Facebook to buy startup that controls computers with the mind

In a bid for users to effect communication with one another, the world’s largest social network, Facebook on Monday, 23 September, 2019, has revealed its plans to purchase a neurotechnology startup, CTRL-labs, currently building a wristband that translates movement and the wearer’s neural impulses into digital input signals.

Facebook, who first mentioned in 2017 that it was working on a computer-brain interface that would let users type words and send messages using only their brains, decided to acquire the New York-based CTRL-labs, after they saw that the startup could help the social network turn the vision into reality.

CTRL-lab, currently has been working on a wristband that “decodes” the electrical signals that neurons in the spinal cord sends to hand muscles to tell the hands, to move in a specific way, without having to touch a screen or keyboard.

The idea of incorporating this hi-tech device for effective communication came about, when the company realized that users spent more time operating a technology, instead of spending time with their loved ones and people around them, hence the search for devising more intuitive methods to interact with devices and technology without jeopardizing their relationship with others.

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According to Facebook’s Vice President of Augmented and Virtual Reality, Andrew “Boz” Bosworth, “We spend a lot of time trying to get our technology to do what we want rather than enjoying the people around us,”

. “We know there are more natural intuitive ways to interact with devices and technology,” he said.

“If Facebook’s could achieve this plan, the technology will make it very easy to send photos or post messages on the social network without lifting a finger,”

“It captures your intention so you can share a photo with a friend using an imperceptible movement or just by, well, intending to,” Bosworth said. 

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It is not certain how CTRL-labs will fit in with future Facebook VR and AR products, but employees from the startup will be part of Facebook Reality Labs. The lab is run by Bosworth and Michael Abrash, the chief scientist of the Facebook-owned VR company Oculus.

However, accessibility is a clear goal, since CTRL-labs’ technology can sense intention before any movement is even made.

Facebook didn’t say how much it paid to acquire CTRL-labs or when the wristband could be ready. 

However, CBCN reports that the deal is worth around $1 billion and is the most substantial acquisition Facebook has made in the last half decade, since it paid $2 billion to acquire virtual reality company Oculus VR in 2014.

It also marks a substantial increase in investment in Facebook’s growing hardware ambitions, as the CTRL-Labs tech will be put to use in future augmented and virtual reality projects at the social network.