Facebook developing tech to allow users to type with their brains
- Auteur:Ella Cai
- Relâchez le:2017-04-21
Facebook has revealed that it is developing technology to allow people to type directly to their phones using just their thoughts.
The social media giant has built a team of 60 people, including machine learning and neural prosthetics experts, to develop the system within its Building 8 unit, which focuses on building new hardware products.
Under the plans, Facebook hopes to build a system that will allow its users to type into its smartphone simply by thinking the words.
It is hoped that this will allow users to type at up to 100 words per minute, compared to the 20 words per minute speed that is typical for smartphone users – while spending less time being distracted from the real people in front of them.
The technology could also contribute to Facebook’s plans to move further into augmented reality applications.
The plans were unveiled yesterday (Wednesday 19 April) at Facebook’s annual F8 developer conference.
Speaking at the conference, Regina Dugan, who heads up Building 8, said the smartphone “has cost us something”.
“It has allowed us to connect with people far away from us, too often at the expense of people sitting right next to us.
“We know intuitively and from experience that we’d all be better off if we looked up a little more often.”
In principle, the system would work using non-invasive sensors that can measure brain activity hundreds of times per second in order to decode brain signals related to language in real time. Dugan was categorical that the system would not involve implants as such an approach would not be scalable.
Facebook is currently recruiting a brain-computer interface engineer and a neural imaging engineer to work on the project alongside the team already in place.
Elsewhere at the conference, Facebook revealed a range of plans around hardware development and connectivity around the world.
One was an “instant-infrastructure” plan that would involve a helicopter, or Tether-tenna, being tethered to the ground and used to provide internet access in the event of natural disasters.
Another is the Terragraph, a high-speed and low-cost wireless network that will replace fibre in big cities and is being trialled in San Jose, California.
The social media giant has built a team of 60 people, including machine learning and neural prosthetics experts, to develop the system within its Building 8 unit, which focuses on building new hardware products.
Under the plans, Facebook hopes to build a system that will allow its users to type into its smartphone simply by thinking the words.
It is hoped that this will allow users to type at up to 100 words per minute, compared to the 20 words per minute speed that is typical for smartphone users – while spending less time being distracted from the real people in front of them.
The technology could also contribute to Facebook’s plans to move further into augmented reality applications.
The plans were unveiled yesterday (Wednesday 19 April) at Facebook’s annual F8 developer conference.
Speaking at the conference, Regina Dugan, who heads up Building 8, said the smartphone “has cost us something”.
“It has allowed us to connect with people far away from us, too often at the expense of people sitting right next to us.
“We know intuitively and from experience that we’d all be better off if we looked up a little more often.”
In principle, the system would work using non-invasive sensors that can measure brain activity hundreds of times per second in order to decode brain signals related to language in real time. Dugan was categorical that the system would not involve implants as such an approach would not be scalable.
Facebook is currently recruiting a brain-computer interface engineer and a neural imaging engineer to work on the project alongside the team already in place.
Elsewhere at the conference, Facebook revealed a range of plans around hardware development and connectivity around the world.
One was an “instant-infrastructure” plan that would involve a helicopter, or Tether-tenna, being tethered to the ground and used to provide internet access in the event of natural disasters.
Another is the Terragraph, a high-speed and low-cost wireless network that will replace fibre in big cities and is being trialled in San Jose, California.
