By analysing the muscular activity of
its wearer, the MYO smart armband enables the user to control electronic
devices remotely without the need to install a camera.
Man-machine interaction seems to be
advancing towards omnipresent computing and a gradually disappearing
interface. The latest example of this is the new electronic armband
developed by Canadian startup
Thalmic Labs, which transforms your forearm into a remote control. But where the
MYO armband
differs from existing gesture recognition devices such as Microsoft’s
Kinect Xbox is that it does not need a camera. Instead it interprets the
electrical impulses from the arm muscles when the wearer makes
gestures, enabling it to interact with objects via Bluetooth 4.0.
Gesture recognition, based on electromyography
The technology Thalmic Labs uses is usually employed for
electromyography, a technique for monitoring a patient’s muscular and
nerve activity. MYO uses a multitude of sensors, including a gyroscope
and an AEM processor, to recognise forearm and finger movements almost
before they take place. The movements of the arm and fingers as they
move around are then analysed and transformed into data. “
Hands are the ultimate tool for input,”argues Thalmic Labs’s founder
Stephen Lake, explaining: “
With a MYO, users can scroll a web page remotely, shoot at an enemy in a video game and control a drone, etc.”
Question mark over intent?
Thalmic Labs has recently opened up the MYO API in order to encourage
developers to come up with innovations to the system, as this
technology has many potential applications in various fields. The fact
that MYO does away with the need for a camera means that users are not
constrained to stay in front of their computers. As an example, MYO, in
conjunction with Google Now, could provide practical advice when you
are busy waxing your car so that you do not damage the paintwork.
However, there is still one obvious question mark hanging over this type
of connected object, which can potentially be worn on a permanent
basis. How is the technology going to differentiate between a situation
where the wearer is making a deliberate gesture to give a command and
one where the user makes a movement without any special intent?
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