[vimeo id=”92242073″]
We’re a diverse bunch of DJs at DJWORX, a proper mixture of traditional styles and very future-looking artists who get more than a little excited at anything that pushes boundaries. So when we got to see Gábor Szántó, maker of DJ Player, mess around with the yet to be released Thalmic Labs Myo armband, it’s fair to say that pulses raced a little in some parts of the DJWORX collective.
For those not familiar with Thalmic’s Myo armband, it’s an elasticated armband that recognises electrical activity and movement to control wireless devices. It’s not the flailing movement often associated with wearables, but very subtle natural gestures. And this principle has been extended to controlling the finer points of DJ Player on the iPhone.
By Gábor’s own admission, it’s a tad rough right now, but does demonstrate the principle of hands-free wireless control of software with little more than a few gentle movements. Quite ho this stacks up against readily available products like Leapmotion is anyone’s guess. Well actually, it’ll be arkaei’s job to tell us as we’ll be getting one of these Myo controllers in for a workout soon.
Would you wear a controller? Are you excited at the idea of gestures being your controller? Or are you happiest with moving a physical control to achieve the desired result?
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This is a great idea and exciting option/addition for DJ Player. By the looks of it, you could also move the armband to the wrist if you wanted more precise adjustments. Is that correct or is this mainly meant to be used for slower sweeps. I can just imagine having it for both, so you could either do a sweep or flick the wrist and have it set to DJ Players Roll Effect… Thanks for the news DJ Worx!
The MYO is not designed for your wrist. The muscles moving your fingers/hand/wrist are on the place where i have the MYO, and it looks for the signals of those muscles. So it’s not just recognises your arm movements, but can detect some finger poses too (fist, fingers spread, wave in/out, etc.).
You can use it for very precise adjustments, it’s very sensitive. The problem is not your device, but your imagination of your arm/hand in your brain. Often, when you think your arm is pointing straight ahead for example, the numbers are telling that you can be off by +- 30 degrees. It’s unbelievable how our brain fools us.
Ahh, ok, thanks Gábor, that makes sense.
I can dig it.
That is so sick !
(It goes right on the same place where a brace for tennis elbow goes, where those muscles connect to the bone)
So what happens if you move your fingers like a crab scratch?
The guys at MYO are working on reliable finger detection. Currently it detects some finger/hand poses only, so nothing happens on a crab scratch. Currently.
Thanks. I think if it could sense scratch styles, such a knowing if the fore or ring finger is touching the thumb, then wow..new age scratching. I’ve built a glove like that, but with physical audio connections, but this is miles ahead. Love it! Be Nice to see a “thumb to forefinger” pinch, that could be mapped to hi/low/mid kill.
I will forward to the MYO guys.
I wish him a lot of luck, each time I’ve tried to utilise an accelerometer / gyro in a controller I get very unreliable results. I have been informed that most of the problems can be removed by buffering the hardwares signals … but thats beyond my skills. So i am waiting for someone to get it right.
Open source project in the same field (but not wireless yet)
Marco Donnarumma
http://youtu.be/XNJnSd4PhSo
very cool! While I don’t see a good use yet for this type of tech besides controlling effects, I think the potential is definitely there.