This Retainer Lets You Scroll On Your Phone with Your Tongue

CES 2024 had one accessibility project that’s simply a game changer: a device that lets you scroll with your tongue.

The Augmental Mouthpad could revolutionize the way people living with disabilities interact with essential technology. It looks like a regular retainer, albeit a fancy one, and lets users scroll, type, make calls and even play games by swiping or clicking their tongue. 

“It is a mouse for your mouth,” said one of its makers, Corbin Halliwill, a software engineer at Augmental.

Corten Singer, the cofounder of Augmental, said in a trailer that the tongue could be considered an ‘eleventh finger’, so it makes a lot of sense that it could be used to interact with touchscreen devices in this manner. The same trailer features a number of people living with disabilities, who had issues with current accessibility solutions and who will find the Mouthpad helpful.

Augmental’s Mouthpad is still a prototype, with the battery lasting for about five hours according to NBCNews, but Augmental hopes to improve it before launch, which could happen as early as this year.

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