SAN JOSE — Facebook wants to make it possible to type out a text message when the words pop up in your mind and “hear” language from the vibrations felt on our skin, moonshot projects that could transform the way people communicate in the future. “What if you could type directly from your brain? It sounds impossible but it’s closer than you may realize,” said Regina Dugan, who leads a team at Building 8, the company’s research lab, during a speech at Facebook’s developer conference. The tech firm has a goal of creating a silent speech system that can type 100 words per minute straight from your brain and is five times faster than you can type from your smartphone. People talking to a friend or family member face to face would no longer need to interrupt a conversation by picking up their smartphone to send a message. Showing a video of a patient with ALS, a neurodegenerative disease, Dugan pointed out thatscientists have already found a way to do thisbut it requires surgery where electrodes are implanted into the brain. But the system that Facebook hopes to build wouldn’t be invasive, relying instead on the use of sensors. http://www.mercurynews.com/2017/04/...g-from-your-brain-and-hearing-with-your-skin/
Facebook's Building 8 creates tech that lets you hear through your skin Regina Dugan, the leader of Facebook's secretive Building 8 hardware research group, Wednesday provided the first official hints about what her organization has been working on. Dugan joined Facebook last year after spending four years at Google, where she was chief of the company's Advanced Technologies and Projects group. (Venture Beat)