The Myo armband from Thalmic Labs is bent on changing how we interact with the devices in our lives. This armband, which slides up your forearm, fits snugly against your muscles and allows you to use gestures to control devices in your environment.
In an interview with Business Insider, Stephen Lake, co-founder and CEO of Thalmic Labs said, “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.”
That’s enough to get me a little excited about the Myo and products like it. The potential applications for it are enormous. Just watch this and see if you dont’ agree.
Myo armband opens a world of possibilities
Just imagine walking into your living room and, with the flip of your hands being able to turn your lights on. Or, while you’re doing housework and the TV is playing, being able to raise your hand and have the TV pause while you go get something from the other room. The potential for interacting with a home automation system are certainly there. Of course, it also could be used in place of a mouse on a computer or as a controller in a video game.
The Myo armband isn’t just being released without serious consideration for who will use it and who will build things to use it with. They are actively seeking software and hardware developers to interface their products with the Myo.
Thalmic Labs is a Canadian company led by Stephen Lake, Matthew Bailey and Aaron Grant.
