Myo - The Gesture Control Armband

"MYO is based on the electrical movement of muscles. MYO can control your computer, phone & other digital technologies wirelessly with the electrical activity of your muscle, Along with Thalmic’s proprietary muscle activity sensor & Bluetooth 4.0 technology". For more info click the link below;
http://outfresh.com/latest-technology/new-tech-devices/gesture-control-myo-vs-leap-motion/"

The FAQ has been updated on their site, all news sounds positive

https://www.thalmic.com/myo/faq/

What about accidental input?

The MYO uses a unique "on/off" gesture (that is unlikely to occur normally) to enable and disable control using the MYO. The MYO alerts the user via haptic feedback to let them know when it is enabled and detecting movement.

"Cool 1st ive seen that haptic feedback is possible"

What sort of precision does the MYO have?

The MYO detects gestures and movements in two ways: 1) muscle activity, and 2) motion sensing. When sensing the muscle movements of the user, the MYO can detect changes down to each individual finger. When tracking the position of the arm and hand, the MYO can detect subtle movements and rotations in all directions!

What are the specifications?

The MYO uses Bluetooth 4.0 Low Energy to communicate with the devices it’s paired with. It features on-board, rechargeable Lithium-Ion batteries, and an ARM processor. The MYO is outfitted with our proprietary muscle activity sensors. It also features a 9-axis inertial measurement unit.

"9 DOF sounds good to me"

"lordvtp" wrote:
I think the technology in general has strong potential not as they are using but for a more relaxed version of immersion.
Imagine having multiple bands on your body set to amplify the impulses it detects... So you could be lying on a bed wearing an HMD and being generally stationary but the high speed augmented impulses would translate into full character motion in game.

Beaten the punch, oh well. I've been looking into such a concept for the past few months, and it looks like this may just be the next big thing in terms of gaming inputs for virtual reality. Particularly if the reports of the Myo occasionally being faster than our own body is anything to go by using it as a gaming input could even be preferable to other motion controllers. A calibration program would have to be developed to fine tune things of course, but simply increasing the sensitivity steadily over multiple play sessions could allow for incredible levels of fidelity with regards to controlling games. I can already see the band requiring less and less movement or intent for every game movement, steadily making our brain take the avatar the actual body, similarly to the rubber hand illusion. It makes me think to my time learning to control console FPS games. I started out at a very low sensitivity to get the hang of things, only to steadily have sensitivity increase as you get more used to it and found myself limited by the speed of input.

Still, I'll reserve judgement till the product is released. In the mean time, does anyone know of any form of equivalent to Myo for one's legs? I'd imagine that something similar may have been released as well to support commercial prosthetic legs. Personally, I think that controlling our legs is the biggest problem motion control devices have to deal with at this time. The Omni and things of it's kind work well, but even physically fits player may struggle in particularly intense gaming sessions, and the last thing many players want to be is limited by their IRL bodies in the middle of power fantasy games like First Person Shoorters or Fighting Games. Not to mention that you can't jump or crouch with the Omni without resisting gravity unless I'm mistaken.

I'll just hope for the best, though my wallet probably won't be as 2 myo (one for both arms), an Oculus Rift, a Mindwave/Epoc and a high end PC easily pass $1000 and that's without factoring in leg inputs. Quite the high cost to get a taste of VR's future, though possibly worth it if it allows one to get ahead in the VR development game. Perhaps I'm being optimistic, but at least it keeps me positive for the future. :)

*UPDATE*
Found a youtube that while not specifically showing the MYO, shows the implementation of the technology in a prosthetic arm. Of particular interest to me is the footage at the 0:30 and 3:00 marks where they show it being used to in a "virtual reality training program". Good stuff and if the hand at 3:00 was the hand being used in the demo (it was stationary), then it's pretty much solidifying the MYO as the next big step in VR and AR controls. At the very least it's certainly got me hyped for the MYO more than ever.
Video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=try1Dz76t8I

Here is a recent vid from ces 2014 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7o62TzZrw5s I have one of these ordered i'm seriously thinking about a second now. I think there was a mention of up to 34 different gestures being possible . also 1st I've seen where the sensitivity of the and accuracy of the motion side of things is discussed.

The MYO developer units have been announced for July. I'll be posting impressions on it when it is released. :D