The Facebook team showed two prototypes of wristbands that use nerve signals to move through the Augmented Reality interface and control digital elements. Yes, without moving your fingers you could control an Augmented Reality interface or device using a dynamic that unfolds through your wrists. This is how Facebook wants you to interact with augmented reality in the future.
This dynamic proposed by the bracelet is based on the technique called electromyography, as explained by the Facebook team:
“EMG (electromyography) uses sensors to translate nerve signals from the electric motor traveling from the wrist to the hand into digital commands that you can use to control the functions of a device.”
And as illustrated in the video they share in the Facebook post, this wristband can interpret the electrical activity that is generated when the brain issues a command to the hand, and translate it into a digital command so that it acts in Augmented Reality.
You may not even have to move a finger, as this bracelet will read “your intentions” to perform a certain movement, because it interprets the electrical activity generated by the nerve stimulation of the wrist. You think of an action, and the device executes it for you. That means input can be effortless. Ultimately, it may even be possible to sense just the intention to move a finger.
At this early stage, it will rely on interaction generated from gesture-based movements, but they expect to go much, much further.
The idea is that any interaction with virtual interfaces can be completely controlled. And they even mention, for example, that it will be possible to type at high speed on a virtual keyboard, surpassing the dynamics we can perform on any keyboard.
For the moment, these experiments are in their early stages, so we will have to wait for further reports from Facebook to know how they evolve.
