This is the reason why we love technology so much, and I can guarantee this will be the coolest thing you lay your eyes on today. TheNextWeb has passed along a story of a new product being developed by Thalmic labs that will be out this Holiday season. What the product is, is essentially an armband — called MYO — that will allow anyone to control and interact with technology using only their fingers and hands. “Very cool and impressive. I hope this finds its way into our future soon.” – Steve Wozniak
How the MYO works is that it detects electrical activity produced by the users arm muscles. MYO would allow you to configure certain gestures or muscle contractions that translate into real world applications like being able to scroll up and down a webpage by lifting or lowering your hand, as well as swiping to the left and right with two fingers in order to switch between desktop apps.
Don’t think the MYO is limited to only letting you do simple tasks on your computer though, in a promotional trailer the MYO is seen doing some really neat things. In one scene a user is controlling Mass Effect 3 by extending his arms like he is holding a real weapon.
Like most tech products that push the boundaries, MYO’s success will be dependent on whe
ther developers actually take advantage of its API (available today from the official MYO website). Still it is a really neat idea and I can definitely see it being useful for running, snowboarding, skateboarding etc. as instead of have to stop and fumble with your music player of choice you could set an arm movement or muscle contraction to skip songs and raise the volume.
Thalmic Labs was founded last year by three University of Waterloo Mechatronics Engineering graduates – Aaron Grant, Matthew Bailey, and Stephen Lake. The company has since grown to 10 employees and is now a part of Y Combinator’s winter 2013 cohort.
What do you think of the MYO? It is going to cost you $149 to pre-order and will ship this Holiday season. The nice thing about pre-ordering is you will only be charged when the MYO is ready to ship, so this means no charges up front.