Facebook is working on tech to let you type with your brain and 'hear with your skin' (FB)

pulse

April 19, 2017 7:23 PM

Facebook is working on futuristic technology that will let people type using only brain waves the understand thoughts through only skin contact.

mark zuckerberg

Facebook wants to let you type with your thoughts and "hear with your skin."

The social network is working on brain-computer-interface technology that "one day will let you communicate using only your mind," according to CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

The project is part of Facebook's consumer hardware lab known as Building 8, as Business Insider first reported in January. Little had been publicly revealed about Building 8 until Wednesday, when Facebook took the wraps off the division's first two projects at its annual developers conference in San Jose, California.

Building 8 chief Regina Dugan said her team of 60 scientists was working on a noninvasive system capable of typing 100 words per minute using only brain waves. An even more futuristic project intends to deliver spoken language through human skin.

The goal is to be able to think in Mandarin and feel in Spanish, according to Dugan, who joined Facebook last year from Google's advanced projects division.

Silent speech interfaces

The projects are still a ways off from becoming actual products, but Facebook believes they eventually will be.

"Eventually, we want to turn it into a wearable technology that can be manufactured at scale," Zuckerberg said in a blog post on Wednesday.

Dugan, in her own Facebook post, described both of the projects as "silent speech interfaces," which she said would offer the convenience of speaking with your voice but the privacy of sending a text message.

The skin project is aiming to replace the

"You take many photos, you choose to share some of them,” she said. “Similarly, you have many thoughts and you choose to share some of them.”

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