Skip to main content
https://www.highperformancecpmgate.com/rgeesizw1?key=a9d7b2ab045c91688419e8e18a006621

CTRL-labs scoops up Myo armband tech from North

Before pivoting to smart glasses, Thalmic Labs (now North) tried its best to make its Myo gestural arm band controller the future of user input. Now, another startup is picking up the baton, acquiring patents related to the product and customer data.

The IP is being bought by CTRL-labs, a New York-based startup full of neuroscientists aiming to build a wrist-worn input device that translates electrical signals from your body into computer input. The startup closed a $28 million Series A last year with funding coming from Vulcan Capital, GV and others.

In December, CTRL-labs launched its own development kit for a device similar in scope to the Myo armband but more robust in its sensing capabilities.

While Thalmic Labs had its own ambitions for extracting input from the body’s electrical signals, CTRL-labs tells me that the patent purchase is largely focused on acquiring the tech behind the armbands gestural controls, which translated sweeping arm movements into input mechanisms. The startup hopes that by integrating the tech into future development kits, developers will have more options for functionality as the company strives to fine tune its more complex readings.

The purchase marks the close of an era for North, which has raised nearly $200 million according to CrunchBase and marked a major pivot last year away from its Myo armband towards its new Focals smart glasses. North has been full steam ahead on the smart glasses and seems to have dumped plans to pursue the Myo band further so offloading the patents seems like an easy choice as the team labors to scale sales of its smart glasses that starts at $599 ($799 with prescription lenses).

For its part, CTRL-labs exec Josh Duyan tells me that the connection between the two firms came about due to mutual investor Spark Capital making the connection. Duyan declined to disclose the price of the deal.

 

Thalmic Labs Raises $14.5M To Make The MYO Armband The Next Big Thing In Gesture Control

 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Uber co-founder Garrett Camp steps back from board director role

Uber co-founder Garrett Camp is relinquishing his role as a board director and switching to board observer — where he says he’ll focus on product strategy for the ride hailing giant. Camp made the announcement in a short Medium post in which he writes of his decade at Uber: “I’ve learned a lot, and realized that I’m most helpful when focused on product strategy & design, and this is where I’d like to focus going forward.” “I will continue to work with Dara [Khosrowshahi, Uber CEO] and the product and technology leadership teams to brainstorm new ideas, iterate on plans and designs, and continue to innovate at scale,” he adds. “We have a strong and diverse team in place, and I’m confident everyone will navigate well during these turbulent times.” The Canadian billionaire entrepreneur signs off by saying he’s looking forward to helping Uber “brainstorm the next big idea”. Camp hasn’t been short of ideas over his career in tech. He’s the co-founder of the web 2.0 recommendatio...
Post a Comment
Read more

Drone crash near kids leads Swiss Post and Matternet to suspend autonomous deliveries

A serious crash by a delivery drone in Switzerland have grounded the fleet and put a partnership on ice. Within a stone’s throw of a school, the incident raised grim possibilities for the possibilities of catastrophic failure of payload-bearing autonomous aerial vehicles. The drones were operated by Matternet as part of a partnership with the Swiss Post (i.e. the postal service), which was using the craft to dispatch lab samples from one medical center for priority cases. As far as potential applications of drone delivery, it’s a home run — but twice now the craft have crashed, first with a soft landing and the second time a very hard one. The first incident, in January, was the result of a GPS hardware error; the drone entered a planned failback state and deployed its emergency parachute, falling slowly to the ground. Measures were taken to improve the GPS systems. The second failure in May, however, led to the drone attempting to deploy its parachute again, only to sever the line...
Post a Comment
Read more

How the world’s largest cannabis dispensary avoids social media restrictions

Planet 13 is the world’s largest cannabis dispensary. Located in Las Vegas, blocks off the Strip, the facility is the size of a small Walmart. By design, it’s hard to miss. Planet 13 is upending the dispensary model. It’s big, loud and visitors are encouraged to photograph everything. As part of the cannabis industry, Planet 13 is heavily restricted on the type of content it can publish on Instagram, Facebook and other social media platforms. It’s not allowed to post pictures of buds or vapes on some sites. It can’t talk about pricing or product selection on others.   View this post on Instagram   A post shared by Morgan Celeste SF Blogger (@bayareabeautyblogger) on Jan 25, 2020 at 7:54pm PST Instead, Planet 13 encourages its thousands of visitors to take photos and videos. Starting with the entrance, the facility is full of surprises tailored for the ‘gram. As a business, Planet 13’s social media content is heavily restricted a...
3 comments
Read more