Facebook Doubles Down on Virtual Reality with CTRL-Labs Acquisition

As federal and state regulators ramp up multiple investigations of Facebook, the social media giant has invested hundreds of millions of dollars in virtual realityOpens a new window technology that could eventually allow us to control computers with our thoughts.

The San Francisco-based conglomerate this week announced the purchase of CTRL-Labs, a start-up that’s developing a wristband that can translate the central nervous system’s rhythmic patterns of neural activity into digital commands.

Here’s how it works: The tech measures the electrical signals that travel from the spinal cord to your hand muscles and orders the hand to perform a specific task, like moving a mouse. The wristband is the control center, and it decodes the brainwaves and translates the information into a digital signal that your computer can understand.

“It captures your intention,” writesOpens a new window Andrew Bosworth, a Facebook vice president, “so you can share a photo with a friend using an imperceptible movement or just by, well, intending to. It can change the way we connect.”

A high price for the tech

And if that sounds futuristic, consider that the technology has been developed to the extent that Facebook paid between $500 million and $1 billion for the four-year-old start-up, according to multiple reports.

The purchase is expected to complement Facebook’s 2014 acquisition of Oculus which made virtual realityOpens a new window headsets for gaming and provided Facebook an entry into the virtual reality sector.

The reputations of the foundersOpens a new window of CTRL-labs and the company’s progress on neuron activity suggests that Facebook picked the appropriate company to develop the technology.

“CTRL-labs is among several companies trying to connect the brain to a machine, and (is) considered a pragmatic one,” Wired Magazine reportsOpens a new window . “CTRL-Labs has the potential to be a transformative interface to virtual- and augmented-reality devices – think of the technology as a front end to Oculus. It also might be the way we type and swipe with our phones in the future.”

Building on robotics patents

The technology builds on the patents that CTRL-Labs bought which use robotics to control motion and gestures. CTRL-Labs has made the patents the basis for research to advance its ElectromyographyOpens a new window  or EMG, sensor technology.

But CTRL-Labs is not close to commercial production of EMG tech. In fact, the product remains in its infancy. Much research needs to be done, and economic considerations, including whether it can be produced in a cost-effective manner, still must be resolved.

The start-up’s acquisition by Facebook may raise even more red flags for state and federal government officials who have grown nervous about the clout wielded by tech companies and their potential to monitor and control the public.

Facebook already is facing antitrust investigations by four states, including New York, and the District of Columbia. The state inquiries coincide with bipartisan scrutiny of Facebook, Google, Amazon and Apple in Washington by House and Senate committees, the Justice Department and the Federal Trade Commission. Facebook, for one, is accused of stifling competition by acquiring potential rivals.

The CTRL-Labs acquisition stands to drag Facebook into even more intensive scrutiny from regulators across the United States as they question whether the social media network has grown too big, too rich and too powerful — and whether it’s too late to rein it in.