RAINE MAGAZINE Volume 20 | Innovate

TECHNOLOGY | TRENDS
KICKSTARTING
INNOVATION
MYO AMBAND
The sensors in the Myo armband were designed and built from the
ground up at Thalmic Labs, making Myo incredibly innovative. These
revolutionary sensors measure the electrical pulses in your muscles to
wirelessly control devices like your computer, mobile device and other
electronics based on the swift movements of your forearm and hand.
This gives its users the ability to change the song, surf the web, and hit
play on a video with natural and effortless movements.
Myo has a great number of use cases and, through opensource
code, can be configured to an endless number of devices
through third-party developer applications. In the future, the armband
user will be able to browse the internet, play video games, edit videos
and create music just by using simple gestures and motions with their
hands. Users of Myo will be able to seamlessly interact with their digital
world as technology becomes an extension of their body.
Myo uses an assortment of motion and muscle-tracking
sensors to assess the orientation of a person’s arm in space. Unlike
other gesture control or motion control devices, Myo doesn’t require
a motion-sensing camera, freeing users from the confines of a fixed
space in order to maintain a connection. The device connects wirelessly
over a Bluetooth Low Energy connection and can essentially connect to
any Bluetooth-ready device for which applications
are built.
The wearable device enhances our abilities as humans,
bridging the gap between biology and digital technology. The objective
is that the device will open the doors for further human-computer
interaction, giving the user a more seamless way to interact with the
digital technologies that they encounter in their everyday lives.
Photos Courtesy of Thalmic Labs