Sang-won Leigh, Pattie Maes

Abstract

Physical interfaces with actuation capability enable the design of wearable devices that augment human physical capabilities. Extra machine joints integrated to our biological body may allow us to achieve additional skills through programmatic reconfiguration of the joints. To that end, we present a wearable multi-joint interface that offers "synergistic interactions" by providing additional fingers, structural supports, and physical user interfaces. Motions of the machine joints can be controlled via interfacing with our muscle signals, as a direct extension of our body. On the basis of implemented applications, we demonstrate our design guidelines for creating a desirable human-machine synergy -- that enhances our innate capabilities, not replacing or obstructing, and also without enforcing the augmentation. Finally we describe technical details of our muscle-based control method and implementations of the presented applications.