, including those living with quadriplegia, ALS, or a spinal cord injury. We believe that by designing for those who are the most constrained, we can make better interfaces for everyone,” says Augmental.
