Facebook gives peek inside unit studying brain-to-text technology

Regina Dugan, vice president of engineering of Building 8 at Facebook, speaks on stage during the second day of the annual Facebook F8 developers conference in San Jose, California, US, April 19, 2017. [Photo/Agencies]

Using brain implants, people can already type eight words a minute, she said. Facebook's goal, working with researchers at several US universities, is to make the system non-invasive, as well as fast enough so that people can type 100 words a minute just by thinking.

Possible uses include helping disabled people and "the ability to text your friend without taking out your phone," she said.

Another Building 8 project, she said, was trying to advance the ability to communicate through touch only, an idea with roots in Braille, a writing system for the blind and visually impaired.

A video played at the conference showed two Facebook employees talking to each other through touch. As one employee, Frances, wore an electronic device on her arm, the other, Freddy, used a computer program to send pressure changes to her arm.

"If you ask Frances what she feels," Dugan said, "she'll tell you that she has learned to feel the acoustic shape of a word on her arm."

In December, Facebook signed a deal with 17 universities including Harvard and Princeton to allow swifter collaboration on projects with Dugan's team.

Reuters