Facebook has unveiled its mental reading wrist device and an augmented reality keyboard that would allow users to replace the mouse and keyboard in future hardware products.
This week, the company’s Facebook Reality Labs division has showcased the technology prototype in a virtual call with members of the media. Division executives talked about the technologies while playing videos of the projects to the public.
The wrist device is able to read up to the hands the neurological signals sent from the brains of the users. Theoretically, you could read these signals to get an idea of what a user wants to do and replicate the action in a virtual or augmented reality environment.
“In fact, you have more brain dedicated to controlling your wrist than any other part of your body, probably twice as many neurons that control your wrist and the movement of your hands as you do to your mouth to feed and talk,” he said. to say. TR Reardon, director of research science at Facebook Reality Labs.
Facebook researchers demonstrated “force” actions where a user could pinch their fingers in real life to hold and control virtual and distant objects in augmented reality. The name of the action is a reference to the Star Wars franchise, where certain characters can use the Force to control and move people or objects away from them.
In addition, the company demonstrated electromyography bracelets that users could wear to type on any surface as if they were typing on a physical keyboard. Although there is no keyboard, the EMG bracelets would record the intentions of the user’s fingerprints and write down the letters and words.
The development of these technologies by Facebook comes as the company prepares to launch its first smart glasses later this year. This device will be Ray-Ban glasses and will be launched in collaboration with Luxottica.
Unlike smartphones, which rely on touch screens or Oculus virtual reality headsets, which rely on handheld controllers, there is no obvious input mechanism for smart glasses. That’s why Facebook is working on these projects.
Asked how rarely these technologies can reach the public, Facebook technical director Mike Schroepfer said they are in the early stages of development.
“It’s hard to predict their timeline,” Schroepfer said. “How these things appear in the market, when they appear, are things to which I have no clear answers. What we focus on is hardening these technologies.”