[HN Gopher] Hacking my arm prosthesis to plug into a synth: thou... ___________________________________________________________________ Hacking my arm prosthesis to plug into a synth: thought-controlled music [video] Author : tomduncalf Score : 126 points Date : 2020-02-16 16:40 UTC (6 hours ago) (HTM) web link (www.youtube.com) (TXT) w3m dump (www.youtube.com) | Thorentis wrote: | This is incredible. I think the next step from here - technology | wise I mean - is figuring out how devices can tap into this | without needing to lose a limb. Implants that can read the | signals from a limb to control something else could be the bridge | in between what we have now, and brain-computer interfaces. | | You know those devices that severely disabled people like the | late Stephen Hawking used to interact with his computer? They | require only a very small amount of muscle movement to control a | switch etc. What if an implant could be put directly into a | muscle or a group of muscles (or a a nerve ending somewhere more | suitable) so that a tiny movement could trigger some action? It | would essentially give humans a set of re-programmable multi- | function buttons. Connect it to your phone over bluetooth, and | you can setup an action to be triggered by it. How would you | filter out regular/involuntary input vs. intentional input? Not | sure! But this avenue of development is exciting. | aryik wrote: | Honestly one of the coolest things I've seen on HN. It's a great | display of a ton of things that have just recently (10-20 years) | become accessible to the masses. 3D printing for the enclosure, | the internet for the schematics, and advanced prosthetics to | translate the muscle signal into voltage combined with tried and | true technologies like relatively simple circuit design and | modular synths. Thanks for sharing! | mhh__ wrote: | The thing that's really struck me (which is potentially saying | a lot - or nothing - because I'm still young) is how cheap PCB | Fabrication (and Assembly!) at a hobbyist level has gotten | recently e.g. An 8-layer ENIG, double silkscreen, a few gold | fingers for $40 to $50 _shipped_ is pretty damn cheap | | Think of all the projects to never get round to making! | berryg wrote: | Indeed, very cool. I kept thinking that with an Arduino he | probably could have build a first prototype with first building a | custom circuit. Just nitpicking. | kregasaurusrex wrote: | It's great that the representatives from the company sent him the | relevant parts of the schematic to help him connect his arm to | the interface board. Products aren't often built with | accessibility with mind and seeing DIY projects like this inspire | better solutions for these groups. | cronix wrote: | This is really fascinating to me. I've often wondered what | exactly makes an artist/musician. Is it the person who can create | it in their head, or the person who can actually write it down | and/or actually play it on an instrument? Up until now, it's | always been the latter. Not everybody can read/write music or | play an actual instrument, but most can create it in their head. | Like, I'm sure most of you can create a simple tune and hum it, | and don't know how to read/write music or play an instrument. | This kind of thing would allow you to. I wonder how many hidden | artists throughout time have created brilliant masterpieces, but | just could never express it. | enisberk wrote: | It is really cool, indeed. Bravo for the creativity and the | effort. Facebook recently acquired a company called ctrl-labs | that develops a neural interface. Their vision is making computer | interface more natural. Bertolt, in the video says "The thing is | for me, that is such a natural thing to do, I do not really have | to think about it. I just do it, it is zero effort."(6.23) I love | that, I hope we can have such computer interfaces in near future. | ggggtez wrote: | Very cool, skip to the end to hear it in action. | 4NDR10D wrote: | Great concept and interesting demo, however the title is pretty | misleading. This isn't what I would call "thought controlled" | more than the old Thalmic Myo or any EMG [0] is thought | controlled. | | This is reading muscle signals with electrodes and translating | those muscle activations into a variable voltage signal. One | could argue that because you're not reading mechanical action it | could be considered "thought control" but I'll leave that up to | the individual to gauge for themselves. | | [0] https://techcrunch.com/2018/12/10/ctrl-labs-first-dev-kit- | is... | goldenkey wrote: | Most cheaper EEG headbands are misadvertised and actually | measure skull muscle activation instead of actual brain | signals, so there's that.. ___________________________________________________________________ (page generated 2020-02-16 23:00 UTC)