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Thalmic Labs ending sale of Myo armbands

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Re: Thalmic Labs ending sale of Myo armbands

#3
I do wonder what the impediment to continuing sales is. Was the armband a loss leader of some sort? Were the sales not high enough? Were there widespread product failures?

It always seemed like a rather neat concept, but I generally noticed that even out of all the people I know who love playing with cutting edge prosumer tech like this, none of them had a Myo armband. I do wonder if perhaps they found no real market for the technology and are intent on actually pivoting to something else...

Re: Thalmic Labs ending sale of Myo armbands

#4

I do wonder what the impediment to continuing sales is. Was the armband a loss leader of some sort? Were the sales not high enough? Were there widespread product failures? It always seemed like a rather neat concept, but I generally noticed that even out of all the people I know who love playing with cutting edge prosumer tech like this, none of them had a Myo armband. I do wonder if perhaps they found no real market…

I own one of these (I went to a lot of hackathons in college, and Myo armbands were one of the prizes that were given out like candy).

Unfortunately, it's just not good enough. Whether it's their choice of EMG sensor or that EMG technology just isn't there yet, the Myo's gesture detection is both incredibly limited (five or six simple finger-and-hand gestures, when I used it last) and not very accurate. It's a neat little device and I had a lot of playing using it for the first 30 minutes, but it's firmly in the "curious toy" category.

Re: Thalmic Labs ending sale of Myo armbands

#5
There wasn't a big enough market for their futuristic arm band without clear use cases (or reliable functioning), and I'm not confident it would be any different for their smart glasses coming out next.

What's bothersome is the large amount of VC funding [1] that went into these guys. After they blow it, investors will be wary which will further retard progress in the field of HCI technologies.

[1] https://www.canadianbusiness.com/innovation/thalmic-labs-int...

Re: Thalmic Labs ending sale of Myo armbands

#6

I do wonder what the impediment to continuing sales is. Was the armband a loss leader of some sort? Were the sales not high enough? Were there widespread product failures? It always seemed like a rather neat concept, but I generally noticed that even out of all the people I know who love playing with cutting edge prosumer tech like this, none of them had a Myo armband. I do wonder if perhaps they found no real market…

I own one of these (I went to a lot of hackathons in college, and Myo armbands were one of the prizes that were given out like candy). Unfortunately, it's just not good enough. Whether it's their choice of EMG sensor or that EMG technology just isn't there yet, the Myo's gesture detection is both incredibly limited (five or six simple finger-and-hand gestures, when I used it last) and not very accurate. It's a neat l…

Hmm, so the product doesn't have much potential in its current state. I suppose it would be difficult to improve far beyond that using the same technology - perhaps they'll try and move to some sort of AR based solution?

The concept seems really neat and it'd be a shame if it all ended up not working out.

Re: Thalmic Labs ending sale of Myo armbands

#7
I've worked a lot with EMG and EEG, and always wondered how they got past the huge problems with variation, lack of sensitivity and reliability. From this and what I've read from users it looks like they didn't actually get past them.

Re: Thalmic Labs ending sale of Myo armbands

#8
Ugh. I still have mine. I ordered two. One is still unopened. My forearm got too sore trying make a fist, or spread it for the gestures. If it was more sensitive, it was too easy to inadvertently trigger an action.

If anyone wants to buy them off of me, lemme know.

Re: Thalmic Labs ending sale of Myo armbands

#9

I do wonder what the impediment to continuing sales is. Was the armband a loss leader of some sort? Were the sales not high enough? Were there widespread product failures? It always seemed like a rather neat concept, but I generally noticed that even out of all the people I know who love playing with cutting edge prosumer tech like this, none of them had a Myo armband. I do wonder if perhaps they found no real market…

It was much simpler - the device simply didn't work.

Certainly nowhere near what has been advertised. We have two at work and after testing them when they arrived they remained in the box ever since. It is a solution looking for a problem that doesn't even work properly most of the time.

Re: Thalmic Labs ending sale of Myo armbands

#10
post #5

There wasn't a big enough market for their futuristic arm band without clear use cases (or reliable functioning), and I'm not confident it would be any different for their smart glasses coming out next. What's bothersome is the large amount of VC funding [1] that went into these guys. After they blow it, investors will be wary which will further retard progress in the field of HCI technologies. [1] https://www.canadi…

Well, they are still peanuts compared to Magic Leap, stuff like Leap Motion and other high profile busts ...

And yes, I am worried about this too - VC cash gets burned and nothing of consequence will be delivered, all the while projects with real applications but less quick talking/hype and buzzword spewing CEOs are struggling to find funding.

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