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Surprising Science

Armband Lets You Control Devices with Hand Gestures, Launches Later this Year

The Myo armband, developed by Canadian company Thalmic Labs, allows wearers to control electronic devices with hand and arm gestures. The technology evokes sci-fi films such as Star Wars and Minority Report.
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The jedi tricks you’ve always wanted to show off at parties may soon be within your reach.

Business Insider reports Canadian company Thalmic Labs will launch its Myo armband product later this year. The gadget, which raised eyebrows last February when Thalmic released the hype video embedded below, depends on the technology of electromyography, the measuring of electrical activity in muscles. The video below provides a basic demonstration of the concept:

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What’s the Big Idea?

The Myo armband is yet another device in the wide range of wearable technologies set to debut in the next few years. The developers at Thalmic hope the hype around their gadget attracts the continued interest of third parties, allowing them to make the armband compatible with myriad smart devices. Co-founder Matt Lake tells Business Insider that the sky is the limit for the armband’s potential uses:

“Home automation is a pretty interesting niche within the developer community,” Lake said. “Internally, we think about applications in categories for consumers, so we’re thinking about gaming and these sort of small and interactive devices around us. But we’re always trying to think about connecting to these devices and letting us control them in real-time.”

Continue reading at Business Insider

Photo credit: Rugdal / Shutterstock

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