Facebook Inc. is developing a smart wristband that it says could one day allow users to perform tasks such as placing e-commerce orders by making hand gestures in the air.

The wristband, detailed today, is part of a broader project by the social network to create augmented reality glasses suitable for everyday use. Facebook argues that such glasses will require the ability not only to display content but to give users an easy way to interact with that content. Furthermore, it believes that traditional input devices such as keywords aren’t convenient enough for the task. 

Facebook’s prototype wristband (pictured) uses a technique known as electromyography to measure motor nerve signals that travel through the user’s wrist and turn them into input for AR glasses. The technology, Facebook says, can detect finger motions as small as one millimeter. 

“What we’re trying to do with neural interfaces is to let you control the machine directly, using the output of the peripheral nervous system,” stated Thomas Reardon, the director of neuromotor interfaces at Facebook’s Facebook Reality Labs unit, which developed the device.

The social network says that the technology will at first only support simple commands, such as a hand gesture that launches an app or sets a virtual timer displayed on the AR glasses’ lens. The next step will be allowing users to navigate complex interface menus and move virtual objects. Eventually, the researchers at Facebook Reality Labs hope, the technology will become advanced enough to let users type in the air with no need for a keyboard.

For some of the more complex use cases it envisions, Facebook intends to develop artificial intelligence models to go along the wristband. The plan is that the AI models will learn how each user interacts with their AR glasses and optimize interface menus accordingly to streamline navigation. 

“Rather than constantly diverting your attention back to a device, the interface should simply come in and out of focus when you need it,” explained Tanya Jonker, Facebook Reality Labs’ research science manager. “And it should be able to regulate its behavior based on your very, very lightweight feedback to the system about the utility of its suggestions to you so that the entire system improves over time.”

Facebook last year disclosed plans to introduce its first AR glasses in 2021. It’s possible the social network might look to release a commercial version of the wristband it debuted today alongside the device.

Image: Facebook