Facebook's Latest Purchase Gets Inside Users' Heads—Literally
Facebook is often accused of getting inside its user’s heads. On Monday, it bought a company that will literally allow it to access your brain—but only so you can control devices.
The startup it purchased is CTRL-Labs (pronounced “Control” labs), a four-year-old company that uses a mix of machine learning and neuroscience to allow people to manipulate computer interfaces simply by brainpower.
“It captures your intention so you can share a photo with a friend using an imperceptible movement or just by, well, intending to,” says Facebook’s VP of AR/VR Andrew Bosworth in a statement about the company’s new toy. CTRL-Labs has the potential to be a transformative interface to virtual- and augmented-reality devices—think of the technology as a front end to Oculus. It also might be the way we type and swipe with our phones in the future.
CTRL-labs is among several companies trying to connect the brain to a machine, and considered a pragmatic one. It was co-founded by Thomas Reardon, who created the project that became Internet Explorer, Microsoft’s first web browser, and then left technology for a spell to get a PhD in neuroscience. His cofounder is neuroscientist Patrick Kaifosh.
