

Microsoft demos muscle-computer interface, air Guitar Hero now a reality - jhony_d
http://www.pcgerms.com/muscle-computer-interface-demoed-by-microsoft-lets-you-control-the-computers-through-your-bodys-muscles/

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Tyrannosaurs
While I love the fact that the gaming division of Microsoft seems to be
genuinely innovative and doing some really great stuff with interfaces, I'm
still really unconvinced by the actual games that are produced.

Wii, Kinnect and Move are all fun for a while but there really aren't many
great titles taking advantage of the new controllers and this feels like it's
more of the same - innovative, novel but ultimately not something that's going
to produce really great game which for all the hype is what these things
should lead to.

Obviously there might be possibilities beyond gaming but in that area I'm not
convinced anything that requires physical sensors on the body is likely to
become part of a mainstream UI.

~~~
rev087
> Wii, Kinnect and Move are all fun for a while but there really aren't many
> great titles taking advantage of the new controllers

My feeling is that innovative software solutions come a good amount of time
after the release of hardware that enables them; gaming consoles just don't
keep the hype alive long enough to pick sufficient interest.

> I'm not convinced anything that requires physical sensors on the body is
> likely to become part of a mainstream UI

Maybe not, but the physical sensors could be attached to a structure
resembling a bracelet. Make it wireless and aesthetically pleasing, and I
could see myself wearing one without feeling silly.

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Tyrannosaurs
> My feeling is that innovative software solutions come a good amount of time
> after the release of hardware that enables them; gaming consoles just don't
> keep the hype alive long enough to pick sufficient interest.

I'd buy that argument more if there were more great titles for the Wii (which
has been around ages now) that really used it's remote.

(And I don't believe it's because the Wii is under powered in any way. Yes
it's not a powerful console by todays standards but people have managed to
create great, compelling games with less power than the Wii has.)

> Maybe not, but the physical sensors could be attached to a structure
> resembling a bracelet. Make it wireless and aesthetically pleasing, and I
> could see myself wearing one without feeling silly.

I wasn't really thinking about making it look great, just looking at the
pictures there are a fair number of sensors in non-convenient places (higher
up the arm than the wrist and the diagram shows them all over the body). Maybe
they'll improve it but I'm not convinced that you'd get a really good range of
movements monitored without considerable coverage.

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aggie
I am working in a lab that is developing a similar technology, the main
difference being we use a single muscle site to control two degrees of freedom
(primarily moving a cursor on a screen). We are also working on applications
for severely paralyzed individuals who can use the "ear wiggling" muscles
(auricularis superior--the side of your head) to control anything from a
television remote to a motorized wheelchair. The control isn't perfect, but
with a few hours of training most participants are achieving cursor-to-target
accuracies of around 80%. One participant was able to reach 100% in one
session.

It is fun to play with a muscle-computer interface for a while, but I don't
think it will catch on as a heavy-use gaming controller unless they
significantly improve upon current technology. It is simply too imprecise,
though on/off (button) control like what is used for Guitar Hero is better
suited for it than x,y movement of a cursor. Trying to control the equivalent
actions of what you can do with a PS3 controller is out of the question.

~~~
Matti
Would most or all participants reach cursor-to-target accuracies in the
98-100% range if you allowed them to continue training indefinitely?

~~~
aggie
Probably yes. Our focus so far has been to demonstrate that it is
physiologically possible to control multiple degrees of freedom with a single
muscle site, so we haven't done extensive testing to address that. It's also
worth noting that hitting a target and having very precise control of
movement, as you would with a mouse, are not the same. I doubt the precision
would ever reach that of a mouse, but it could conceivably get close.

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CWIZO
This looks great, but I'm a bit worried that this will only bring more people
RSI or similar problems.

I think that the future of input devices are our brains and a device that can
read what's going on in them and translate that to the computer. We really
need to move away from devices that use hands because they simply aren't made
for such tasks. The only way I see humans still using hands for computer
interaction in the future is if we get prosthetic robot hands like in the Deus
Ex game for example.

~~~
StavrosK
> The only way I see humans still using hands for computer interaction in the
> future is if we get prosthetic robot hands like in the Deus Ex game for
> example.

If we could access the brain outputs that control the hands, why would we make
robot hands and special input devices to be controlled by those hands to
control the computers, rather than interface to the computers directly?

~~~
CWIZO
Well both use cases could be made in parallel. You could have prosthetic hands
to replace your lost ones (or to "upgrade" your existing ones) and have a
direct link to the computer.

~~~
StavrosK
Definitely, but they wouldn't use those hands for interaction, as the GP
stated.

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CWIZO
Could be. But it also could be that we would be able to tap into nerves and
make artificial hands sooner than a usable interface between the brains and
computer (there is a whole set of other problems to solve here). And that
would mean that the interface for the computer would stay the same (keyboard,
mouse, touch screen, ...) but our hands would be mechanical (and you couldn't
get Carpal Tunnel Syndrom since, well, you wouldn't have a carpal tunnel :))

~~~
StavrosK
What are the other problems? Making a prosthetic arm is a superset of getting
inputs from nerves, since you need to do that to make the actual arm. Besides,
Microsoft already did that, as this very post indicates.

~~~
CWIZO
Well for starters you would have to read the signals from the brain, otherwise
you are limited to the nerves in your hands. Maybe I wasn't clear enough about
what I mean. I was thinking along the lines of thought control, not that you
would control a virtual hand, if you will, on the computer. And if you wanted
that you would, like I said, have to capture brain activity and develop
software that would be able to make sense of your thoughts and translate those
thoughts into actions on the computer ... this, to me, is a whole different
game.

~~~
StavrosK
Ah, that might never happen, sadly.

~~~
CWIZO
Care to elaborate why you think so :) ?

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StavrosK
Well, it's much, much more complicated to decode the brain's internals than
just read its outputs to hands and other peripherals. I'm not _sure_ it won't
happen, but it's that much more complicated that it wouldn't surprise me.

~~~
CWIZO
Well I truly really hope you are wrong :)

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swalsh
This seems like an interface perfectly suited for Google Glass. I'd rather use
this, than voice commands or even worse the button on the glasses.

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mvzink
For all the other shit MS gets (I'm thinking of Kinect), at least they are
actively trying out new interfaces/inputs. Let's hope they go places.

~~~
CWIZO
What shit did Microsoft get for Kinect? I was under the impression that it was
well received all around.

~~~
ralfd
Recent article: Has Kinect failed gamers?

<http://360.mmgn.com/Articles/has-kinect-failed-gamers>

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ChrisBaldwin
While the Kinect was sold to the public as a video gaming peripheral, it was
an extremely inexpensive LIDAR with impressive capabilities for the time (2
years ago).

From an economic standpoint, it was most successful in selling a boatload of
units. However, from a game enthusiast's view, I see it as a stepping stone to
something bigger, like the LEAP.

At this point, the Kinect is dated. The LEAP comes out Q4 of this year and is
vastly superior (from what I've seen).

