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Show HN: Kinesis – Control your Mac with the Meta Neural Band
a couple hours ago i had astra take on a 10 month old repo of mine https://github.com/callbacked/neural-band-poc/ https://github.com/callbacked/neural-band-poc/ that involved finding a way to use the meta neural band independently from the glasses to read the sEMG data off of it. i really think it is a cool piece of technology that largely gets overlooked by the glasses, and always thought it was a shame it couldn't be used outside of its main application.
after making quick work of that, i wanted to use it to control my mac using gesture controls and that's how kinesis was born. it has been very cool being able to swipe from desktops using my fingers, swiping up to open up mission control or controlling a virtual knob to adjust my volume.
i definitely havent scratched the surface with the neural band but it has been a really fun endeavor thus far! i really hope others can find creative uses for their neural bands too :)
note: i really hope this works on other bands because the sample size has just been me so far.
- pluc 19d agoKinesis is already a word and an Amazon product, might have better discoverability naming your project something unique and specific.
- embedding-shape 19d agoAnd a band, and a company, and a .... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kinesis https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kinesis Do you think it's likely someone goes looking for the real-time data processing platform, lands on this GitHub and gets confused?
- pluc 19d agoDiscoverability is the degree to which something, especially a piece of content or information, can be found in a search of a file, database, or other information system. Discoverability is a concern in library and information science, many aspects of digital media, software and web development, and in marketing, since products and services cannot be used if people cannot find it or do not understand what it can be used for. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discoverability https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discoverability
- embedding-shape 19d ago> Most search engines support the use of the Boolean operators AND, OR and NOT to help end users refine the search query. Boolean operators are for literal searches that allow the user to refine and extend the terms of the search https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Search_engine https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Search_engine Not sure about you, but if I'm trying to find a tool, I don't search just "Houdini", but I'm also an adult who can put two terms together. I linked the above page in hopes that it might help you more efficiently use search engines in the future just like me.
- dsr_ 19d agoSearch engines are so 2010. You just announce "hey genie!" and ask for what you want.
- justinsaccount 19d ago> Do you think it's likely someone goes looking for the real-time data processing platform, lands on this GitHub and gets confused? No, but I do think it is likely that someone might find this while looking for the kinesis keyboard, a popular product which has been on the market for 34 years.
- moralestapia 19d agoAmazon was already a word. Facebook was already a word. Meta was already a word. You're right. They would have been much more successful if they had chosen "something unique and specific".
- utopiah 18d agoI don't think anybody would take a flight to Brazil to see an Amazon shop and vice versa. In this specific case though as others pointed out there are already a lot of products on that specific segment with that name.
- easton 19d agoMeta doesn’t sell these separately from the glasses :( Are they patented to heck and back or can another manufacturer make a EMG bracelet for controlling a PC?
- blensor 19d agoNot sure how well it works but that is supposed to do the same thing https://mudra-band.com/products/mudra-link https://mudra-band.com/products/mudra-link
- jdpigeon 19d agohttps://www.tindie.com/products/waveletech/18-channel-emg-smart-band-with-2k-sampling-rate/ https://www.tindie.com/products/waveletech/18-channel-emg-sm...
- iugtmkbdfil834 19d agoomg..I hate FB and I actually want that..
- gorjusborg 19d agoDefinitely interesting work, but Meta will get nothing from me, as far as I can help it. No level of convenience will tip that scale.
- smt88 19d agoMeta doesn’t make money if you buy its hardware used on eBay or similar
- amenghra 19d agoWalking around wearing Meta’s hardware supports them by you advertising their product (unless you never show anyone that you own the hardware). The existence of a used market also slightly increases the value of new things. By buying used, you’re supporting/signaling the used market and indirectly supporting the company. If you don’t want to support a company, don’t go near their products.
- smt88 19d ago“Advertising the product” is an extremely mild form of support in this case. Your criticism of buying used is complete nonsense. Secondary markets have put companies out of business. You’re not “signaling” anything except that the price is too high.
- amenghra 19d agoYou are right, it's double-edged. In some cases it can hurt companies (e.g. luxury good companies) while in other cases it can benefit them (e.g. car companies benefit from the second-hand market in many ways). It's a fascinating economics+psychology topic.
- gorjusborg 19d agoI'd have to be pretty sure I could use the hardware forever without a login for me to let it near my systems. Anything with firmware or a security footprint would not qualify. I might accept a Meta paperclip into my house, but then again, why risk it ;) Meta's game is to do all sorts of dirty tricks to pull you into its data. No thanks.
- geoah 19d agoThe neural band always looked more interesting than the glasses tbh. I've been moving more and more away from terminal and IDEs, and I've been exploring how I could move to a flip phone / table + compact keyboard as most of my development time is now possible to be done via just using TTS. I'd be interested in exploring if something like this could remove the need for a mouse or touching the screen as well. Some alternatives that are not bound to the meta glasses: Mudra Link (USD 299), Mudra Band for Apple Watch (USD 350), MindRove Armband (USD 800, wow), SiFi Labs SiFi Band (no price), OYMotion gForce Pro+ (USD 1250, ok this side project is starting to look expensive)
- UltraSane 19d agoThe neural band could become a standard interface for situations where keyboards and mice are not practical.
- fidotron 19d agoDoes it really have enough fidelity of distinguishing gestures for that today? I was under the impression the set is pretty limited and maybe not completely robust (like per person setup/calibration etc.)
- eloisant 19d agoI'm always worried about the "Midas effect" with something like that. Having to be careful not to trigger actions you don't want to.
- utopiah 18d agoYep, and IMHO that's why eye tracking even though is amazing when it does work is still very limited. We do a lot of small things without even realizing and stopping to do movements we are not aware of is very very hard.
- ileonichwiesz 19d agoI think the inertia of familiar input devices is way too high for something like that to gain any sort of traction. For better or for worse, the mainstream user is probably not leaving his QWERTY keyboard and his touchscreen, even in use cases where those are highly suboptimal.
- sammyteee 19d agoI seem to have completely missed the Neural Band as this is my first time even seeing it, but I have to admit - it does look quite cool. Anyone have any long-term hands-on experience with it? Would love to know if it feels clunky or not...
- hn9zmdcaou 19d ago[dead]
- fidotron 19d agoThe vibe coders have finally discovered their killer interface, and it is kind of cool, especially if integrated with voice inputs.
- robk3 19d agothat seems so cool lol
- f0e4c2f7 19d agoVery interesting. So how open is the neural band to hack on? Do you expect this to be something to get patched out eventually if you update? Seems like a really cool platform to develop against outside of the intended ecosystem.
- NDlurker 19d agoI want to wear 2 of these bands and have multi touch AR. In thinking like pinch to zoom for reality.
- nickthegreek 19d agoI have an old Leap motion sitting around.. I'd imagine I might be able to do something similar with it?
- neoncontrails 19d agoThis looks like it could potentially be a huge productivity win. The ergonomics seem tantalizingly similar to the infamous scene from Minority Report where Tom Cruise manipulates translucent data streams with his bare hands. Could I suggest that you shoot a new promotional demo video with enough lighting that viewers can see your hands? Personally I'd be very curious to see and understand the actual gestures that support a real world workflow involving multiple desktops and applications, with the hands transitioning as needed between neural band mode for navigation vs. keyboard/mouse mode for fine-grained motor inputs.
- dabinat 19d agoThat scene in Minority Report looked cool but how tiring would it be to have your hands suspended in the air for 8 hours a day?
- leobg 19d agohttps://www.mitre.org/news-insights/impact-story/rapid-prototyping-visionary-doing-best-way-thinking https://www.mitre.org/news-insights/impact-story/rapid-proto... > In another prototype—again, heavy on the use of what he called "materials that move at the speed of thought," such as coat hangers, tape, fishing line, projectors, chopsticks, and a presentation clicker—they learned that the Minority Report style of interfacing with a computer by swiping with your hands at images was actually a poor idea. While people loved trying out the prototype, even the strongest found that their arms and shoulders soon began to hurt.
- utopiah 18d agoAgreed but tbh it's not fair, nobody is even typing 8hrs/day. FWIW it's very to test by the way, pick a random XR demo support hand tracking and you will see it's not that tiring. It doesn't mean it's useful though.
- jasonjmcghee 19d agoFeels like such a misnomer, but I guess that's marketing. I remember when OCZ NIA came out and it claimed BCI and it was effectively doing muscle activity too. At least meta is properly representing what it does!
- cisrockandroll 19d agoKinesis is a legendary keyboard brand.
- vancekai 19d ago[dead]
- tash_2s 19d agoI've heard from several people who've tried the KiWear ring that the experience is close to using the neural band. Different form factor and technology though.
- utopiah 18d agoGreat to explore alternative interfaces and repurpose existing hardware without having to rely on the manufacturer implementation. Have you considered providing GadgetBridge support? I don't see anything on https://codeberg.org/Freeyourgadget/Gadgetbridge/issues?state=open&type=all&labels=&milestone=0&project=0&assignee=0&poster=0&sort=relevance&q=%22neural+band%22 https://codeberg.org/Freeyourgadget/Gadgetbridge/issues?stat... but it could bring interesting combinatorial possibilities. For anybody who wants to try that without any extra hardware but just your webcam give a go to https://codepen.io/mediapipe/pen/bGweWyR https://codepen.io/mediapipe/pen/bGweWyR based on MediaPipe Hands in JavaScript https://chuoling.github.io/mediapipe/solutions/hands.html https://chuoling.github.io/mediapipe/solutions/hands.html You can bind a hand position or gesture (e.g. going from one position to another) to a desktop command by running this in the background on your NodeJS companion app and spawn() for the commands. FWIW did something similar using OpenCV https://fabien.benetou.fr/Portfolio/PostureMaintenance https://fabien.benetou.fr/Portfolio/PostureMaintenance 15 years go. If you also are interested in gaze tracking https://lebmatter.github.io/gazerjs/ https://lebmatter.github.io/gazerjs/ is another Web based example.
- libolun12358 17d agoyo you're so smart!!! how are yo so smart?