Facebook Envisions Using Brain Waves to Type Words

Facebook’s research unit Building 8 is working to make it possible for people to type using signals from their brains, part of the lab’s broader effort to free people from their phones, according to Bloomberg.

Regina Dugan, hired from Alphabet last year to oversee the lab, said that within “a few years’ time“ Facebook aims to develop a system that can type at 100 words per minute, just from monitoring the brain, without using any kind of implant. The company is working with outside academics on the issue.

This would give “the ability to text a friend without taking out your phone or the ability to send a quick email without leaving the party,“ Dugan said at the social network operator’s F8 developer conference. The technology may not require thinking in actual letters, she said. The lab also is working on a way for people to hear through their skin.

Far-fetched as it may sound, Dugan said researchers have already found it possible to use brain waves for typing at eight words per minute. She said the power of the brain is much greater than what is translated through speech, comparing the brain’s ability versus speech to “four HD movies per second streaming over a 1980s dial-up modem.“

For Facebook, the research connects to its overall goals because it relates to improving people’s social experiences, Dugan said. It could also make it possible for those who are deaf or otherwise disabled to communicate more easily. “If we fail, it’s going to suck,“ Dugan said.