Harnessing muscular activity to provide computer input has many advantages over Kinect-like devices that use cameras or inertial sensors. A new gesture-based wireless input device that works by sensing the electrical signature of forearm contractions is now available for pre-order from a new company for $150. The armband, dubbed the MYO, comes with a developer API that lets you fully utilize this sophisticated piece of equipment.
Similar prototype devices have been developed by Microsoft, which holds a few patents in the field, but making a device with comparable accuracy to a traditional mouse has proved elusive. The new MYO device, shown in the above video, lets you scroll through a webpage by lifting and lowering the whole hand, or move between desktop apps by swiping with two fingers.
Nature has not laid out the forearm musculature into an ideal X-Y grid for us, but with intelligent filtering, reliable signals can be captured from the morass of electrical activity each movement generates. Something as simple as balling up the hand to stop or start a track in iTunes, for example, generates signals that are highly dependent on the wrist position. When the muscles are already in a state of extension, the EMG signal does not map effectively to force output or position. Martial arts techniques, for example, capitalize on the fact that it is difficult to make a tight fist while the wrist in flexion to get attackers to release a weapon.
Myo electric
The armband may not yet have the accuracy of other new wireless products like the 3D mouse ring from Mycestro, but since there are more muscle signal generators than fingers in the body, myoelectrics may have the longer term advantage. The recently developed ultrasonic Spider-Man suit, that tingles your body in various places when objects loom from specific directions, would be the perfect vehicle to integrate EMG sensing into the total immersion control package. While this kind of thing would be great for adrenaline-primed gaming, for more relaxed work you might imagine some sort of Dali-esque crutch system being necessary to combat the tyranny of gravity.
Not everyone will afford their own non-conductive, viscous gel immersion tank just to support their myoelectric misadventures, but when properly decoupled from its support and postural roles, the musculature can be fully enabled as universal controller. In such a computing environment, a few extra provisions may be needed. The application of permanent smart tattoos to the skin as sensors or as impedance-matching devices will make these signals easier to transduce through the skin. Systems like the one used for the new Alpha IMS bionic eye, which rely on subcutaneous magnetic attraction to affix a battery pack or sensor to the head for transdermal inductive charging, would provide setup convenience. Bioencapsulated micro-magnets placed in the fingertips have also gained sudden popularity, at least among the transhumanist crowd, to acquire a crude sixth sense to feel magnetic fields.
We’re not far from a day when these seemingly disjointed pieces of tech can be combined into a powerful suite of controls.
