Facebook Inc. agreed to acquire CTRL-Labs, a technology startup that is building software to let people control a digital avatar using only their thoughts. The world\u2019s largest social network is paying between $500 million and $1 billion, according to people familiar with the deal.<\/p>\n
The closely held four-year-old startup, which has dozens of employees and has raised tens of millions in venture capital, uses a bracelet to measure neuron activity in a subject\u2019s arm to determine movement that person is thinking about, even if they aren\u2019t physically moving. That neuron activity is then translated into movement on a digital screen. Facebook declined to comment on the price of the acquisition.<\/p>\n
Technology like CTRL-Labs\u2019s may someday be a crucial part of products like augmented reality glasses, where a user might want to control a computer without the need for buttons or a keyboard. \u201cYour hands could be in your pocket, behind you,\u201d explained Thomas Reardon, chief executive officer of CTRL-Labs, at an industry conference last December. \u201cIt\u2019s the intention [to move], not the movement\u201d itself that controls the avatar, he said.<\/p>\n
Facebook has been pushing deeper into augmented reality technology, including the development of a hands-free pair of AR glasses. In 2017, it announced a \u201cbrain-computer interface\u201d that could someday let people turn their thoughts into actual text on a screen by monitoring signals in the brain. The CTRL-Labs technology is attempting to solve a similar problem.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe wristband will decode those [neural] signals and translate them into a digital signal your device can understand,\u201d wrote Andrew Bosworth, Facebook\u2019s head of AR and virtual reality, in a post announcing the deal. \u201cIt captures your intention so you can share a photo with a friend using an imperceptible movement or just by, well, intending to.\u201d<\/p>\n
The purchase comes at a challenging time for Facebook, which is under two separate U.S. antitrust investigations. The inquiries mean any acquisition the company makes will be under intense scrutiny from regulators as they question whether Facebook is already too big and powerful.<\/p>\n
\u201cCTRL-Labs and Facebook are not competitors. Facebook does not currently have or make this technology,\u201d a Facebook spokeswoman said of the deal announced on Monday, adding that the company will work with regulators to secure any needed approvals. \u201cCTRL-Labs\u2019s technology is an innovative input that Facebook hopes will be used to significantly improve the upcoming Facebook AR\/VR experiences a few years down the road to fundamentally improve the user experience.\u201d<\/p>\n
New York-based CTRL-Labs has raised $67 million, according to Crunchbase, and has a high-profile list of investors, including Spark Capital, Google\u2019s GV, Amazon.com Inc.\u2019s Alexa Fund, and Founders Fund. CTRL-Labs employees will join Facebook\u2019s Reality Labs team, which works on AR and VR products.<\/p>\n
Facebook Inc. agreed to acquire CTRL-Labs, a technology startup that is building software to let people control a digital avatar using only their thoughts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":341034,"featured_media":221973,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_sma_x_autopost_status":"idle","_sma_x_autopost_error":"","_sma_x_post_id":"","_sma_facebook_post_id":"","_sma_instagram_post_id":"","_sma_threads_post_id":"","_sma_x_attempts":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[11925,161,40966],"class_list":["post-321043","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-technology","tag-augmented-reality","tag-facebook","tag-mind-control"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/321043"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/341034"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=321043"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/321043\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/221973"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=321043"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=321043"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mybroadband.co.za\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=321043"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}