When Tomás Vega SM ’19 was 5 years ancient, he began to stutter. This experience made him realize that disability can bring adversity. It also showed him the power of technology.
“Keyboard and mouse were the solution for us,” Vega says. “They allowed me to be proficient at what I did. I kind of managed to overcome my limitations, so I became obsessed with human enhancement and the concept of cyborgs. I also gained empathy. I think we all have empathy, but we apply it according to our own experiences.
Since then, Vega has been using technology to enhance human capabilities. He started programming at the age of 12. In high school, he helped people deal with disabilities, including hand disabilities and multiple sclerosis. In college, first at the University of California, Berkeley and then at MIT, Vega created technologies that helped people with disabilities live more independently.
Today, Vega is the co-founder and CEO of Augmental, a startup implementing technology that enables people with physical disabilities to seamlessly interact with their personal computing devices.
Augmental’s first product is MouthPad, which allows users to control their computer, smartphone or tablet using tongue and head movements. The pressure-sensitive MouthPad sits on the palate and, working with a pair of motion sensors, translates tongue and head gestures into cursor scrolling and clicks in real time via Bluetooth.
“We have a large part of the brain that is responsible for controlling the position of the tongue,” Vega explains. “The tongue is made up of eight muscles, and most of the muscle fibers are slow-twitch, which means they don’t fatigue as quickly. So I thought, why not use it all?”
People with spinal cord injuries already use MouthPad every day to communicate independently with their favorite devices. One of Augmental’s userswho is a quadriplegic and studies mathematics and computer science at university, says the device has helped her write math formulas and study in the library – where other speech aids were not suitable.
“He can now take notes in class and play games with friends,” Vega says. “She’s more independent. Her mom told us that getting the MouthPad was the highlight of her life since her injury.
This is Augmental’s ultimate goal: to improve the accessibility of the technologies that have become an integral part of our lives.
“We hope that a person with severe hand impairment will be as competent in using a phone or tablet as someone who uses their hands,” Vega says.
Increasing computer availability
In 2012, as a freshman at the University of California, Berkeley, Vega met his future co-founder of Augmental, Corten Singer. That same year, he told Singer that he was determined to join the Media Lab as a graduate student, which he accomplished four years later when he joined the Media Lab’s Fluid Interfaces research group led by Pattie Maes, a professor of media arts and sciences at MIT in Germeshausen.
“I only applied to one graduate program, and that was Media Lab,” Vega says. “I thought this was the only place where I could do what I wanted to do, which was enhance human capabilities.”
At Media Lab, Vega took classes in microfabrication, signal processing and electronics. He has also developed wearable devices that help people access information on the Internet, improve sleep quality and regulate emotions.
“At the Media Lab, I was able to use my engineering and neuroscience knowledge to create things, which is what I love doing most,” Vega says. “I describe the Media Lab as a Disneyland for creators. I could just have fun and explore the world without fear.
Vega was inclined to the idea of a brain-machine interface, but his internship at Neuralink forced him to look for a different solution.
“The brain implant has the greatest potential to help people in the future, but I saw a number of limitations that discouraged me from working on it at this time,” Vega says. “One is the long development timeline. I have made so many friends over the years that they needed a solution yesterday.”
At MIT, he decided to build a solution that had all the potential of a brain implant, but without the limitations.
During his final semester at MIT, Vega built what he describes as a “multi-sensor lollipop” to test the mouth as a medium for interacting with a computer. It worked beautifully.
“At that point, I called Corten, my co-founder, and said, ‘I think this could change so many people’s lives,’” Vega says. “It could also change the way people interact with computers in the future.”
Vega used MIT resources including Venture mentoring service, MIT I-Corps Programand has already received significant funding from MIT E14 Fund. Augmental was officially born when Vega graduated from MIT in late 2019.
Augmental generates each MouthPad design using a 3D model based on a scan of the user’s mouth. The team then 3D prints the retainer using dental materials and adds electronic components.
With MouthPad, users can scroll up, down, left and right by moving their tongue. They can also right-click with a sipping gesture and left-click with pressure on the roof of their mouth. For people with less tongue control, biting, clenching and other gestures can be used, and people with more neck control can use head tracking to move the cursor on the screen.
“We hope to create a multimodal interface so you can choose what works for you,” Vega says. “We want to adapt to all conditions.”
Mouthpiece scaling
Many current Augmental users have spinal cord injuries, some users cannot move their arms and others cannot move their heads. Players and programmers also used the device. The company’s largest users use MouthPad for up to nine hours every day.
“It’s amazing because it means the solution has really seamlessly integrated into their lives, and they find a lot of value in our solution,” Vega says.
Augmental hopes to gain approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration within the next year to help users do things like control wheelchairs and robotic arms. FDA approval will also unlock users’ ability to get insurance reimbursement, making the product more accessible.
Augmental is already working on the next version of its system, which will respond to whispers and even more subtle movements of the internal speech organs.
“This is critical for our early customer segment because many of them have lost or have impaired lung function,” Vega says.
Vega is also encouraged by advances in AI agents and related hardware. No matter how the digital world evolves, Vega believes Augmental can be a tool that can benefit everyone.
“We hope to one day provide an always-on, robust and private interview interface,” Vega says. “We think it’s the most expressive, wearable and hands-free data entry system humans have ever created.”