Wearable tongue mouse

Do you still remember the somatosensory suit that the male protagonist Wade bought in Spielberg's movie "Ready Player One"? The most exciting scene is that even in the virtual world, when Wade holds the palm of the virtual girlfriend, he can still feel the temperature of the palm of the heroine. This is exactly what human-computer interaction and "human-computer-human" interaction should look like in the future: Obviously, clear and realistic vision, such as fake hearing simulation, can no longer meet people's needs for human-computer interaction, and can simulate touch, etc. Somatosensory information can truly make people feel that they are thousands of miles apart and immersive.

This is not enough. Buddhism talks about the six sentimental channels of "eyes, ears, nose, tongue, body and mind". Obviously, our sense organs still have places to be tapped. In addition to sight, hearing, smell of the nose and touch of the skin of the body, we also have the sense of taste and touch of the tongue. It may be that most of us have a too sound perception system and therefore fall into a blind zone of thinking. We often use our mouth and tongue as tools for language communication, but we rarely think of using the tongue as a sensory organ in human-computer interaction.

However, in reality, someone really thought about it. Recently, a designer in Germany invented a wearable device that "controls the computer with the tongue". The brain-inspired design simply opens up the imagination of many possibilities for human-computer interaction in the future. This strange device called the "tongue mouse" feels very outrageous at first sound, but it is full of new ideas after careful consideration. So, what is the original intention of this device, what other scenarios can be applied, are there any wearable interactive devices similar to this, and what are the new possibilities for human-computer interaction in the future? All this is very imaginable.

The "sticky" inspiration of the tongue mouse

This "tongue mouse" is a graduation work made by the German designer to obtain a master's degree from the Cologne School of Design, so judging from the finished product, there is a kind of "rough" texture of the laboratory. Designers call this wearable device "Tong", and its principle is to interact with the computer through the operation of the tongue on the controller. The specific usage is that people can put this "tongue cover" into the upper jaw of the mouth, which is similar in shape to a dental appliance, and use a small piece of magnetic material embedded in the device to move their tongue back and forth as an input signal. The Wi-Fi module transmits the input information to other connected devices to control related operations. To this end, she also developed a simple billiard game to demonstrate this device.

For safety and hygiene considerations, Tong's material is made of PETG, a thermoplastic material, which can then be made into a fixator that fits the palate with different dental impressions from each person. Electronic equipment is sealed with a thin-film-like silicon material to protect the wearer from electric shock. According to the designer's introduction, the design of this equipment was inspired by her riding experience. In the process of riding a horse, the rider often pulls the rein to communicate with the horse's mouth. People can use the rein to influence the horse's posture, and the horse will adjust its movements according to the strength of the rein. The rider should follow the sudden movement of the horse (such as shaking the head) to avoid hurting the horse's mouth or tongue.

The designer was fascinated by the idea of ​​"communication through the slightest touch", which is similar to the way the Na'vi people on the planet Pandora in "Avatar" achieve "integration" communication with animals through exposed nerves. Now designers have replaced the touch communication between humans and horses with "human-computer interaction." The original intention of this equipment design must be "improvisation", but it has certain practical uses. For a very small number of people with a lack of arms or patients with progressive freezing syndrome, Tong is very useful, helping them to control the wheelchair, direct the mouse and so on more conveniently. Often course, for designers or professional gamers who are often so busy with their hands that they want to need a third hand to operate some simple functions, Tong may not be a new idea. But in fact, this work has a more important inspiration, which is how we can more comprehensively simulate sensory perception in human-computer interaction when we enter the world of all virtual reality in the future, and the taste and touch of the tongue are among them. A link that is never easy to overlook.

Wearable devices moving towards "touch" human-computer interaction

If you pay close attention, we will find that the human body itself is a great treasure that can obtain rich perceptual information. Although we are now accustomed to receiving external stimuli through sight and hearing to obtain pleasure, other feelings are also the source of our happiness. Take the tongue as an example. There are countless protruding tongue milk on the surface of the tongue, just like flower buds. You can feel the sweet, sour, bitter, spicy and salty taste. This is one of the true sources of happiness for most of our gluttons. And our tongue is flexible enough, there are three rows of muscles in different directions, to assist our chewing, swallowing and speech activities, in addition to help us do some shy things.

Inspired by the taste of the tongue, some researchers are trying to use electricity to create various tastes on the tongue to make various taste devices. A PhD from Meiji University in Japan was inspired by "adding electricity to food can change the taste" and invented an "electric fork" that can make any food more "salty" by injecting a small amount of electricity. Thereby reducing people's intake of salt, properly anti-hypertensive artifact. In theory, changing the size of the current can create different flavors. Although not many people actually go to eat with a fork that is energized (a very small amount of electricity will not hurt), but this also inspires us. In the future, we may be able to make a wearable device that simulates the taste and touch of the tongue, which can simulate the real tactile experience of humans such as eating and kissing in a completely virtual world in the future.

Of course, the picture of the "tongue sensor" is too "sticky", but it is not unimaginable like VR goggles and wearable skin. We can extend similar devices, such as tactile fingers or gloves that can get real touch feeling. Now when we are playing online videos and online games, we only obtain information through sight and hearing, and then through brain analysis, it becomes the corresponding emotions and feelings, and touch is the experience that makes people feel more real. This is why Many people use "I'm not dreaming, and then squeeze my arm hard" as the reason for the routine bridge section.

A Tokyo-based design studio has developed a tactile device called "Fulu" on the finger. Users can experience their virtual touch as long as they wear it on their fingers. In the demonstration, when the phone screen virtually touches objects of different materials, the finger can receive the touch of similar materials.

If it is in a remote conversation, the user touches an object through this finger sensor, and the user's device that is paired and connected to the other side can also get this touch feeling.

This invention is definitely the gospel of long-distance relationships. In the future, the "excessive" requirements for showing love and hugs from a distance can also be partially realized. For those users who raise dogs on the cloud and run cats on the cloud, they can also experience the real touch of cats and dogs through this device. The above is just a laboratory nature of "small troubles". The real commercial value is the fully immersive experience of VR games, helping gamers to obtain the super audiovisual real touch experience provided by the full-body sensing device. This kind of Full-body haptic suits (full-body tactile suits) plus tactile feedback gloves can get a complete tactile feedback experience, which can replicate the soft touch feeling, or feel the strong impact, and simulate the intimate contact in the virtual world. With fighting movements, you can get the real touch of being on the spot within the safe tolerance of your body.

In addition, in order to increase the user's olfactory experience, some businesses have also developed perfume jar masks that can release different flavors, which can be used in some specific game scenes to increase the user's olfactory experience. It is conceivable that in the next few years, wearable devices that simulate the human body in all aspects of seeing, hearing, smelling, tasting and touching will become popular, preparing for this upcoming immersive virtual world.