Muscle-Computer Interface

Muscle-Computer Interface or MUCI, is a method of interfacing with a computer system via the monitoring of muscle activity by a headband, armband or other similar device.

MUCI works by laying tightly across the user?s skin, thou not tight enough to restrict blood flow. It then detects and decode the voltages generated by twitching muscles under its surface.

The flip side of a MUCI system, is they have to be placed in specific locations on the body, that the MUCI interface device is familiar with, in order to map the muscle signals correctly. Place it in the wrong place, and the firing patterns will be interpreted as being different things by the interface.

Below, we offer a selection of links from our resource databases which may match this term.

MUCI Muscle Computer Interface Muscle-Computer Interface

Muscle-Machine Interface

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Research Behind MUCI Armbands
A PDF released by Microsoft Research, entitled ?Demonstrating the Feasibility of Using Forearm Electromyography for Muscle-Computer Interfaces? details the science behind utilising muscle control as an alternative, viable input system to gesture recognition or spoken commands.
PDF size: 1 meg

In the Works: MEMS Brain-Computer Interface

In 2008, Caltech researchers are working on developing a MEMS-based (Micro-Electro-Mechanical System) brain-computer interface, with initial designs proving promising, and holding the potential to overcome the signal degradation problem.

Meshworm: A robot made of a single Artificial Muscle
Meshworm is the prototype proof of concept for a new type of artificial muscle, based on an in-depth study of the movement patterns of the common earthworm, and shows how it is possible to create a 'soft' robot or prosthetic that is basically a single muscle and very little else.

Controlling Devices by Muscle Movement

Mimi Switch, a Japanese muscle monitoring device, has an interesting premise. It looks like a normal set of headphones but is fitted with a set of infrared sensors that measure tiny movements inside the ear that result from different facial expressions.

Targeted Muscle Reinnervation Increases Prosthetic BMI
A Journal of the American Medical Association study looked at targeted muscle re-innervation to see if it did indeed have as much success as studies conducted by those with a vested interest in a positive result.

VR Interfaces: QB1: Gesture Only PC

A novel interface paradigm computer, the QB1 is the brainchild of one Fr?d?ric Kaplan, an engineer with a background in robotic systems for Sony. He worked with designer Martino d?Esposito of EPFL in France, to create a computer system with no mouse, no keyboard, just an on/off switch, and the ability to recognise and respond to gestures.

Prototype Ionic Artificial Muscle Doubles as a Speaker
A prototype ionic muscle has been created by researchers at Harvard University. Not very strong, yet exceptionally pliant, its main claim to fame is that it can flex thousands of times per second, and being completely non-electronic, is capable at least in theory, of conversing with the neurons of the body in their native ionic tongue.

Flexing, clear computer components
In an augmented world, you may well have one or more of three distinct types of computer interface on, or even in your body. There are augmenting reality devices, prosthetic components, and direct-wired virtual reality interfaces. All three share aspects in common. Among them, that they all require considerable computing power as close to the implant as possible.

Virtual Reality: The Revolutionary Technology of Computer-Generated Artificial Worlds - and How It Promises to Transform Society

This book, by author and renowned VR expert Howard Rhinegold, was first published in 1991 ? nearly twenty years ago. All those years back, Rhinegold still managed to predict VR applications that are only just being realised today. Walking through computer mediated environments, with the power of physical legs; having targeted muscle re-enervation provide the neural connectivity of physical legs if you have none. Doctors treating patients remotely, or operating on precise mock-ups of patients before they lay eyes on them for the first time. Touring buildings, rendered in 3D, from blueprints alone.

The Best Computer Interfaces: Past, Present, and Future
Technology Review has assembled an itinerary of the most revolutionary mainstream computer interfaces of the past, current times and anticipated for near future. Nothing to surprise here. The list contains 10 interface methods, and surprisingly, vanilla VR did not make the list.

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