Put All the Things in the Palm of Your Hand

There are certain all-in-one tools that you just have to have if your interests align with its purposes. A camper’s backpack simply is not complete without a Swiss Army knife, for instance. Similarly, if you are into wireless hijinks or pentesting, a Flipper Zero is a must-have device. Is there anything similar for engineers interested in robotics, artificial intelligence, and novel human-machine interfaces? There is no question that there are many dozens of things people in this area need, but what about an all-in-one style tool?

For interests this broad, no single tool can truly be an all-in-one solution, but an open source, DIY smart glove alternative called LASK5, created by YouTuber TURFPTAx, may not be too far off. This device is part of the OpenMuscle project, which seeks to create better prosthetic sensors and interfaces. And this tool helps achieve those goals by collecting and labeling precision finger movement data for training machine learning algorithms, or supplying a unique platform for the control of external devices.

TURFPTAx built this unique platform after getting fed up with smart gloves that are ill-fitting, inaccurate, and difficult to use. It is built around a finger exercising device, which has springs and plungers that provide mechanical resistance when pressed by the fingers. An ESP32-S3 development board and Hall effect sensors were added to capture precise measurements of finger movement. An analog thumbstick, OLED display, and four buttons make the tool more versatile, especially when it comes to controlling external devices. The software is written in MicroPython to make LASK5 easy to modify.

It was shown that LASK5 can be used in a very intuitive way to control a robotic hand. TURFPTAx also used it to control a custom LED dodecahedron that he had previously made. And when you are tired of controlling these devices yourself and want them to learn to do their jobs on their own, LASK5 can be used to rapidly collect large amounts of training data for a machine learning model.

All of the hardware design files and software has been made freely available on GitHub. If you are looking for a fun weekend project that will help to support your future weekend projects for years to come, then LASK5 might be just what you have been waiting for.

Building LASK5 has been a long journey. If you want to dive into the system's history to understand how it became what it is today, you might enjoy taking a look at the design of the first version.