Touch screen operation of mobile devices and computers seemed like magic just a few years ago. Now gesture commands of anything computerized seems to be advancing by leaps and bounds.
In Waterloo Ontario, a start-up called Thalmic Labs launched an armband that controls computers with a wave of your hand, twist of your wrist, and snap of your fingers. It’s called MYO.
In the newest addition to wearable tech, the MYO looks simply like an armband similar to something worn to combat tennis elbow.
It works by detecting muscle contraction in the arm, and orientation
The promotional video shows a man controlling a tiny helicopter, a child controlling a ball rolling, and a soldier controlling a small, wheeled robot, all by gestures. It also shows a man in the kitchen controlling an instructional video, merely with gestures which avoids the need to get sticky hands on a mouse to pause or back up the video.
Daniel Vogel is a researcher of human-computer interactions at the University of Waterloo. He feels that the gesture control may not be suitable for such things as word processing or banking. He does think that gesture command will become much more widespread as computer controls become embedded in windows, floors, ceilings, and in all kinds of other applications.
He also feels the technology will continue to advance so that the devices will become much smaller and the gestures required will be much more subtle in the future
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