
Thalmic Labs ending sale of Myo armbands - hkjayakumar
https://medium.com/@srlake/ending-sales-of-myo-preparing-for-the-future-281af9bbcac2
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georgewfraser
I was in the same YC batch as Thalmic, and 2 years before that I did a PhD in
neuroscience at a lab where one of the projects involved recording from
forearm muscles using _implanted_ electrodes. Even when you have the
electrodes inside the arm you see a ton of signal from other muscles and it’s
quite hard to unscramble useful information in a single trial. After demo day
I was kinda surprised they raised so much money, anyone who had done forearm
EMG work would have told you that you just can’t get good enough signals at
the surface to do what they’re proposing. But I’ve since learned that a lot of
VCs just don’t do scientific diligence, they invest based on people and
markets. And in spite of my skepticism I too was hoping that Thalmic had
figured out some killer special case of blind source separation and the Myo
would work beautifully.

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mattigames
Yep; I bought a Myo arm band and it's completely useless; I spend a few hours
trying to change its location over my arm guessing there was something wrong
about how I was using it and unable to do even trigger the most basic demo
gestures.

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macNchz
I figured there was a new product launch coming soon, they recently rented a
large storefront in my neighborhood in Brooklyn and have been building it out
like a flagship retail store. Curious choice of location if you ask me, I
think their broker oversold this part of Brooklyn as the new Soho, which it is
certainly not in terms of foot traffic and tourists.

Anyhow, I was not terribly impressed by the initial product and fairly shocked
with how much money they raised after it. Interested to see what’s next.

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jVinc
I've worked a lot with EMG and EEG, and always wondered how they got past the
huge problems with variation, lack of sensitivity and reliability. From this
and what I've read from users it looks like they didn't actually get past
them.

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haneefmubarak
I do wonder what the impediment to continuing sales is. Was the armband a loss
leader of some sort? Were the sales not high enough? Were there widespread
product failures?

It always seemed like a rather neat concept, but I generally noticed that even
out of all the people I know who love playing with cutting edge prosumer tech
like this, none of them had a Myo armband. I do wonder if perhaps they found
no real market for the technology and are intent on actually pivoting to
something else...

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woodruffw
I own one of these (I went to a lot of hackathons in college, and Myo armbands
were one of the prizes that were given out like candy).

Unfortunately, it's just not good enough. Whether it's their choice of EMG
sensor or that EMG technology just isn't there yet, the Myo's gesture
detection is both incredibly limited (five or six simple finger-and-hand
gestures, when I used it last) and not very accurate. It's a neat little
device and I had a lot of playing using it for the first 30 minutes, but it's
firmly in the "curious toy" category.

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haneefmubarak
Hmm, so the product doesn't have much potential in its current state. I
suppose it would be difficult to improve far beyond that using the same
technology - perhaps they'll try and move to some sort of AR based solution?

The concept seems really neat and it'd be a shame if it all ended up not
working out.

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akozak
Seems like vision based detection would be both easier and better.

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andyidsinga
I wish this article said more about _why_ they're stopping sales and their
experiences supporting the device with customers.

Its easy to assume sales were flat/declining - but with recent news about
their north glasses; maybe its redirecting resources ??

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Waterluvian
Were the bands ever more than a fun parlor trick? Are there any current
serious examples of their value? (Genuinely asking, I've looked on the surface
and can't separate the real stuff from the marketing stuff)

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andyidsinga
Good question - Although my snap judgement is similar - I'm loath to judge too
harshly having not used / touched the device.

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iamwil
Ugh. I still have mine. I ordered two. One is still unopened. My forearm got
too sore trying make a fist, or spread it for the gestures. If it was more
sensitive, it was too easy to inadvertently trigger an action.

If anyone wants to buy them off of me, lemme know.

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zxcvvcxz
There wasn't a big enough market for their futuristic arm band without clear
use cases (or reliable functioning), and I'm not confident it would be any
different for their smart glasses coming out next.

What's bothersome is the large amount of VC funding [1] that went into these
guys. After they blow it, investors will be wary which will further retard
progress in the field of HCI technologies.

[1] [https://www.canadianbusiness.com/innovation/thalmic-labs-
int...](https://www.canadianbusiness.com/innovation/thalmic-labs-intel-amazon-
funding/)

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janoc
Well, they are still peanuts compared to Magic Leap, stuff like Leap Motion
and other high profile busts ...

And yes, I am worried about this too - VC cash gets burned and nothing of
consequence will be delivered, all the while projects with real applications
but less quick talking/hype and buzzword spewing CEOs are struggling to find
funding.

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tw1010
Well, we need some duds to get the big wins. This is just a sign of a more
than healthy industry (taking risks and sometimes failing). No need to feel
bad.

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forkLding
So no more Myo armbands from now on? I presume they're working on their
smartglasses now

