Myo wn Thalmic Ideas

Spit balling development ideas for thalmic lab's Myo.
Not affiliated with Thalmic Labs in any way.

[Myo wn Thalmic Ideas @thalmicIdeas]

What do you think the killer app for Thalmic's Myo could be?

[Myo wn Thalmic Ideas @thalmicIdeas]

@mhuusko5 a touch sensitive area on the armband would work better with Minuum.
But I'll reserve further judgement until I try for myself

[Myo wn Thalmic Ideas @thalmicIdeas]

@mhuusko5 granted, it was a prototype with plenty of room to improve. But fine motor adjustments with major muscle groups are not ideal.

[Myo wn Thalmic Ideas @thalmicIdeas]

@mhuusko5 I watched the Myo/Minuum youtube video showcasing the work of the Thalmic intern. The effort involved looked painful...

[Myo wn Thalmic Ideas @thalmicIdeas]

Myo does not seem a good fit for text input, signing, language...

[Myo wn Thalmic Ideas @thalmicIdeas]

... and that's still a large number of signalling possibilities. But it's unsuited for tasks requiring fine motor controls.

[Myo wn Thalmic Ideas @thalmicIdeas]

So, it's 5-10 gestures, as well as the motion tracking afforded by a gyroscope and accelerometer. Throw in the magnetoscope...

[Myo wn Thalmic Ideas @thalmicIdeas]

... would be a bit much for blue tooth, and likely wouldn't be of much use to the uninitiated in any event (of so their thinking goes).

[Myo wn Thalmic Ideas @thalmicIdeas]

The raw muscle reading data is not exposed by the Myo api. This is likely due, in part because of the volume of data to be transmitted...

[Myo wn Thalmic Ideas @thalmicIdeas]

But that's a tough constraint to place on a product just finding it's legs.

[Myo wn Thalmic Ideas @thalmicIdeas]

A broader set of gestures could be recognized if users were prepared to train their system's neural network, one would think...

[Myo wn Thalmic Ideas @thalmicIdeas]

... the Myo pattern recognizers need to target signals common across the broadest swath of the general population.

[Myo wn Thalmic Ideas @thalmicIdeas]

... across a wide range of body types, with varying composition of fat, muscle, and skin types with varying degrees of moisture...

[Myo wn Thalmic Ideas @thalmicIdeas]

The limited set of gestures owes to the fact that 1) this stuff is really hard, and 2) in order to work out of the box for most people...

[Myo wn Thalmic Ideas @thalmicIdeas]

Myo, once released, is expected to recognize 5-10 different hand positions, and that is all. That's not nothing, but it's less than hoped.

[Myo wn Thalmic Ideas @thalmicIdeas]

... and what isn't. Myo cannot capture discrete finger positioning, and has no visibility into the 'deep' muscles of the forearm.

[Myo wn Thalmic Ideas @thalmicIdeas]

... and sign language recognition dancing through my head. Now fully in trough of disillusionment as I come to realize what's possible...

[Myo wn Thalmic Ideas @thalmicIdeas]

Day 2 of learning about Myo.
Crested the Peak of Inflated Expectations at some point late last night with dreams of virtual keyboards...

[Myo wn Thalmic Ideas @thalmicIdeas]

See also: squeeze sensing on steering wheel of your car.

[Myo wn Thalmic Ideas @thalmicIdeas]

An app to use muscle contraction/finger squeezes while biking. Text while riding, or skip through music selections. Nice!