Facebook will help people type text with their thoughts

Facebook has just announced that it will research a project that will allow users to create text directly from their brains and communicate with each other through their skin.

Regina Dugan is sharing about Facebook's ambitious project.

Facebook's F8 2017 conference has just ended. During the 2 days, there were quite a few projects that the world's largest social network is implementing. Facebook revealed that it has 60 engineers working on a brain-computer system that allows users to type with their thoughts, without having to use other parts of their body.

The team plans to use optical imaging to scan a human brain 100 times per second to detect “silent speech,” that is, thoughts in the head, and translate it into text.

It's one of the more ambitious projects from Building 8, a unit founded a year ago that has been quietly developing bold projects, scaling up hardware prototypes, covering everything from cameras and augmented reality to sci-fi-like brain scanning technology.

Facebook aims to use brain implants that have helped people type 8 words per minute and Facebook will cooperate with researchers at many universities in the US to create a "non-invasive system" that can type text directly from thoughts at a maximum speed of up to 100 words per minute.

This project, when realized, will be a useful tool for people with disabilities, including normal people who want to contact friends without touching the phone.

In addition to writing with your mind, Building 8 is also developing a system that can hear sounds through your skin. The system combines both hardware and software, turning the skin into a part that functions like the cochlea inside the ear, capable of "translating" sounds into frequencies and transmitting them to the brain.

Facebook hopes it will help deaf people hear easily without hearing aids, and without using their ears.

In December, Facebook signed an agreement with 17 universities, including Harvard and Princeton, to help advance the projects. Dugan, who was previously the director of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), is in charge of managing the project.

According to VNN