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The keyboard; the mouse; the touchscreen: each new generation of computing has been accompanied by its own new kind of input device. But as we enter the internet-of-things era, no standard has yet been established.
键盘、鼠标、触摸屏，每一代新的计算机技术都伴随着一种新式的输入设备。但在我们进入物联网时代之际，输入领域还尚未建立起统一的标准。
Several companies are trying to free us from the screen altogether, creating ways to control our digital lives by using little more than the “input devices” we were born with — the natural gestures of our hands and fingers.
有几家公司正在尝试让我们完全从屏幕前解脱出来，它们利用的不过是我们与生俱来的“输入设备”——手和手指的自然活动——从而发明出控制我们的数字生活的方法。
Gesture-control technology has come a long way since Nintendo’s Wii got gamers off the sofa and waving their arms around in the living room. Now Microsoft’s Kinect can track precisely how our limbs move. The 3in Leap Motion controller, which plugs into a PC, can detect the tiniest changes in the position of a finger.
自任天堂(Nintendo)的Wii游戏机使玩家离开沙发、在客厅四处挥舞手臂以来，手势控制技术已经取得了很大进步。现在，微软(Microsoft)的Kinect可以精确追踪我们四肢的任何动作。连接个人电脑的3英寸Leap Motion控制器，可以探测出手指位置最细微的变动。
But using Kinect or Leap means keeping within the field of view of their cameras. A new device, Myo, which I first tried at the Consumer Electronics Show in January, takes a whole new approach to gesture control that does not require a camera.
但使用Kinect或Leap Motio需要处于它们的摄像机镜头范围内。我在1月美国消费电子展(CES)上首次体验的一款新设备Myo，采用了一种全新的、不需要摄像机的手势控制方式。
When it works, Myo can make you feel like Luke Skywalker using the Force or Tom Cruise in Minority Report. But rather than lightsabres, Myo’s maker, Canada-based Thalmic Labs, has decided the killer app is rather less Hollywood than that: helping to give slideshow presentations.
当Myo运行时，它可以让你感觉像使用光剑的卢克•天行者(Luke Skywalker)或者《少数派报告》(Minority Report)中的汤姆•克鲁斯(Tom Cruise)。但Myo的制造商——加拿大科技公司Thalmic Labs——决定了这款杀手级应用远没有好莱坞大片里的光剑那么神奇：它可以用来协助幻灯片演示。
Slideshow start
幻灯片开始
The Myo armband comprises eight rectangular 2in blocks, linked with stretchy rubber and worn snugly on the forearm in direct contact with the skin. Its electromyography (EMG) sensors read electrical activity in the muscles to detect gestures in the hand, while other sensors track the motion of the arm. The armband sends this information to a paired computer or smartphone via Bluetooth, with a barely perceptible delay.
Myo臂环由8块通过弹性橡胶相连、2英寸大小的长方块组成，可以紧贴着套在前臂上，直接与皮肤接触。臂环中的肌电图(EMG)传感器可以通过读取用户肌肉中的电活动来识别手势，还有其他传感器跟踪手臂运动。这款臂环可以在瞬间将这些信息通过蓝牙发送到配对的电脑或智能手机上。
Syncing the armband with a computer requires a special pairing gesture: start with your arm across your chest, gently flex your wrist away from your body, pause, then move the whole arm. The movement is purposely not natural to avoid accidental activation, and it took me a while to get right every time.
将这种臂环与电脑同步需要一套特殊的配对手势：首先将双臂交叉在胸前，将手腕轻轻移开身体，暂停，然后放下整个手臂。这套手势有意设计成有别于手臂的自然动作，以避免意外激活设备。每次同步，我都要花点时间才能做对姿势。
Other gestures are a mixture of the intuitive and the awkward. In place of the double-click of a mouse, you double-tap your finger and thumb together. In the slideshow presentation mode, this action replaces the basic clicker or space bar traditionally used to advance through PowerPoint or Keynote, and it works reliably well. I found it a little harder to go back a slide by cocking my wrist inwards and holding it there for a second.
其它手势有的是本能的，有的看起来也不优美。只要两根手指头触碰两下就可以取代双击鼠标的动作。在演示幻灯片时，这一动作可以取代基本的遥控器或者传统上用来浏览PowerPoint或者Keynote的空格键，而且表现相当可靠。我发现通过向内竖起手腕并保持一秒钟以回看一张幻灯片有点难度。
One might ask why, other than sci-fi show-off value, one would wish to replace a clicker with hand gestures. The Myo does add a couple of features: making a fist and rotating it anticlockwise turns on a virtual laser- pointer that can be guided around the screen just by moving your arm; turning the fist clockwise zooms into whatever you are pointing at.
有人可能会问，除了科幻小说式炫耀的价值，人们有什么理由希望用手势代替遥控器。Myo的确增加了几个功能：握拳并逆时针转动可以开启一支虚拟激光笔，然后可以通过移动手臂引导光束在屏幕上游走；顺时针转动拳头，可以将你指向的任何画面放大显示。
Overall, it is a neat trick, especially for those who like to move around the room as they give a presentation.
总的来说，这是一套很巧妙的设计，尤其是对那些喜欢边走动边演讲的人来说。
More broadly, I worry that pitching Myo as a super-clicker sells its tech short. The device can also be used to control PC applications such as video games, music and movie players, and even email, where opening and closing a fist or rotating a hand can control playback, volume or delete emails. These are fun, but not quite compelling enough to wear Myo all the time.
总的来说，我担心，将Myo定位为一款超级遥控器低估了其科技价值。这款设备也可以用来控制电脑应用，如视频游戏、音乐和电影播放器，甚至电子邮件，只要你张开或握紧拳头或者转动一只手就可以控制播放、音量或者删除电邮。这些都很有趣，但要让人始终佩戴Myo，还不够有说服力。
However, an enthusiastic developer community is coming up with new and ambitious uses all the time. The Myo can already be used to control internet-connected lightbulbs, a GoPro camera, toy robots or fly a drone.
不过，一个热情的开发者社区正在不断提出新的、重大的用途。Myo已经能够被用于控制接入互联网的灯泡、GoPro摄像机、玩具机器人或者操控无人机飞行。
It has huge potential in virtual reality, where there is a desperate need for a breakthrough input device that brings hand and arm movements into a virtual world. Demonstrations have already shown the Myo working with the Oculus Rift, Facebook’s virtual reality headset.
它在虚拟现实中有巨大潜力，这个领域亟需一种突破性的输入设备将手和手臂的运动带入虚拟世界。演示活动已经显示出，Myo可以与Facebook的虚拟现实头戴设备Oculus Rift协同工作。
Mass movement
大众市场
Stephen Lake, Thalmic Labs’ chief executive, says presentations will be a “gateway” reason for the mass market to buy Myo — not just the geeks who want to click their fingers to turn lights on or to disappear into virtual worlds.
Thalmic Labs首席执行官斯蒂芬•莱克(Stephen Lake)称，幻灯片演示将是大众市场购买Myo的“入门”原因——而不只是那些想要轻击手指即可开灯或者消失于虚拟世界的极客会购买。
I hope the marketing tactic works, because Myo’s applications are still catching up with a technology that might one day become the standard for how we will operate the internet of things.
我希望这一营销策略能够奏效，因为Myo的各种应用仍在追逐一种技术，或许有一天这种技术能成为我们操控物联网的标准。
