Facebook acquires tech company CTRL-labs to join Reality Labs team
The future is now for Facebook.
Andrew Bosworth, Vice President of Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality for Facebook announced today that the social media company has acquired CTRL-labs in an attempt to, “change the way we connect.”
“We spend a lot of time trying to get our technology to do what we want rather than enjoying the people around us,” Bosworth said in his statement on his Facebook page.
Facebook hopes the addition of the new tech firm will help users better interact with technology. “We know there are more natural, intuitive ways to interact with devices and technology. And we want to build them. It’s why we’ve agreed to acquire CTRL-labs,” Bosworth says.
Augmented reality usually uses a smartphone camera and adds digital elements to a live view while virtual reality relies on complete immersion into an experience that attempts to remove the participant from the physical real world. CTRL-labs will bring its AR & VR tech to Facebook to help the company on its mission to improve the world.
“They will be joining our Facebook Reality Labs team where we hope to build this kind of technology, at scale, and get it into consumer products faster,” says Bosworth.
Thomas Reardon, CEO and Co-Founder at CTRL-labs is from New Hampshire and studied neuroscience and neurobiology engineer at Columbia University. The new acquisition sets up Facebook to attempt to create some amazing offerings using his technology.
“The vision for this work is a wristband that lets people control their devices as a natural extension of movement,” says Bosworth.
The way Bosworth explains how it all works makes everything sound like something from a JJ Abrams sci-fi movie. “You have neurons in your spinal cord that send electrical signals to your hand muscles telling them to move in specific ways such as to click a mouse or press a button.
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“The wristband will decode those signals and translate them into a digital signal your device can understand, empowering you with control over your digital life. It captures your intention so you can share a photo with a friend using an imperceptible movement or just by, well, intending to.”
Bosworth did not mention what Facebook may have paid to acquire the new tech company however Mark Zuckerberg’s social media giant enjoys a net worth is about $72 billion dollars.
