The tongue is the most overlooked input device on the human body, and Tomás Vega just turned it into a wireless mouse.
Start with the mechanism. A disproportionate share of your motor cortex is wired to control your tongue, far more than its size would suggest. It articulates with fine, fast precision every time you talk and swallow, and its muscles are built for endurance, so they barely fatigue. You already carry a high-bandwidth controller that almost no interface has ever used.
The MouthPad^ uses it. A pressure-sensitive pad sits on the roof of your mouth next to a pair of motion sensors. Slide your tongue to scroll. Press flat on the palate to left click. Sip to right click. It pairs over Bluetooth like any trackpad, no special software. The whole device is a 3D-printed retainer in dental-grade plastic, built from a scan of your mouth, snapping over your teeth.
Here is the part that reframes it. Tomás interned at Neuralink before this. Brain implants can read intention, but they cost years of prep and skull surgery. He wanted the same hands-free control with none of that, usable by people right now. So he went one layer out, to the palate, and captured most of the bandwidth with a dental appointment instead of an operating room.
That choice is why a quadriplegic computer engineering student is coding, drawing equations, and taking lecture notes with her tongue today.
And he is not done rebuilding your inputs. The next version adds a low-volume mic and 3D tongue sensing for silent dictation nobody beside you can hear. First the mouse. Now the keyboard. Both inside your mouth.
Vive con Propósito. (@PropositoyVida)
Tomás Vega, ingeniero formado en el MIT, ha creado un dispositivo que permite a las personas con parálisis controlar teléfonos, tabletas y ordenadores solo con la lengua.
El dispositivo se coloca en el paladar y funciona como un trackpad inalámbrico.
Video
— https://nitter.net/PropositoyVida/status/2066325619051577794#m