[HN Gopher] Mouth-based touchpad enables people living with para...
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Mouth-based touchpad enables people living with paralysis to use
computers
Author : gmays
Score : 113 points
Date : 2024-06-13 18:43 UTC (4 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (news.mit.edu)
(TXT) w3m dump (news.mit.edu)
| xnx wrote:
| Assistive technology for the disabled is the higher use for
| mouth-input, but it'd be great to have a simple bluetooth
| mouthguard with media playback controls (play, pause, next
| previous) for action sports.
| sa-code wrote:
| Could you provide some examples of this?
| xnx wrote:
| While snowboarding or skiing, it is difficult to control
| music playback because bulky gloves are being worn. Cycling
| might be another sport where you want to control music
| without taking your hands off the handlebars. A single button
| (like tapping an earbud) that could be gently bit down on
| could control song playback. Prior art for this type of
| device would be something like this:
| https://www.airturn.com/products/airturn-bite-switch-
| remote-...
| rqtwteye wrote:
| It's very strange to me to listen to music while
| snowboarding or cycling. Especially while cycling you need
| a lot of situational awareness of what's going on around
| you. I think it's very dangerous not to be able to hear
| cars coming up from behind.
| fragmede wrote:
| in other parts of the world there are dedicated bike
| trails in nature where there is no danger from cars
| Ichthypresbyter wrote:
| Replying to the reply- even in dedicated car-free
| recreation areas, there are other people doing the same
| thing as you but going faster.
| fragmede wrote:
| voice control is pretty convenient for those environments
| Zenzero wrote:
| What an incredible piece of technology. I'm very impressed.
| tomasero wrote:
| Thank you! We're just getting started :)
| nashadelic wrote:
| How did we not have this 10-15 years ago? It just feels like not
| enough people work on, or care enough about assistive tech till
| it impacts them personally.
| cortensinger wrote:
| Exactly. Its unfortunate that this is the way the world
| works...but we hope that the MouthPad^ can change that tired
| script! Universal design benefits us all, not just those at the
| extremes -- we should all care. See the history of curb cuts on
| our sidewalks as a small example.
| fragmede wrote:
| As someone who's not a quadriplegic, I want one of these.
| spiritplumber wrote:
| we did, there were at least 3 kickstarters (of which i ran one)
| but not enough people were interested.
| fragmede wrote:
| that's so cool that you tried. how much did you spend on
| advertising for your Kickstarter? I totally would have kicked
| in if I'd heard about it.
| jagged-chisel wrote:
| I suspect it's a couple things. First, the skill gap - maybe
| someone begins needing assistive tech and has no idea how to
| start making. Second, perspective - as an able-bodied techy, I
| lack the understanding of the problem to build the right thing.
| Third, communication - can the one in need describe their need?
| This really requires reflection, and maybe skill. And lastly:
| money - how many of is can afford to work for months or years
| on a project that doesn't (and likely won't) pay?
| _spduchamp wrote:
| I work in a lab at a university where I'm currently working on
| building assistive music controls for disabled musicians. From
| what I've seen in my short time here is it seems like a lot of
| these kinds of projects don't often translate from the research
| space into viable businesses. Also, due to the highly variable
| physical and neurological characteristics, often assistive
| devices will need specific customization, tuning, and support.
| So these things also tend to be expensive.
| amanzi wrote:
| Fascinating. I started to instinctively "scroll" with my tongue
| while reading the article - felt really intuitive.
| flemhans wrote:
| Tickles a bit. But the pad might help.
| Fengjiao wrote:
| where are you building them? How much does it cost to build?
| b3lik3wat3r wrote:
| wholesome content :')
| x.com/augmentaltech/status/1798701297748902349
| LoganDark wrote:
| Oh hey, I remember this, signed up to beta test a year or so ago
| and 6 months later got an email that said I was rejected for
| being outside of California. I think at the time I found it weird
| that it took them 6 months.
| tomasero wrote:
| Hi Logan, thanks for your comment, and apologies for the delay
| in our response. We're a small company with limited resources,
| so we've prioritized waitlist applications from those who
| really need our solution and are close to us. We're working on
| scaling our operations and hope to serve everyone in the US
| soon. Stay tuned!
| trailbits wrote:
| I can imagine this helping anyone that has struggled with
| computer-related overuse injuries. I had a bad case of tendinitis
| that made using a mouse or trackpad very painful. I would have
| loved to have this kind of device as another option.
| moffkalast wrote:
| I'm really wondering why nobody's selling a foot operated mouse
| yet, it would be pretty practical even for normal people when
| typing with both hands.
| haunter wrote:
| Wish brolylegs lived to see this :( He was using regular
| controllers
|
| On a side note MS has some neat stuff for disabled gamers, the
| Adaptive Controller and they worked with Byowave on the upcoming
| Proteus Controller
|
| https://www.xbox.com/en-US/accessories/controllers/xbox-adap...
|
| https://www.byowave.com/product/proteus-controller-early-bir...
| mongol wrote:
| Is there a site where such tools are listed? Some of these may
| help people without disability too.
| vasco wrote:
| I would use this before any voice assistants our neurolinks.
| tomasero wrote:
| We're adding silent speech input and bone conduction audio
| feedback to the next version of the MouthPad^.
| brezelgoring wrote:
| Not exactly related to disabled people, but a though crossed my
| mind on how cluttered F1 pilot wheels are with buttons, I
| imagined some F1 Engineer already thinking on how feature dense
| these pads can get and how to integrate them into races.
|
| Not related, I know.
| vinceguidry wrote:
| Aren't there already products that use eye tracking to locate
| pointer clicks?
| cromniomancer wrote:
| Nice to get this before The Jackpot arrives!
| geepytee wrote:
| Interesting that he built this after getting closely familiar
| with Neuralink
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