Oh man, you have no idea how much this gnaws at me. Especially with the Myo.
So, for a bit of background, the Myo has 6 (or was it 9?) EMG channels, and at least a 6 axis IMU (I think it might have magnetometer as well). The developer API they plan on releasing will only give you the post processed signal + the raw IMU signal - that is to say, they'll tell you the current affinity to each of the pre-programmed gestures (~6 or so) that Thalmic has set up. There is no way to normally get access to the EMG data.
They will however give you units with 'special firmware' if you sign up for their researcher partnership program which costs $10k+ the last time I talked to them (this winter). Needless to say, this is clearly aimed at university research labs.
I can't really say just how frustrating this is, as someone just leaving undergrad, and with a passion for sport and science/engineering. The worst part is just how understandable it is.
Nearly all the players in this field are startups of some sort. Their #1 goal is to get stable positive cash flow out of some niche market. As a hardware startup, they have significant costs to overcome. There just is no incentive for them to split off some effort to try to capture this type of open system/market.
But seriously, I crave an open hardware platform for this. But at the same time, it's obvious that the costs are non-trivial. The 'science' part of the payload isn't even hard. IMU + microprocessor + bluetooth. The hard part is hardware packaging, getting it into a form factor that has enough battery life, will stay in position on the body, will not adversely bother the user, or modify their movement. All of these issues are non-trivial and have to be solved for hardware release.
Seriously, I wish I just had a pile of cash, and a couple years to ticker. sigh
We get the request for raw muscle data quite often, and are trying to find a way to handle it better in the future. The reason we don't provide it now actually has nothing to do with money (we do have a small number of research groups that pay for this, engineering support, and other services, but it represents a tiny fraction of a percent of revenue).
The reason is actually two-fold:
1. User Experience - Unfortunately you're probably the exception, in that it sounds like you may be able to build a great experience using the raw data. The reality we've found is that it requires a deep machine learning and statistical analysis background to do much useful with the data, considering the need to account for a wide variety of variations in data intra and inter person. What we're trying to prevent is developers attempting to create "custom" gestures improperly (e.g. if (myo.sensor1 > 67% && myo.sensor2 > 30%){output = Rock_On}), which will not work reliably on the population, in different orientations, etc., then the user has a bad experience, and blames the device hardware.
2. Battery Life - Streaming raw data uses much much more power than when we process the data on the device, and recognize gestures directly on-board.
We are considering options to provide this data in some way, as there are certainly good uses in some applications, such as Tennis analysis.
You could quite easily do everything the Smash device does, plus additional information on grip strength, using a Myo armband. It's all about the software!
It's great to hear that. I'm sure you've heard this already, but there are non-trivial amounts of part-time researchers who are salivating over your tech, principally as a tool for scientific exploration, or just tickering. These aren't so much people coming out a developer background, but those coming from a research background, people who can totally understand and stomach difficulties associated with EMG.
Basically, I believe there to be a great deal of people who are in similar situations to your current research group partners in technical aptitude and expectations, but differ in their financial resources - which is why your product in particular is so attractive in the first place.
I really look forward to seeing how this develops.
I work for MapMyFitness, and we're aiming at the software side of the equation. We used to be a startup until we were acquired by UnderArmour, so now we're starting to plot out projects that will be taking years to pay off.
Drop me a line if you want to talk more: dave.mclain@mapmyfitnessinc.com
So, for a bit of background, the Myo has 6 (or was it 9?) EMG channels, and at least a 6 axis IMU (I think it might have magnetometer as well). The developer API they plan on releasing will only give you the post processed signal + the raw IMU signal - that is to say, they'll tell you the current affinity to each of the pre-programmed gestures (~6 or so) that Thalmic has set up. There is no way to normally get access to the EMG data.
They will however give you units with 'special firmware' if you sign up for their researcher partnership program which costs $10k+ the last time I talked to them (this winter). Needless to say, this is clearly aimed at university research labs.
I can't really say just how frustrating this is, as someone just leaving undergrad, and with a passion for sport and science/engineering. The worst part is just how understandable it is.
Nearly all the players in this field are startups of some sort. Their #1 goal is to get stable positive cash flow out of some niche market. As a hardware startup, they have significant costs to overcome. There just is no incentive for them to split off some effort to try to capture this type of open system/market.
But seriously, I crave an open hardware platform for this. But at the same time, it's obvious that the costs are non-trivial. The 'science' part of the payload isn't even hard. IMU + microprocessor + bluetooth. The hard part is hardware packaging, getting it into a form factor that has enough battery life, will stay in position on the body, will not adversely bother the user, or modify their movement. All of these issues are non-trivial and have to be solved for hardware release.
Seriously, I wish I just had a pile of cash, and a couple years to ticker. sigh