It is comfortable and without the risk of a brain implant

Since the electric synthesizer that Steven Hawking used to communicate, technology has advanced considerably and has joined forces to develop new brain-machine interfaces that allow people with disabilities to improve their living conditions. Brain implants aim to enable paralyzed patients to operate robotic arms or their phones, although other projects aim to achieve the same without the complication of a surgical operation.

Tomás Vega, a young Peruvian and student in the United States, considered the idea of ​​creating a brain-machine interface some time ago. A proposal that other companies and researchers have already managed to implement in patients. But after a scholarship at Neuralink, Elon Musk’s company decided to look for a different solution.

“A brain implant has the greatest potential to help people in the future, but I saw a series of limitations that prevented me from working on it now,” Vega explains to MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology), the institution where he has developed MouthPad, an electronic splint that acts as a mouse for phone or other equipment. Several people with paralysis have been using it with their tongue or facial gestures for some time.

Safer than an implant

Elon Musk’s company has applied its first implant to a patient, but the result has not been what was expected: after the surgical intervention, the chip experienced problems that caused it to not work well. Subjecting a person to brain surgery is a high-risk process.

Initiatives like Stentrode have achieved better results. However, a process less invasive can be a more immediate and comfortable solution for thousands of people with motor difficulties. At least until implants are safer and more efficient.

MouthPad is not detected from the outside as it does not cover the front teeth. Only the mechanism housed on the side can inflate the cheek somewhat and reveal that there is a gadget in the mouth. The start-up Augmental, founded by Tomás Vega and Corten Singer, is responsible for MouthPad, a splint that serves as Remote control other devices via Bluetooth technology.

The touch panel installed on the palate registers the movements of the tongue and head to perform functions such as controlling the phone or a tablet. This is made up of a pair of motion sensors to translate tongue and head gestures into information for scrolling and clicking in real time.

“The tongue consists of eight muscles and most of the muscle fibers are slow-twitch, which means they don’t fatigue as quickly. So I thought, why don’t we take advantage of all that?” explains Tomás Vega. This product is already part of the lives of different people, like Keely, who lives with quadriplegia and the splint has made it easier for her continue with your studies in mathematics and computer science. Some users even use it up to new hours a day.

How does it work?

MouthPads are manufactured in 3D like relief splints or current orthodontic correction systems that have replaced the famous braces in recent years. A mold of the user’s mouth defines the profile You have to have each model customized to fit the person’s upper teeth.

Then the electrical components, sensors and the chip are added to communicate via Bluetooth with the devices. The battery lasts approximately five hours of constant use and takes 2 hours to charge. In addition, the developed software is compatible with both iOS and Android and other computer operating systems (macOS, Windows and Linux).

Through MouthPad, users can scroll up, down, left and right by sliding your tongue, as if they moved the computer mouse. Depending on the motor abilities of each person, the system supports different gestures to click on what would be the right button and another gesture for the left of this oral mouse.

For example, it is possible to right click by making the sip gesture and left click by pressing on the roof of your mouth. Other users with less control of the tongue may use biting, squeezing, and other gestures, even activation can occur with movements outside the mouth, with the neck and head the cursor on the screen can be directed. The final goal is for the interface to be multimodal and everyone chooses their own preferences.

Improvements in progress

The company continues working to ensure that its product arrives, with a greater capacity for interaction with the user. For now, Augmental hopes to obtain authorization from the US Food and Drug Administration over the next year to help users do things like control wheelchairs and robotic arms. This FDA authorization will also make the product more accessible with health insurance.

In the more distant future, those responsible for MouthPad are considering other possible interactions for their device. From listening to whispers to responding to the most subtle movements of the organs internals involved in speech. “It’s crucial for our initial customer segment because many of them have lost or have impaired lung function,” Vega says.