MYO Armband

created by Stephen Lake, Matthew Bailey and Aaron Grant

 

the one armband to rule them all.

This is a really cool concept where you can get connect and control to all your devices at home or at work with gestures

It is this super futuristic looking armband that you can wear onto your master arm. And it will track the rotation of your arm, the direction you’re moving it, etc. There are five distinct gestures you can learn and customize to the operations you wish to carry out with you devices.

You also get haptic feedback in the form of short, medium and long vibrations to allow you to know when the various tasks or settings are confirmed.

 

From what I can see, MYO is a great device as:

  1. It allows less distractions when operating the paired device as there is no screen, buttons, etc
  2. Natural, intuitive operation as we naturally use hand gestures in our everyday activities
  3. Looks comfortable to wear

However, some issues that may arise:

  1. It will have to depend on what apps, device functions can be connected to this. But ofcourse, the MYO team are also seeking other developers contributions in submitting their applications for integration to the expanding possibilities to connect the armband with.
  2. What happens when an abrupt gesture sends the wrong signal? In the event someone accidentally hits you while you’re operating your expensive drone and it crashes into the tree because of your unexpected gesture.

 

This is definitely a future for The Internet of Things as we can integrate the way we naturally interact with hand gestures into the operations of virtually any device. I certainly dig the no-frills concept. It really looks like having the Force in you, when I saw the guy directing his drone in their video.

I would be really interested though if this technology could perhaps be further developed for the deaf or dumb, as I can see possible application to enhance sign language communication with others who do not actually know sign language.

Or to use it to direct a robotic orchestra? Where you need all these really complicated sequences of gestures and arm motions. I would be very curious to see how far complex the gestural detection capabilities can go.