Facebook Wants To Read Your Mind (And Replace Your Keyboard)

Have you seen a targeted ad on Facebook and thought to yourself, “It’s like they’re reading my mind?” The social media behemoth wants to take things a step further.

Facebook this week unveiled a new wrist device that it says can read the neurological signals sent from the user’s brain to their hands.

As reported by CNBC, this device could — in theory — read these signals to get an idea of what the user wants to do and replicate that movement in a virtual reality/augmented reality setting.

“You actually have more of your brain dedicated to controlling your wrist than any other part of your body, probably twice as many neurons controlling your wrist and the movement of your hands than is actually dedicated to your mouth for feeding and for speech,” said TR Reardon, director of research science at Facebook Reality Labs.

According to CNBC, the Facebook team demonstrated the device on a video call for members of the media, using “Force” actions — like in the “Star Wars” movies — where users could make pinching motions in real life and move far away objects in augmented reality.

Also this week, Facebook debuted an augmented reality keyboard it said could replace the mouse and keyboard in future products.

Similar to the mind-reading device, these electromyography wristbands would let you type on any surface as though it was a keyboard. The wristbands would register the intentions of your finger movements and write down the letters/words.

Facebook is committed to the idea of mind-reading wearables, to the point where the company has invested between $500 million to $1 billion to acquire the New York startup CTRL-labs.

“The goal is to eventually make it so that you can think something and control something in virtual or augmented reality,” Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg noted in a conversation with Dr. Joe DeRisi and Dr. Steve Quake of the Chan Zuckerberg Biohub, a Bay Area-based research center backed by the Facebook CEO and his wife, Priscilla Chan.

Currently under development is a wristband that will allow people to control devices based on signals from their spinal cord. Zuckerberg noted that the wristband could be the key to a truly hands-free experience someday.