How Love is Like A Computer #234: Reading someone’s mind often means paying closer attention to their body.

Researchers at the University of Washington, University of Toronto, and Microsoft Research have developed a system to control a computer through a device that reads muscle movement. Using eight sensors attached to the surface of the forearm you can now communicate basic commands by moving your fingers and hand in stylized gestures. The team of developers has adapted the new system to work with Microsoft Surface, the advanced table sized touchscreen. We’ve got a great demonstration video of the muscle control hardware interacting with MS Surface after the break.

It seems like every few days, a tech company finds a new way for us to control computers. These next generation human-computer interfaces all seem to have one goal in common: increasing the physical intuitiveness of computer control. In some cases, the physicality is expressly required by the device. The HAL cyborg from Cyberdyne relies on electromyography (EMG), just like the new muscle sensing control technology. However, tactile interfaces are becoming more popular purely as replacements for keyboards and mice, especially in casual environments like the Hard Rock Cafe in Las Vegas. For those of us who have adapted well to typing and point and click commands, the new physical interfaces may seem imprecise. To some extent they still are. Yet when paired with improved algorithms for speech, gesture, and facial recognition the new line of human-computer interfaces is getting ready to connect us directly to our digital world. Keyboards and mice, like so many middle men in our evolving economy, are being cut for efficiency.

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