And the Science/Tech scene just keeps getting better. Last year Thalmic Labs launched the Myo Armband, a gesture controlled device that stands to revolutionise the way we interact with technology. The armband is set to be released sometime this year, and there are already some pretty rad applications popping up.
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The armband tracks muscle movement in your forearm, triggered by gestures, and relays this information to whatever devices it is connected to. More specifically, the armband uses electromyographic (EMG) sensors to pick up on electrical signals pulsating through the user’s forearm muscles. The result is pretty freaking cool. But don’t take my word for it, check out the video:
This past week, the world got its first taste of real life Pacific Rim like robotic control, all thanks to the Myo Armband. A Korean robotics firm released a video recently documenting a mini Transformer-esque robot mimicking the movements of a Myo Armband user. Although the movement isn’t exactly one-to-one, the result is still incredibly impressive. More exciting are the humanoid robots that the Myo is likely to spawn in the future.
Thalmic Labs has also recently launched a joint venture with Oculus Rift, the virtual reality gaming company bought by Facebook earlier this year. With the Myo Armband, Oculus will be able to create a more authentic experience for their users, with virtual characters that literally parrot the player’s movements.
Needless to say, the Myo Armband is likely going to shape the future of gesture control. And we’re pretty damn excited about that.
