Air Guitar Hero Project Explores Muscle-Computer Interfaces

Muscle-computer interfaces allow users to input information to electronic devices without the need for physical interactions. A similar phenomena is ‘gesture based computing’, in which specified hand or face gestures trigger commands to a computer.

Scott Saponas, a Ph.D. student at the University of Washington, showcased his project on muscle-computer interfaces using a customized Guitar Hero application, where EMG electrodes accurately detected his finger movements by reading muscle activity in his forearms.

In this explanatory video from the ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology, you can see the wide-ranging number of applications that this area of technological development opens up.

[via Kotaku]