Myo Motion-Sensing Armband

The promise of virtual reality is true immersion—the idea that we’ll be able to step into a whole new digital world and feel like it’s actually real. This simply can’t be realized if we’re holding a game controller in our hands. Last year, a Canadian startup called Thalmic Labs showed off the Myo motion-sensing, muscle-reading armband, which gets us one step closer to the VR of our dreams—by freeing up our hands. Now the company has a final hardware design for the $149 Myo, and says that it will begin shipping in September.

Built to work with PC games and virtual reality headsets like Oculus Rift, the Myo is worn on your forearm. It not only senses nine axes of motion to track just where—and how—your arm is moving, but it also gauges the electrical signals generated when you move your hand, wrist and arm. The Myo deciphers these readings to tell what your hands and fingers are doing. It takes all of this information and translates it into the movements of video-game characters, said Aaron Grant, one of Thalmic’s three co-founders.

Myo is part game controller, part wearable tech. Grant is at E3, the video game conference, in Los Angeles this week with his arm band, taking meetings with the hope of getting game studios to incorporate Myo gameplay into their titles.

The Myo motion-sensing armband from Thalmic Labs gauges nine axes of motion in your arm and measures the electrical impulses in your muscles, so it can tell not just where your arm is, but what your wrist and hand are doing, too.

 

Thalmic Labs

Thalmic first showed off a prototype of Myo in February 2013 and since then, a lot has changed. On Monday, Grant showed me the finished version of Myo, which goes on sale in the next few months. It’s thinner and lighter than the prototypes, yet it has a one-size-fits-all design that should fit most people ages 12 and up. The “Alpha” model required users to calibrate it by demonstrating gestures; the band had to figure out what electrical signals translated into what moves. The consumer version of Myo can do this automatically, no training needed.

Grant said his company has made contact with about 10,000 software developers who are interested in Myo. Developers who’ve pre-ordered the band from the company’s website will get the new second-gen hardware in July. Regular users who pre-ordered will get their bands in September, and a broader consumer release will begin in time for the 2014 holiday season, Grant said.

Source: Extraa Education