This is a very novel UX and assistive tech, and I know more users globally (and in India for me) would find this useful.
newsclues•Jul 25, 2026
Haven’t these existed before for military purposes?
elric•Jul 25, 2026
I remember reading about tongue based sonar for divers, where the output of the sonar would stimulate electrodes on various parts of the tongue to indicate relative direction.
astrashe2•Jul 25, 2026
This seems really clever. I don't know anything about what it takes to serve the targeted needs, so I could be wrong. But it's the sort of thing that pops out as really cool and useful, tech that makes the world better.
gabriel666smith•Jul 25, 2026
This looks great for accessibility specifically. My fiancee is partially-sighted, so (while not directly related) I'm extremely supportive of developments in assistive tech. There's a lot of difference to people's lives that can be made.
For me personally - maybe because I'm not a very nice person, or maybe it's an association that many people would make - clever as the pun in the product name is, it does make me think of saying "mousepad" with a lisp. This seems like a non-ideal association.
arm32•Jul 25, 2026
I vote we rename it to "Ling", short for "lingual"!
angry_octet•Jul 25, 2026
I can see exam candidates having mouth inspections in the future.
rad-b•Jul 25, 2026
So refreshing to see such and interesting innovation in the hardware space! Curious as to what’s the business play here, as at $1400 a piece these don’t seem like mass-market devices. And the high-end market is even more constrained with the size of the subpopulation it is aimed at. Regardless of the business model, fingers crossed that more great assistive tech like this one ships!
thih9•Jul 25, 2026
Because there is no mass market, relatively speaking.
rcxdude•Jul 25, 2026
It's a relatively low volume, customised product, likely with high development costs (even if it doesn't fall under medical device regulations, making something battery- powered that you stick in your mouth is gonna need a good safety case). It's also very valuable to those who use it, so the market can support the high price needed to cover development (the per unit costs are likely much smaller: note you can buy two for nearly the same price as one).
t-3•Jul 25, 2026
If it can be made comfortable and cheap enough, this could be useful as an interface for AR glasses. The tongue is very sensitive and dextrous, and I imagine that even swipe typing with this kind of touchpad is probably feasible.
arm32•Jul 25, 2026
As someone who uses head, eye and facial gesture tracking regularly while doing long medical treatments which tie up both my hands, I would really love something like this.
hosel•Jul 25, 2026
I never even thought of that use case! What kind of stuff do you do on a computer while doing procedures? Like reference material? Tracking what you’ve done?
arm32•Jul 25, 2026
A lot less cool than you’d imagine, but hey this is real life. The computer my comfort place, so it’s there to keep my mind occupied and distracted from the treatment’s (iontophoresis) pain. A lot of feel-good scrolling, browsing HN, Reddit, my inbox, multitasking YouTube, etc. If I’m feeling particularly motivated I’ll use STT in my IDE and get some planning done.
gulmothrowaway•Jul 25, 2026
Step aside Codex Micro!
victorbjorklund•Jul 25, 2026
Wonder if tongue would get tired from it or not an issue.
datakan•Jul 25, 2026
At first yes but just like any muscle it would adapt and probably quickly.
trollbridge•Jul 25, 2026
One of the strongest muscles in the body, too. Along with your jaw and uterus.
Tomte•Jul 25, 2026
Surgery robots have a tongue controller. It takes a while to train on that, but when you‘re trained your tongue muscle is the most precise way to control, say, subtle incisions deep inside the brain.
pavel_lishin•Jul 25, 2026
Do you have a link to those? It seems ... somewhat implausible.
14 Comments
For me personally - maybe because I'm not a very nice person, or maybe it's an association that many people would make - clever as the pun in the product name is, it does make me think of saying "mousepad" with a lisp. This seems like a non-ideal association.
If anybody reading this wants to hire someone to devote their life to this tech, hit me up. Autistic special interest.
Flag my comment, it‘s wrong.