When I first reached out to the touch the floating holographic button in front of my face, I didn’t expect to have the ability to feel it once I pressed it. But that is exactly what the sEMG headband I used to be wearing made possible. Equipped with a small touch engine, this floating virtual button suddenly felt real once I tapped it. The experience was mind-blowing and I could not wait to see what else he could do!
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Virtually every science fiction movie depicts an individual using a futuristic computer with a holographic display controlled by hand movements. However, the practical use of these types of interfaces is amazingly limited without one of our major senses: touch. While the sEMG wristband lets you “feel” virtual buttons and objects using the built-in touch engine, Meta has a wider vision.
The idea is that when the right pair of smart glasses is released, the AR XR might be as stunning as the original iPhone. We saw this with the Meta Orion during September’s Meta Connect conference, and it’s clear that Meta plans users to interact with all of the company’s future AR glasses with this headband.
The band will be worn like a smartwatch, but it doesn’t tell the time or measure your heart rate. Instead, it makes hand tracking more accurate and, crucially, more subtle, by detecting muscle movements and translating them into actions.
But the sEMG band shouldn’t be just another data entry method. It provides more privacy than voice input – especially in public places – and lets you focus your attention on something aside from a physical device comparable to a phone or keyboard. This is essential in a world where individuals are at all times together, but never together. It’s the perfect method to control a pair of Meta’s next-generation smart glasses, and that is exactly what Meta offers newly published white paper details.
Orion is the North Star
Using smart glasses without this strap is like using a smartphone with out a touchscreen. It may match, but the experience is not very good.
Meta’s first major AR glasses prototype, Meta Orion, uses this kind of sEMG band, and Meta is fully confident that this can be a requirement for true AR smart glasses scheduled for release this yr. Using smart glasses without this strap is like using a smartphone with out a touchscreen. It may match, but the experience is not very good.
I’ve seen this kind of assembly known as a “neural interface” before, but I believe that is really exaggerated. Yes, the wristband can detect electrical signals in your arm muscles to higher understand how you need to interact with virtual objects, but it cannot read your mind. In any case, the neural interface makes the band sound scary when it actually is not.
In my demo, I could scroll through songs almost effortlessly by rubbing my thumb forward or my index finger backward. It almost felt like I used to be using some sort of roller to regulate my iPod, but there was no physical object in my hand.
Scrolling through the Instagram feed was similarly easy, although it required a little bit more attention on my part than Meta describes on this whitepaper.
The sEMG band is important for next-generation virtual interfaces because it allows full input with out a touchscreen or a set of cameras that may see your hands. This second part is the most vital, because if corporations like Meta are going to release a successful pair of smart display glasses, they are going to need to make use of as much down technology as possible to maintain the glasses small and comfortable.
As Meta points out in the white paper, the ability to regulate a pair of smart glasses even when your hands are full is something of a holy grail for device input. It can easily replace using a smartphone because it is even easier and everyone knows that individuals love convenience and ease.
Being capable of control a pair of smart glasses even when your hands are full is something of a holy grail for device input.
Because it doesn’t require the use of a camera to detect motion, it shouldn’t be subject to the same technical glitches that cameras can suffer from. There have been many examples over the years of camera-driven interfaces that did not work as well for individuals with darker skin tones, but sEMG won’t have this problem.
The sEMG wristband I wore was extremely comfortable because it was made of a versatile, breathable material and fit very comfortably around my wrist. Unlike traditional medical devices, EMG is totally non-invasive and is not any different from wearing a smartwatch. In any case, it is more comfortable than a smartwatch because the weight is evenly distributed over the entire strap.
Since you are not holding anything in your hand, using an sEMG wristband with something like smart glasses is more ergonomic than a smartphone. There is a reason why “text cervix” is a recognized condition and can completely solve this problem.
How does the sEMG wristband work?
It shouldn’t be a “brain reading device” and cannot read your thoughts. It can also’t transmit Zuck’s (or anyone else’s) thoughts into your head.
A pair of smart glasses like the Meta Orion naturally has cameras in-built that may track the environment around them, very similar to a VR headset. These cameras will also be used for hand tracking, but hand tracking is generally a rather more energetic type of input because the cameras really need to have the ability to trace your hands.
The sEMG wristband helps increase this by providing additional input based on the movement of the wrist muscles. The band can detect electrical impulses in your muscles and due to this fact understands tons of of different gestures. It can detect even the smallest movements, which allows for very precise data entry. The animated image above shows an actual hand next to what
Meta emphasizes that it shouldn’t be a “brain-reading device” and cannot read minds. As I said earlier, I assumed it was a bit much when Mark Zuckerberg called it the “neural interface” in Connect. This shouldn’t be. It can also’t upload Zuck’s thoughts into your head, which apparently some people were concerned about, otherwise they would not have mentioned it in the white paper.
The sensors contact the skin and read electrical signals in the muscles of the wrist in the same non-invasive way a smartwatch reads the pulse.
Meta also emphasizes that sEMG is non-invasive, which is essential because clinical EMG technology is invasive. The inside of the band looks very just like a sensible ring, including the barely protruding sensors. The version of the sEMG band I used was the third generation of its kind, and it looks much sleeker than the first two generations, each of which looked more like a smartwatch than anything.
The sensors contact the skin and read electrical signals in the wrist muscles in much the same way a smartwatch reads the pulse. They don’t provide any electrical stimulation or feedback. Rather, they’re used to read muscle movements and extract more accurate hand tracking data.
These types of sEMG bands are more attractive to the mainstream for a number of reasons. Besides looking nice and being fully customizable, they are not any different than a cloth or leather wristband someone might wear to finish the look of an outfit.
Interacting with virtual interfaces when using the sEMG band can also be extremely natural because of the built-in feedback mechanism. This motor can vibrate and provide physical feedback based on what you touch, very similar to a virtual button on a smartphone display can feel more real when it vibrates accurately.
Touching floating buttons that do not exist can feel very strange on the Meta Quest headset because there isn’t a feedback, but the sEMG headband solves this problem. This is a big win for the concept of floating virtual screens and user interfaces, which could be a legitimate tablet alternative in lots of scenarios.
Meta doesn’t have a timeline for when such a band would come to market, but I’d like to put a bet that it will arrive with the launch of the first pair of smart display glasses later this yr.
