Microsoft secures patent for wearable controller

Microsoft secures patent for new wearable controller

Microsoft secured a patent for a wearable Electromyography-based controller this May, which uses sensors to interpret electrical signals from the user's muscles and communicates these to a computer via wired or wireless connection.

As reported by Engadget, the firm envisions a number of practical uses for the technology in which sensors are applied to armbands, a shirt, eyeglasses, a wristwatch, and even nodes that attach to the head or chest.

The patent was initially filed in March 2009, the same year Microsoft Research released a video demonstrating its potential with footage of a man playing Guitar Hero without the use of the franchise's guitar controller.

Its inventors T. Scott Saponas, Desney S. Tan, Dan Morris and Ravin Balakrishnan introduced the concept one year earlier in a paper titled Demonstrating the Feasibility of Using Forearm Electromyography for Muscle-Computer Interfaces.

There is no official word on how Microsoft hopes to move forward with this project following the successful patent.