Microsoft files patent for muscle-based computer controls →
Mind control is one way to control tomorrow’s gadgets. Here’s another equally cool, equally complex way: Controllers that involve nothing but the electrical impulses taking place everyday in our muscle tissue.
While everyone is going “ga-ga” over Apple’s dynamic tactile feedback keyboard patent, Microsoft has quietly filed a patent for several methods of controlling a computer using Electromyography (EMG). The technique would record the electrical activity of muscles and translate those signals into instruction sets which would control a computer. EMG technology is not new, it is used in some advanced prosthetic devices and is the technology behind the military’s research into EMG-controlled flight systems which allows a pilot to control his plane using EMG-based gestures. The Microsoft patent takes this technology and applies it to consumer devices describing, in one example, how a driver could interact with a vehicle navigation system without taking his/her hands off the steering wheel. The electrodes necessary for this EMG-driven interaction would be applied on the forearm for local control or on the head, chest, arms and legs for full body control. Though there are many practical purposes for this technology, the most exciting application would be in gaming. Think of Project Natal on steroids where you would don special gaming clothes embedded with EMG sensors and use your muscle movement to control your onscreen character. We are not alone in conjuring up this entertaining application, Microsoft’s own research labs has put together the quick demonstration video above showcasing the EMG-based control of Guitar Hero.
The future of gaming?
The system uses a series of connectors attached to an armband that leverages Electromyography (EMG). As you can see in the video, this creates a system that translates the electrical activity found in our muscles into instructions for a computer. Or Guitar Hero.
The system in the video is shown as a forearm version, but further patent reading reveals a completely wearable network of sensors that would adorn a user’s head, arms and legs. The tech is, comparatively speaking, relatively simple; it is the implementation of said tech that’s almost limitless. Air guitar is only the beginning, although we’d need to be extraordinarily aware of our gestures and arm movements should a system become more mainstream, don’t you think?
Our Techniques for muscle computer interfaces enable new possibilities for an always available human computer interface even in situations where the hands are busy or traditional input devices are not practical.
