Microsoft Patents Muscle Control

Gamasutra's Chris Remo reports that Microsoft recently filed patents for a method of control of an interactive system using detection of muscle movement. Using electromyographs, the sensors involved detect positioning and movement of specific muscle groups. The video on Microsoft's official research site demonstrates how this might be used for a title such as Guitar Hero or for more general applications, such as controlling an mp3 device's playback using muscle movement in the leg (though this seems counterproductive to this news editor). From the research page:

Many human-computer interaction technologies are currently mediated by physical transducers such as mice, keyboards, pens, dials, and touch-sensitive surfaces. While these transducers have enabled powerful interaction paradigms and leverage our human expertise in interacting with physical objects, they tether computation to a physical artifact that has to be within reach of the user.

As computing and displays begin to integrate more seamlessly into our environment and are used in situations where the user is not always focused on the computing task, it is important to consider mechanisms for acquiring human input that may not necessarily require direct manipulation of a physical implement. We explore the feasibility of muscle-computer input: an interaction methodology that directly senses and decodes human muscular activity rather than relying on physical device actuation or user actions that are externally visible or audible.While its rather unlikely that this tech will see any sort of adoption during this generation of consoles, the Wii has changed the audience that Microsoft seems intent on capturing with their Xbox business, meaning that the next generation of consoles could feature some variation of this tech, at least in some form.

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