When it comes to gesture-control systems like Microsoft’s Kinect, some applications—like gaming—are obvious. Others—like controlling your window blinds—are less so.

Yet that’s the kind of functionality Waterloo, Ontario-based startup Thalmic Labs is hoping will be possible with its first product, an armband called Myo that’s slated to start shipping late this year to some of the company’s earliest customers.

Gesture control has come a long way since Microsoft released the Kinect in 2010—the first truly mass-market gesture-control system. With Myo (pronounced “my-oh”), Thalmic Labs hopes a slew of recently enlisted developers will take things even further by building apps enabling the device to do everything from controlling virtual-reality systems to musical instruments (these ideas, plus the aforementioned hands-free window-blind control, were suggested by developers keen to get their hands on the device).