MyoPhone - 2003
INTIMATE INTERFACE — LIMINAL DEVICES
MyoPhone demonstrates an intimate interface using an eyeglass display and EMG sensor to facilitate unobtrusive, simultaneous coexistence in physical and virtual realities. By using subtle muscle contractions, MyoPhone can answer and respond to a call without disrupting activities in your physical environment. Incoming calls flash discreetly in one's peripheral vision and caller identities are displayed, equally discreetly, on the lens of a pair of glasses.
In MyoPhone the user wears a pair of eyglasses with a display embedded in the eyeglass lens and a LED in each corner of the frame. A wireless EMG sensor on a bicep serves as the interface. When the computer detects an incoming call from the user's mobile phone it illuminates an LED in the user's peripheral vision. If the user would like more information about the caller, the bicep is subtly contracted, which brings the caller id information into the main field of vision (through the eyeglass display). The user may dismiss the call with another muscle contraction and additionally send an SMS message to the caller. This work intentionally utilizes muscles as a way to engage the body directly as an interface.
The concepts behind MyoPhone can extend to other mobile applications. The EMG switch can be used as a generic hands-free controller. Similarly, the eyeglass display (both peripheral and central) can be used to provide information of different kinds without the user's eyes needing to turn to a specific point (eyes-free display).