Rejoice, gamers with sore thumbs and artists with hand cramps. Microsoft Research has a new technology that takes input from muscle movements and it’s looking to score a patent. There will be no more clicking, pressing buttons or dragging a mouse, just make some muscle movements. Or so the company says. Datamation has the details.
Over the past 18 years, Microsoft’s Research Division (MSR), a large group of computer researchers in key locations worldwide, has come up with some interesting and useful technologies, as well as a few that may seem on the wackier side of things.
For instance, MSR was largely responsible for creating Microsoft’s (NASDAQ: MSFT) Surface tabletop computer, which is now beginning to realize the technology’s practical applications in commercial deployments.
Now, among the most recent developments out of MSR are technologies that enable a user to control a computer’s interface by merely flexing his or her muscles. Two recently published Microsoft patent applications seem to be pointing the way toward what could become practical developments in that area.
The patent applications were published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) on December 31 — the applications were filed in March 2009 and in June 2008.
