Facebook just spewed nearly $ 1 billion for a company that makes brain-reading bracelets

Andrew Bosworth, Head of Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality on Facebook, officially announced the announcement of this acquisition on Facebook – you guessed it – yesterday, and revealed that the startup would join the company. Facebook team Reality Labs in the hope of accelerating its development and availability for consumers. Sources close to the case told CNBC that the deal was worth between $ 500 million and $ 1 billion, although a spokesman for Facebook claimed that it was actually less than $ 1 billion.

So, what does Facebook intend to do with CTRL-Labs technology? One of the last barriers to reducing the size, usability and usability of smart devices is to allow users to interact and make them work. Typing on a smartphone screen and on the software keyboard works very well, but like some companies, Facebook wants smart glasses to replace phones and tablets. Typing on a goal with your fingers is simply not a solution.

Voice assistants have come a long way and will undoubtedly become an essential means of interacting with wearable devices such as smart glasses, but people are not always comfortable talking to their technician in public. Would you like to remind your smart specifications to add "toilet diver" to your shopping list when you are among your colleagues? There are alternatives to voice commands, including technologies such as eye tracking, but the only solution is to simply think of what you want to do with a device.

CTRL-Labs is working on this project. That partly explains why Facebook wants to raise nearly a billion dollars to make it a reality. The device, which could possibly be integrated with something as subtle as a smart watch, detects electrical signals sent from the brain, through your spinal cord, and possibly your hands and fingers , asking them to manipulate a mouse, a keyboard or even a touch screen. These signals are intercepted, decoded, and translated into commands that can be understood by a device. So just think of typing to send a message.

If Facebook manages to fully realize this technology, it would be a huge selling point for its supposed smart glasses. But other companies, such as Thalmic Labs, which created the MYO armband, ended up abandoning their search for similar technology. MYO sold its patents to CTRL-Labs earlier this year before being renamed North and developing its augmented reality smart glasses Focals. This does not necessarily mean that a wristwatch is not a feasible technology, however. If a company has enough money to spend on R & D to get there, it's Facebook.