Meta's Reality labs has published new research which could transform the smartwatches of the future.
It uses neural recognition to understand movements in your hands and convert that into actions and gestures.
If you've been an avid follower of the smartwatch space for a while, you'd be forgiven for thinking that the innovation was starting to dry up. While new sensors and health tracking capabilities are useful for certain users, others might be left feeling like things have slowed down somewhat.
Fortunately, that's not the case. There's a new slew of technology in the making which could absolutely revolutionise how we use wrist-mounted devices.
Coming from Meta's Reality Labs, the research uses micro-movements in our hands to control certain parameters within the watch itself. That can detect, for example, movements in each of your individual fingers and thumbs, which would allow for macro levels of control.
It's not entirely alone, either. We've already seen Apple introduce its Double Tap feature on models like the Apple Watch Ultra 2, which works on a similar idea – tracking movements and changes in blood flow to recognise when the action has been undertaken.
The Meta technology goes even further, though, with trackers seen around the band allowing the device to recognise a wider range of motion. That includes things like tapping, swiping and pinching, with a high degree of accuracy.
So, what kind of features can you expect? Well, one which really caught my eye was handwriting recognition, where users can use a finger like a pen to jot things down. If it works well, that could kill off your iPad altogether.
The video shown on the Meta blog post also shows the wrist acting like a mouse and controlling a cursor, and even using different gestures to control a game of Pac-Man. I love the idea of playing something like Guitar Hero with this – no controller required!
Of course, as a relatively rudimentary piece of tech right now, there's no word on when we might start to see this integrated further. Meta says it has been used in conjunction with its Project Orion smart glasses, which is another really exciting prospect. For now, then, we'll just have to keep our eyes peeled and our hopes up.
