Shelly Fan in Singularity Hub:
In an iconic scene in the cyberpunk classic Minority Report, the protagonist dons specialized gloves and uses a variety of hand gestures to display and manipulate different tabs on a wall-sized screen—without ever physically touching it. Now the film’s sci-fi technology is coming to the real world. This week, Meta revealed a wristband that decodes finger movements using electrical signals in the wrist. The movements are familiar to anyone with a smartphone: Pinching, swiping, tapping, and even writing. An onboard computer translates these signals into commands on a laptop screen. Without training or calibration, users tackled a range of tests, like moving a cursor to a target, playing a Pacman-like game, and writing words and phrases—“hello world”—by drawing their index fingers across a tabletop.
Meta has long teased a muscle-reading wristband, with an early version that could translate computer clicks. The new device has broader capability. Powered by neural networks and trained on data from over 6,000 volunteers, the wristband achieved up to 90 percent accuracy in some tests. On average, participants could write roughly 21 words per minute, and they improved as they became more familiar with the device.
More here.
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