When Tomás Vega SM '19 was 5 years old, he began to stutter. This experience gave him a way of the adversities that a disability can bring. It also showed him the ability of technology.
“The keyboard and mouse were outlets,” says Vega. “They allowed me to be fluid within the things I used to be doing. I used to be in a position to overcome my limitations in some ways and developed an obsession with human augmentation and the concept of cyborgs. I also developed empathy. I believe all of us have empathy, but we apply it based on our own experiences.”
Vega has all the time used technology to reinforce human capabilities. He began programming at age 12. In highschool, he helped individuals with disabilities, including hand disabilities and multiple sclerosis. In college, first on the University of California, Berkeley after which at MIT, Vega developed technology that helped individuals with disabilities live more independent lives.
Today, Vega is co-founder and CEO of Augmental, a startup that uses technology to enable individuals with mobility impairments to seamlessly interact with their personal computing devices.
Augmental's first product is the MouthPad, which allows users to regulate their computer, smartphone or tablet using tongue and head movements. The MouthPad's pressure-sensitive touchpad sits on the roof of the mouth and works with a pair of motion sensors to translate tongue and head movements into cursor scrolling and clicks in real time via Bluetooth.
“A big a part of our brain is involved in controlling the position of the tongue,” explains Vega. “The tongue is made up of eight muscles, and a lot of the muscle fibers are slow-twitch, meaning they don't tire quickly. So I assumed, why don't we use all of that?”
People with spinal cord injuries already use the MouthPad each day to interact independently with their favorite devices. One of Augmental's users, who lives with quadriplegia and studies mathematics and computer science at university, says the device has helped her write mathematical formulas and study within the library – use cases that other voice-assisted tools weren’t suitable for.
“She can now take notes in school, play games along with her friends, watch movies or read books,” says Vega. “She is more independent. Her mother told us that the MouthPad was essentially the most meaningful moment since her injury.”
That is Augmental’s ultimate goal: to enhance the accessibility of technologies which have grow to be an integral a part of our lives.
“Our hope is that an individual with a severe disability will find a way to make use of a phone or tablet as competently as someone who uses their hands,” says Vega.
Making computers more accessible
In 2012, as a first-year student at UC Berkeley, Vega met his future Augmental co-founder, Corten Singer. That yr, he told Singer he was determined to affix the Media Lab as a graduate student, which he did 4 years later when he joined the Media Lab's Fluid Interfaces research group, led by Pattie Maes, the Germeshausen Professor of Media Arts and Sciences at MIT.
“I only applied to 1 program in graduate school, and that was the Media Lab,” says Vega. “I assumed that was the one place where I could do what I desired to do, which was expand human capabilities.”
At the Media Lab, Vega took courses in microfabrication, signal processing and electronics. He also developed wearable devices that help people access information online, improve their sleep and regulate their emotions.
“The Media Lab allowed me to use my knowledge of engineering and neuroscience to construct things, and that's what I really like doing most,” says Vega. “I describe the Media Lab as Disneyland for makers. I could just play and explore without fear.”
Vega was excited concerning the idea of a brain-machine interface, but an internship at Neuralink led him to search for a distinct solution.
“A brain implant has the best potential to assist people in the long run, but I saw quite a lot of limitations that prevented me from working on it now,” says Vega. “One of them is the long time-frame for development. I've made so many friends over the past few years who needed an answer right from the beginning.”
At MIT, he decided to develop an answer that offered all of the potential of a brain implant, but without its limitations.
In his final semester at MIT, Vega built what he describes as “a lollipop with a bunch of sensors” to check the mouth as a medium for computer interaction. It worked beautifully.
“At that time, I called my co-founder Corten and said, 'I believe this has the potential to vary so many lives,'” Vega says. “It could also change the best way people interact with computers in the long run.”
Vega used MIT resources, including the Advice on enterprise mentoringThe MIT I-Corps Programand received vital early funding from MIT E14 FundAugmental was officially born when Vega graduated from MIT in late 2019.
Augmental creates each MouthPad design using a 3D model based on a scan of the user's mouth. The team then 3D prints the retainer from dental-grade materials and adds the electronic components.
The MouthPad allows users to scroll up, down, left and right by sliding their tongue. They may right-click with a swallowing gesture and left-click with a press of the palate. People with limited tongue control can use biting, clenching and other gestures, and folks with higher neck control can move the cursor around their screen using head tracking.
“We need to create a multimodal interface so you’ll be able to select what's best for you,” says Vega. “We need to adapt to all conditions.”
Scaling the MouthPad
Many of Augmental's current users have spinal cord injuries, some can't move their hands, others can't move their heads. Gamers and programmers have also used the device. The company's most frequent users interact with the MouthPad for as much as nine hours a day.
“That’s great since it means it’s really integrated seamlessly into their lives and so they find our solution very priceless,” says Vega.
Augmental hopes to receive approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration next yr to permit users to regulate things like wheelchairs and robotic arms. FDA approval will even allow users to receive insurance reimbursements, which is able to make the product more accessible.
Augmental is already working on the following version of its system, which is able to reply to whispers and much more subtle movements of the interior speech organs.
“This is critical for our early customer segment, as a lot of them have lost or impaired lung function,” says Vega.
Vega can also be encouraged by the advances in AI agents and the hardware that supports them. No matter how the digital world evolves, Vega believes Augmental generally is a tool that everybody can profit from.
“We hope to sooner or later offer an always-on, robust and personal interface to intelligence,” says Vega. “We consider that is essentially the most expressive, portable and hands-free operating system humanity has ever created.”
