Facebook just recently revealed that they are working on a developement which a few years ago would never have been considered possible.
Facebook’s “direct brain interface,” a creation of its secretive Building 8 division, could take tech-enhanced communication to the next level.
Facebook is exploring a silent speech system with a team of more than 60 scientists that would let people type 100 words per minute with their brain. “What if you could type directly from your brain… with the speed and flexibility of voice and the privacy of text?” Building 8 head Regina Dugan said at the second day of Facebook’s F8 developer’s conference here.
She noted the brain contains about 86 billion neurons and is capable of producing 1 terabyte of information per second. Think of a “brain mass for augmented reality,” she said.
The brain-to-text project is a couple years away and would require new, non-invasive sensors to measure brain activity hundreds of times per second, Dugan told USA TODAY after the keynote. A speech prosthetic for people with communication disorders would likely be the first application. “This (project) could be as transformative as the (computer) mouse,” she said.
Wow Facebook, this gives us a lot to look into the future with interest.