Neuroscience team Facebook (((NASDAQ: FB) Recently, stroke victims have regained their ability to speak using a brain-computer interface headset. The person just tried to speak, and the interface translated the brain’s intention into words, for the first time in history. Shortly after the investigation ended, Facebook announced in a press release that the team was focusing its efforts away from technology, but would open up source software and hardware for external development.

Currently, Facebook neuroscientists are paying attention to neural interfaces on the wrist (that is, bracelets capable of reading neural signals) for use in VR and AR. Even though the neural interface worn on the wrist has a shorter time-to-market than a headset, it’s difficult to convince consumers to actually buy the product, especially from Facebook. However, the company cannot realize the Metaverse vision without bringing a portable interface to the mass market.

Wearables are part of Facebook’s Metaverse puzzle

Facebook’s vision for the metaverse is an interactive shared digital world that can be thought of as “the Internet embodied”. Facebook is a big believer, so we aim to be known as a long-term metaverse business, not a social network. About Interview with Mark Zuckerberg.

In a post on Facebook, Andrew Bosworth, Facebook’s vice president for Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality, announced that the company will form a new management team dedicated to building the Metaverse. According to Bosworth, Facebook must “build a connective tissue” between the digital and physical worlds to push the boundaries of physics and move easily in the digital world before the vision of the metaverse can be realized. I have.

Facebook has a clear plan to make this connective tissue a portable interface for the head, wrists, etc. The company’s press release on Refocusing Priorities in Neural Interface Development says it intends to use a wrist-based interface. For intuitive AR / VR input. That’s why the company’s brain-computer interface was developed with a long-term perspective, while the wrist-based interface is designed directly for consumers.

Facebook’s only barrier to success in the metaverse: trust

Facebook Before the Game In the arena of AR / VR technology, the development of wearable neural interfaces is nothing but cutting edge technology. That doesn’t necessarily mean consumers are ready to open their wallets and keep their Facebook machines in mind.

of Business internFacebook, Facebook’s latest digital trust survey, ranked last among the nine largest social media platforms in the United States for recognized digital data privacy. A more specific recent survey of more than 2,000 American adults by Morning Brew and Harris Poll, where consumers saw AR / VR devices, further discouraged Facebook’s aspirations to Metaverse. Apple, Google, Samsung, Amazon, also Microsoft From Facebook.

Given this consumer sentiment, bringing the brain-machine interface to market is a very risky concept for the company, at least for now. The company’s wrist interface is a good introduction to Metaverse for use with Oculus VR headsets and, in some cases, AR glasses (currently in development as Project Aria).

How Facebook is driving consumers into the metaverse

Facebook is Powerful Growth Action With unmatched networking benefits and cutting edge technology, long term investments are guaranteed for a variety of reasons. That said, every business has its weaknesses. The weakness of Facebook is the public image, which can slow down or hinder the deployment of technologies developed by Facebook. The longer it takes for an average person to adopt a Metaverse compatible technology, the easier it will be for Big Tech’s competitors to beat Facebook.

One way Facebook can deal with negative consumer sentiment in the short term is to focus on the Oculus brand instead of the Facebook brand for metaverse material. This includes, but is not limited to, not requiring a Facebook account login to access. Metaverse via the Oculus device. Brands are important when a product hits the mass market, and many consumers find it easier to use Oculus hardware and interact with the Oculus digital world than to use the same Facebook product.

Most tech-savvy investors will soon associate the Oculus brand with Facebook, but many consumers won’t. Pew Research’s 2019 survey found that WhatsApp and Instagram were launched by Facebook a few years after the acquisition. It turns out that only 29% of Americans can be identified as belonging. Ended.

In the long term, Facebook will strive to improve users’ ability to control data collection settings, educate users on how and why data is collected, and to prevent data breaches and contrary data collection. ethics. In doing so, we must regain the public’s trust in the right way. The infamous Cambridge Analytica political scandal. Otherwise, its reputation will lie firmly between its Metaverse technology and the mainstream.