Canada-based startup Thalmic Labs has developed a MYO armband that will let you control your favourite tech gadgets along with phones and computers with just a snap of the fingers or waving of the arms. The wearable gesture control technology was developed by 23 years old Stephen Lake and Aaron Grant and 24 year old Matthew Bailey, who have completed their studies from the University of Waterloo, Canada. The trio were able to create lot of buzz with their gesture controlled device at the Y Combinator Demo Day that was held at the end of last month. In addition, the three cofounders had already been able to secure more than $3.7 million in the form of pre-orders that came from 129 countries.
Research Director of Gartner, Adib Ghubril said that, “MYO is a good commercial implementation of electromyography — a technology that’s already being used in robotics, and kinesiology. It is a refreshing change to the wired variations we typically see in that space.”
Talking to the VentureBeat, Lake said that, “We’ve been approached by most of the big companies in the Valley. We are not building a company to sell. We have got opportunities already and passed on those.”
The MYO armband uses sensors that grasp the movement of muscles to detect the gestures of arms and hands. The device uses BlueTooth 4.0 Low Energy to connect wirelessly with a computer, phone or any other tech gadget in order to control them. The MYO armband was not the first device that the trio has build together, as earlier they had built gaming software, lunar rovers and designed surgical robots.
Describing how they hit upon the idea of building wearable gesture device, Lake said, “There was no good technology to interact with visual devices, especially a way to connect with desktop computer. The standard at the time was voice control and we saw it was not a good solution, especially when walking around outside.”
So Bailey, Grant and Lake decided to use the muscle activity to communicate with the technology in May, 2012. Lake said, “The first prototype was rather crude with wires and medical electrodes taped on our arms.”
Today, Thalmic Labs is accepting pre-orders for MYO armband and the retail price of the device is $149. However, According to Ghubril, although, the existing version of MYO is “beginning to resolve an important use-case for gesture control – the outdoors – it doesn’t seem to address the more pressing challenge of availing users with refined, reliable control using a rich set of standardized gestures.”
He also said that, “In so doing, MYO misses the opportunity to forge towards the cooler end of the market: emotive computing. But if the MYO can be adapted to pick up on fine muscle activity around the face for example and thus interpret mood or intent, it would enable an evolution in human-machine interaction.”
The Canadian startup is hoping to release the more superior versions of this wearable gesture device plus it will also build products in the future, said Lake to VentureBeat. He also said that, “We’re getting towards the end of the process for the big round. We hope to announce it next month.”
Source: VentureBeat
Photo: DreamPushers
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