Tech players like Snap, Facebook and Neuralink are increasingly focussing on brain-computer interfaces to allow users to control smart glasses without physical touch.
Snap has acquired Paris-based neurotech startup – NextMind – to incorporate the latter’s technology into future versions of Snap’s Spectacles AR glasses. NextMind is the company behind a headband that lets wearers control aspects of a computer, like aiming a gun in a video game or unlocking the lock screen of an iPad, with their thought.
While NextMind’s first product – a headband developer kit – will be discontinued, the company’s employees will now work for Snap Lab. The acquisition is the latest in Snap’s string of AR hardware-related deals, including its purchase of AR display-maker WaveOptics last year.
Earlier in January this year, Snap had acquired another display tech company called Compound Photonics. According to a Snap spokesperson, the NextMind acquisition is more of a long-term research bet.
[3 minute read]
