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Quadriplegic among first users of tongue-driven trackpad invented by San Diego native

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Quadriplegic among first users of tongue-driven trackpad invented by San Diego native


SAN DIEGO (FOX 5/KUSI) — Have you ever controlled a tech device using your tongue? It’s now a reality and is changing lives for those who are paralyzed.

The device, MouthPad, by the company Augmental, is co-founded by Corten Singer, a San Diego native and Point Loma High School’s Class of 2012 Valedictorian and co-captain of the school’s surf team.

The device, first brainstormed in 2019 after Corten and his co-founder had graduated from UC Berkley, officially launched in 2023. It’s now in the mouths of a few dozen people, including Clairemont Resident Mike Hastings.

“Humans are remarkably adaptable,” Hastings said.

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He’s had to adapt after diving into a swimming pool at 20 years old and hitting the bottom, paralyzing him from the neck down.

“I can’t move from the neck down, just my shoulder, my fingers and hands, I cannot move,” he said.

Over the last 26 years, he’s tried ways to make his daily tasks easier, and through the decades, he’s seen a lot of technology change.

“Alexa, set volume to 4,” Hastings said Amazon’s voice command system is the best he’s used and he’s used nearly all of them.

The thermostat and lights in his garage, which turned into an adaptive place for him to work and hangout with his friends, are also voice-controlled.

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While certain things have become easier thanks to technology, the way he’s used his computer hasn’t changed since he came home from the hospital in 1999.

He’s used a “mouth stick,” it’s a device that looks like a bite guard, attached to a stick that he uses to peck a keyboard and swipe on a trackpad. He said he helped him graduate with two degrees, one in Physics and one in Computer Science, and it’s been the only way for him to do his job in cyber security, because voice commands don’t typically work when you are writing the “gibberish” that brilliant minds call computer coding.

“This stick I have to sit up right to use it,” Hastings explained that if he sits upright, it negatively impacts his blood pressure, and he could only be on the computer for about 45 minutes at a time. He said he has always been worried that he would drop the stick out of his mouth and would have to call someone to pick it up for him. But, it’s been his way of life for years.

And 25 years later, there’s finally something easier.

“Lots of things have come across my work station, but nothing has got me to change from the ‘mouth stick,’ and then the MouthPad came,” Hastings added.

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The MouthPad is a track pad on a mouth, which is molded to the user, letting users control devices with their tongue or with their head movements.

Hastings is one of the first 40 people to test it out.

“You can use the computer just as well as anyone else who can use the computer with their fingers and keyboard,” he explained.

“Think of this just like the trackpad on your laptop except this has been transformed into a smaller form factor that rests on the rood of your mouth, so instead of your finger it’s actually the tongue,” Singer said. “A lot of it stars with its roots in accessibility and basically improving quality of life and providing universal and equitable access to the digital world that has grown to be such a huge part of our lives.”

Mike Hastings also helps other quadriplegics and trains them on how to use adaptive equipment, and he said he can’t wait to recommend the MouthPad so more people can use it.

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“Humans are very remarkable and the face that they can adapt to any situation so the fact that my body doesn’t move is kind of irrelevant now,” he added.

Augmental is going through a waitlist determining the most needed users first. The cost is around $1,500, but hope to work with insurance companies to get it covered under healthcare policies.



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San Diego, CA

Man Stabbed 4 Times Outside San Diego Bar; Suspect Arrested

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Man Stabbed 4 Times Outside San Diego Bar; Suspect Arrested


The victim was smoking outside the business when a 35-year-old man approached him, threatened to kill him and pulled a knife at around 10 p.m. Monday in the 900 block of Cardiff Street, according to the San Diego Police Department.

Police said the attacker stabbed the man twice in the chest and twice in the arm. It was unclear what prompted the stabbing.





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USA fans pack San Diego bar to cheer on USMNT’s dominant World Cup knockout win

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USA fans pack San Diego bar to cheer on USMNT’s dominant World Cup knockout win


SAN DIEGO (KGTV) — Fans packed Fairplay in North Park to cheer on the U.S. Men’s National Team’s dominant World Cup win over Bosnia and Herzegovina on Wednesday, with more than 400 people filling the venue before kickoff.

The crowd reached max capacity with ease, with some fans arriving as early as 8:45 a.m.

Brittney Slack was among those who showed up ready to go bright and early, with a blue sequin shirt and her laptop to “work from home” — or something like that.

ABC 10News

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“Does your boss know this is happening?” ABC 10News asked.

“You know, I was in a virtual meeting this morning in the full garb, so I think they’re aware. But you know what? Americans are great at multitasking. I think we’re one of the most competitive nations, not only in sports but in the business world as well. So, here we are,” Slack said.

The U.S. men fought hard for their first knockout-stage win since 2002, beating Bosnia and Herzegovina 2-0, drawing fans of all levels of soccer fandom.

“To me, it doesn’t matter if it’s ping pong, if it’s foosball, if it’s soccer, if it’s baseball. I’m going to root for America no matter what. Obviously, this is an amazing event on a world stage, so it’s a lot of fun,” Nick Montesano said.

Indiana Rockwell, perhaps the youngest fan in the bar, summed up the energy.

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“It’s really loud, but I’m really proud of the USA,” Rockwell said.

fairplay us mens soccer world cup watch party

ABC 10News

Fairplay owner Adam Cook took it a step further — turning the bar into a stage to lead a USA chant after the win was secured.

The U.S. takes on Belgium on Monday at 5 p.m. PT at Lumen Field, referred to as Seattle Stadium during the tournament.

Follow ABC 10News Anchor Max Goldwasser on InstagramFacebook and Twitter.

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This story was reported on-air by a journalist and has been converted to this platform with the assistance of AI. Our editorial team verifies all reporting on all platforms for fairness and accuracy.





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San Diego family celebrates UCSD graduation amid ICE fears

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San Diego family celebrates UCSD graduation amid ICE fears


Why this matters

Tens of thousands of children who are U.S. citizens live with an undocumented parent in San Diego County. Fears of deportation can alter their lives.

Emily Galicia’s mother stood out among the thousands of friends and family members gathered on a grass lawn at UC San Diego’s 2026 graduation ceremony.

Her red felt hat was easy to spot as she weaved through the crowd, scanning the smiling graduates filing off the stage for her daughter, a bouquet of white roses and a teddy bear clutched in her arm. 

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But earlier in her senior year, Galicia had worried her mom wouldn’t be there to celebrate her graduation at all.

In October, her mom hadn’t returned home after a scheduled appointment with Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Instead, she had been detained and held in ICE custody, leaving Galicia, 22, and her older sister, 26, on their own for about a month. 

“I never thought it would happen,” Galicia said. 

President Donald Trump’s administration is on a mission to carry out the largest deportation in U.S. history. It has sparked political debates and pointed discussions about public safety and American identity, but the impact on the children of undocumented parents is much less abstract.

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Balloons hang outside of University of California San Diego’s commencement ceremony, June 13, 2026. (Zoë Meyers for inewsource.)

Immigration advocates say the administration has targeted immigrant families who have been in the U.S. for decades, some of whom have been checking in regularly with federal officials — despite claims from officials that they are focusing on deporting the “worst of the worst.” 

This week, the Supreme Court delivered one of the most significant blows to the administration’s immigration agenda so far — a decision with profound consequences for immigrant families. The justices ruled 6-3 against allowing the administration to eliminate birthright citizenship for babies born on American soil to some parents without citizenship. 

But other policy changes remain in place that could affect thousands of immigrant parents and their kids locally. According to an estimate from the nonprofit American Immigration Council, about 56,500 children under 18 lived with an undocumented parent in San Diego County in 2023.

While Galicia’s mom was eventually released from detention, the arrest altered her youngest daughter’s last year in college: Galicia moved her classes online to be able to take her mom to immigration and medical appointments, she spent less time with friends in her senior year of college, and she lived the constant anxiety that immigration agents were watching her family. 

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“If it was a choice between graduating and helping my mom, I would choose to help my mom,” Galicia said. 

For families and communities across the U.S., graduation season is a time for celebration and optimism for the future. For immigrant families in particular, a child’s graduation can mean the realization of dreams generations in the making, through sacrifices and hard work. 

That was true for Galicia and her family earlier this month on the UCSD campus. 

Her graduation cap was decorated in pink, with lace and cloth roses adorning the top, along with the words, “Lo logré, Mama,” written in pearl beads. 

“I made it, Mom.”

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Emily Galicia wears a tassel with photos of her parents and her grandmother, June 13, 2026. (Zoë Meyers for inewsource)

Emily Galicia wears a graduation cap decorated with roses and the words in Spanish, “I made it, Mom,” June 13, 2026. (Zoë Meyers for inewsource)

The biggest lesson

Galicia knew the sacrifices her mom, who used to come home from long days of work with swollen feet and tired eyes, made for her and sister.

After the sisters’ dad died from a heart attack, Galicia’s mom considered moving her daughters back to her home country of Mexico, where the rest of her family remained. 

She decided instead that they should grow up and go to school in their own home country, the U.S.

“I always tell them: The three of us are in this together, and together we always pull through,” Galicia’s mom said in Spanish. 

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Emily Galicia’s mom photographs her daughter after her commencement ceremony, June 13, 2026. (Zoë Meyers for inewsource)

inewsource is not naming Galicia’s mother because she has a pending immigration case and her family fears retaliation from the government. She has been detained by ICE twice, the first time during the first Trump administration.

The oldest daughter Serenity, then 17, had to figure out how to pay rent, post bail for her mom and take care of her younger sister. When ICE detained her mom again almost 10 years later, Serenity said she felt no more prepared as she was when she was a teenager.

“I think most of those days it was just me sitting on my desk and crying at the same time while doing what I needed to do for work,” she said. 

According to ICE, the agency made about 10,500 arrests in San Diego and Imperial counties in the first 14 months of Trump’s second term. About 1,500 of those arrests happened near schools, hospitals, houses of worship and other places after the administration loosened guidelines around enforcement in such “sensitive locations.”  

Most of those arrested, like Galicia’s mother, have no criminal record, according to an inewsource analysis of ICE arrests in the region from Trump’s inauguration through October 2025.

Galicia graduated June 13 with a degree in economics and a minor in ethnic studies. She said she wants to use her degree to help working-class immigrant families like hers and support her mom. 

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Outside of the graduation ceremony, the three posed for photos in front of a green hedge, laughing and crying as they embraced the graduating Galicia in the middle. 

Despite the recent challenges, Galicia holds onto the biggest lesson her mom bestowed: Have hope for the future.

“People can take everything away from you, and you can essentially go down to rock bottom, but there’s always a way to keep going forward,” Galicia said.



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