FACEBOOK BUYS STARTUP WORKING ON MIND-CONTROL OF MACHINES

Facebook on Monday said it had made a deal to buy a startup working on ways to command computers or other devices using thought instead of taps, swipes, or keystrokes.

CTRL-labs will become part of Facebook Reality Labs with an aim at perfecting the technology and getting it into consumer products, according to Andrew Bosworth, vice president of augmented and virtual reality at the California-based social network.

The wristband will translate impulses into signals a device can comprehend, having thoughts rather than mouse clicks or button presses prompt actions on computers, according to Facebook.

Facebook did not disclose financial terms of the deal to buy New York-based CTRL-labs, but CNBC said that the deal was valued at $1 billion.

In Early 2017, Facebook announced projects aimed at allowing users to use their minds to type messages or their skin to hear words.

Such brain-computer interface technology currently involves implanting electrodes, but Facebook wanted to use sensors that could be worn to eliminate the need to surgically intrude on the brain.

Such technology could for example let people fire off text messages or emails by thinking, instead of needing to interrupt what they are doing to use smartphone touchscreens.

Technology like this has the potential to open up new creative possibilities and reimagine 19th century inventions in a 21st century world.

— ANDREW BOSWORTH, VP (Augmented and Virtual Reality), Facebook