Augmental Released MouthPad Retainer to Control PCs With Tongues
Forget smashing touchscreens or screaming at clueless smart assistants—the future of computing is happening inside the mouth with palate trackpads and throat sensors.
Startup Augmental has officially moved beyond early testing by releasing its custom 3D-printed dental retainer that doubles as a Bluetooth mouse. Crafted from waterproof dental resin, the 7.5-gram device sits on upper teeth, allowing users to click and drag across iOS, Android, Windows, Mac OS, and Linux using a pressure-sensitive palate trackpad and head motion sensors.
While initially designed for quadriplegic users, the second-generation device now lets gamers remap tongue gestures to WASD keys for full gaming control without hands. With a seven-hour battery life and multi-device pairing, the waitlist has exploded past 6,300 applicants, including surgeons, pianists, and mechanics who need hands-free computing.
Alongside the retainer, the team unveiled VOX, a skin-worn microphone that picks up vocal vibrations directly through body tissue instead of airwaves. Developed by co-founder Thomas Vega after struggling with a stutter while working on Siri at Apple, the $200 device enables silent whisper dictation even inside loud cafes.
The ultimate goal is combining both gadgets to train a personalized speech model capable of decoding completely silent speech. All revenues from VOX sales are directly funding the production of the $1,400 MouthPad.
Tech enthusiasts spent decades dreaming of invasive neural brain chips, only to discover that the ultimate futuristic computer interface was sitting right behind their teeth all along.
Source: Augmental
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