Facebook works on mind-reading technology. How does it work?

Facebook has unveiled that it’s working on mind-reading wrist device. The company also plans to release an augmented reality keyboard. The keyboard would allow people to replace both mouse and keyboard in future hardware products.

This week, the Facebook Reality Labs division spoke about the prototype technologies. They even showed them off on a virtual call. The company prepared videos of the projects and played them for the audience. In the meantime, executives from the division talked about the new technologies. One of them is a new wrist device.

TR Reardon, the director of research science at Facebook Reality Labs, stated that users actually have more of their brain dedicated to controlling their wrist than any other part of their body. As a result, approximately twice as many neurons are controlling their wrist and the movement of their hands than are dedicated to their mouth for speech and feeding.

Facebook’s new wrist device can read neurological signals sent from a person’s brain down to their hands. According to the company, it should be able to read these signals to get a sense of what a person wants to do and then replicate the action virtually or in an augmented reality environment.

During the presentation, the company’s researchers demonstrated “force” actions. For example, a user could move their fingers in real life to control or hold virtual, far-away objects in augmented reality.

Facebook has chosen the name in reference to the Star Wars franchise. In the film, certain characters can use the Force to move and control objects or people that are far away from them.

What are electromyography wristbands, and how do they work?

Facebook demonstrated electromyography wristbands along with wrist devices. Customers could wear such wristbands to type on any surface, and it would work as though they were typing on a physical keyboard. While there may be no keyboard, in reality, that’s not a deterrent for writing if you have one of these devices. The EMG wristbands would be able to register the intentions of a person’s finger strokes and then jot down the letters and words.

While these products seem fabulous and quite useful, they aren’tthe only advanced technology the company works on currently.

Facebook is simultaneously preparing to release its first smart-glasses later in 2021. It will release the device in partnership with Luxottica, and it will be Ray-Ban glasses with additional perks.

While smartphones rely on touchscreens, there’s no current obvious input mechanism for Facebook’s smart glasses. But according to the company, they may also have some “mind-reading” ability.