As someone who uses head, eye and facial gesture tracking regularly while doing long medical treatments which tie up both my hands, I would really love something like this.
I never even thought of that use case! What kind of stuff do you do on a computer while doing procedures? Like reference material? Tracking what you’ve done?
A lot less cool than you’d imagine, but hey this is real life. The computer my comfort place, so it’s there to keep my mind occupied and distracted from the treatment’s (iontophoresis) pain. A lot of feel-good scrolling, browsing HN, Reddit, my inbox, multitasking YouTube, etc. If I’m feeling particularly motivated I’ll use STT in my IDE and get some planning done.
If it can be made comfortable and cheap enough, this could be useful as an interface for AR glasses. The tongue is very sensitive and dextrous, and I imagine that even swipe typing with this kind of touchpad is probably feasible.
This seems really clever. I don't know anything about what it takes to serve the targeted needs, so I could be wrong. But it's the sort of thing that pops out as really cool and useful, tech that makes the world better.
This looks great for accessibility specifically. My fiancee is partially-sighted, so (while not directly related) I'm extremely supportive of developments in assistive tech. There's a lot of difference to people's lives that can be made.
For me personally - maybe because I'm not a very nice person, or maybe it's an association that many people would make - clever as the pun in the product name is, it does make me think of saying "mousepad" with a lisp. This seems like a non-ideal association.
So refreshing to see such and interesting innovation in the hardware space! Curious as to what’s the business play here, as at $1400 a piece these don’t seem like mass-market devices. And the high-end market is even more constrained with the size of the subpopulation it is aimed at. Regardless of the business model, fingers crossed that more great assistive tech like this one ships!
It's a relatively low volume, customised product, likely with high development costs (even if it doesn't fall under medical device regulations, making something battery- powered that you stick in your mouth is gonna need a good safety case). It's also very valuable to those who use it, so the market can support the high price needed to cover development (the per unit costs are likely much smaller: note you can buy two for nearly the same price as one).
They definitely need to follow regulations as otherwise this misses the entire market that it's aiming at. You are far better of incorporating this into medical settings than just people with disabilities and disposable income.
Does it work? There seem to be screenshots and nuanced wordings that implies it's currently more often configured like a gyro mouse with a touch button...
As a replacement for a desktop user's mouse? No. Could write paragraphs about how it's a special niche, and the device shines in that niche.
I've been in the HCI-enthusiast space due to carpal tunnel for a while now. I actually caused myself to have to have the surgery after going all out with QMK mouse keys, which ended up just moving the problem to a different set of fingers. (So maybe not an expert.)
The part I'm not sure is if they have precise tongue location working, of if they have resorted to the pad as mostly just hot corners. I don't have that much doubt about the concept.
Surgery robots have a tongue controller. It takes a while to train on that, but when you‘re trained your tongue muscle is the most precise way to control, say, subtle incisions deep inside the brain.
The price seems high for straight to end user sales avoiding the medical regulations needed for use in medical settings. I'm curious why that is and also why you wouldn't design with iso accreditation in mind and get approval. That opens up the market far more.
The lady mentioning that she uses it to connect with her vibrator certainly wasn't what I was expecting in a glossy product marketing video. Between that and the video call from Rocky's Australian e-girlfriend(?) the video felt like it was sliding into the surreal near the end.
But, I mean, cool. I hope they have fun with it and it improves their lives.
I remember reading about tongue based sonar for divers, where the output of the sonar would stimulate electrodes on various parts of the tongue to indicate relative direction.
For me personally - maybe because I'm not a very nice person, or maybe it's an association that many people would make - clever as the pun in the product name is, it does make me think of saying "mousepad" with a lisp. This seems like a non-ideal association.
I've been in the HCI-enthusiast space due to carpal tunnel for a while now. I actually caused myself to have to have the surgery after going all out with QMK mouse keys, which ended up just moving the problem to a different set of fingers. (So maybe not an expert.)
Flag my comment, it‘s wrong.
If anybody reading this wants to hire someone to devote their life to this tech, hit me up. Autistic special interest.
The more support they get, the easier it becomes to justify dropping the price. The more likely a cheaper competitor shows up.
Would this product have launched if a minimal profit cap were regulatorily mandated?
(That would let Google Glass also fall squarely into this bracket...)
But, I mean, cool. I hope they have fun with it and it improves their lives.