[HN Gopher] Hacking my arm prosthesis to plug into a synth: thou...
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       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..
        
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       (page generated 2020-02-16 23:00 UTC)