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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

SDPD investigating suspicious death

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SDPD investigating suspicious death


UNIVERSITY CITY (KGTV) — San Diego police are investigating the death of an 81-year-old woman who was found unresponsive in her apartment in the 6300 block of Genesee Avenue.

Officers and San Diego Fire-Rescue personnel responded to a 9-1-1 call at about 11:56 p.m. on March 6.

First responders found the woman in her bedroom, unresponsive and “positioned awkwardly on a bed.” Despite immediate life-saving efforts, she was pronounced dead at the scene.

Detectives from the San Diego Police Department’s Homicide Unit were called to the scene due to “unusual circumstances,” police said. The cause and manner of death remain undetermined.

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Investigators are working with the San Diego County Medical Examiner’s Office to determine what happened.

Anyone with information is asked to call the Homicide Unit at (619) 531-2293 or Crime Stoppers at (888) 580-8477.

This story 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, CA

One killed in fiery three-vehicle crash on 805 freeway in San Diego

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One killed in fiery three-vehicle crash on 805 freeway in San Diego


A person was killed Sunday in a fiery three-vehicle crash on the Jacob Dekema (805) Freeway in San Diego, authorities said.

The crash occurred at 4:22 a.m. Sunday on the northbound freeway south of Miramar Road, the California Highway Patrol reported.

At least one vehicle struck the center divider and caught fire, the CHP said.

The numbers one through five lanes of the northbound freeway were closed at 6:01 a.m. for an unknown duration.

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No further information was immediately available.



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Veterans weigh in on U.S. involvement in Iran

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Veterans weigh in on U.S. involvement in Iran


“It seems pointless. They change the reason for aggression against Iran daily,” Army Veteran, Forest Gray said.

Gray was among dozens of protestors who gathered at Memorial Community Park in Logan Heights Saturday calling for an end to the war in Iran.

Seeing the conflict play out is personal for him. Gray served eight years in the front lines in the Middle East.

“I fought in Iraq and you know, everyone wears the uniform, and gets deployed, we kind of expect and accept that we have to put our lives on the line, but ideally it should be a sense for a greater good. I don’t see what greater good there is here,” Gray said.

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Gray is not alone.

Jonathan Chavez who served in the U.S. Marine Corps at Miramar Base in San Diego also disagrees with the U.S. involvement in Iran.

“No one wants these wars, no one has asked for these wars. Public opinion in this country is also very clear, the vast majority of Americans do not support these conflicts,” Chavez said.

Some Iranian Americans took a different stance last week, as hundreds took the streets of Clairemont.

“It was a feeling of euphoria knowing that my people are free, knowing that a dictator that has ruled Iran with iron fists for well over 37 years, has been killed, has been pushed out of the power and we can have a democratic Iran,” Bobby Shah told NBC 7.

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Despite the sentiment, Saturday’s protest was hosted by an organization opposed to war in the Middle East.

They used signs and chants to make their stance clear: Stop the War in Iran.

Watching from a distance we found Marine Corps Veteran Chris Mondestin.

Even though he was not part of the protest, he also opposes the war saying the conflict should stay between Iran and Israel and the U.S. should stay out of it.

“It’s real scary. It’s real scary because I know there’s a lot of people that are truly against this war, but they don’t have much of a voice. That’s why I was kind of happy to see this, because we do have a voice. We just got to speak loud,” Mondestin said.

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He also worries about the effects the war could have on the country’s safety, economy, and relationship with countries in the Middle East.

According to Iranian Diaspora Dashboard from UCLA’s Center of Near Eastern Studies, about 600,000 Iranians live in the U.S. and about half of them are in California.



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