After the convergence of IT and Telecom, another era of convergence is emerging very fast and that is AI and IoT with the existing one. The connected devices are getting to know so many things about us like, a phone that can unlock a hotel room door and a smartwatch that can call an Uber.
Similarly, a connected car that can not only help the driver find the closest burger joint, but can also order ahead. A voice assistant that can add stuff to a shopping list and then order and arrange for its delivery. These are the same devices that learn what a consumer likes to eat, where they like to go, where they shop and what, when and how often they make purchases.
Wearables take that to another level. By their very nature, they are intended to have an up-close-and-personal relationship with their owners. Wearables don’t only get to know what a consumer does – in some cases, they even come to understand the inner workings of their hearts.
But would consumers feel the same way if their wearable could also literally read their mind – Mark Zuckerberg, CEO, Facebook spent a billion dollars to understand the future on advance computing/brain computing ,which is called Facebook mind-reading machine, after investing heavily into CTRL-lab’s.
The news comes after Facebook purchased brain-computer interface startup CTRL-labs for nearly a billion dollars in September. The startup was developing a bracelet that allowed users to control virtual avatars with brain activity alone. With this,Facebook aims to access information about its users not just through their smartphones and computers, but directly from their brains as well.
The brain-signal reading device that doesn’t require invasive surgery. A startup has developed a special bracelet that allowed users to control virtual avatars with brain activity alone — a new category of input device that doesn’t rely on a keyboard or mouse.
CTRL-lab’s bracelet isn’t quite as ambitious as that. It technically isn’t able to read your thoughts — it rather detects tiny electrical impulses from muscle fibers in, say, your arm, and translates those signals into movement on a screen.
In a recent interview at Harvard University with Harvard law school professor Jonathan Zittrain, Zuckerberg bragged about technology the social giant is working on that could one day allow users to navigate menus or even type using their minds alone, Wired reports.
When Zittrain challenged Zuckerberg on the invasiveness and ethical implications of a Facebook mind-reading machine, the Silicon Valley CEO had a simple answer: “presumably, this would be something that someone would choose to use as a product.”
As per the report, Facebook may one day pair the tech with either augmented or virtual reality glasses.
Facebook has been working on its own brain-computer interface for a number of years now. First announced at its F8 conference in 2017, the non-invasive wearable device is meant to one day allow users to type by simply imagining themselves talking.
Mark Zuckerberg reiterated that the social network is still hoping to oneday release a brain-controlled wearable that replaces the mouse and keyboard with your brain activity, “The goal is to eventually make it so that you can think something and control something in virtual or augmented reality,” said Zuckerberg. The non-invasive wearable device is meant to one day allow users to type by simply imagining themselves talking.
But the technology is still in its very early stages and the reality, according to Zuckerberg, is that wearables that only touch the surface of your skin will likely be limited in functionality.
“I have enough neural capacity in my motor neurons to probably control another extra hand, it’s just a matter of training that and then they can pick up those signals off of the wrist,” Zuckerberg said. “But if your ability to translate things that are going on in your brain into motor activity is limited then you need something implanted.” The report says.
