Mark Zuckerberg teases wearable tech with neural interface in Facebook post

PARIS (Reuters) – Meta Platforms Inc’s chief executive, Mark Zuckerberg, on Wednesday teased a new smart glasses project with EssilorLuxottica, posting a photo of the eyewear company’s chairman sporting a prototype of a neural interface wristband – designed for directing other devices.

“Here Leonardo is using a prototype of our neural interface EMG [electromyography] wristband that will eventually let you control your glasses and other devices,” Zuckerberg said in a post on Facebook, referring to EssilorLuxottica’s chairman, Leonardo Del Vecchio. He closed his message with a smiley-face emoji wearing sunglasses.

Facebook – which changed its name to Meta Platforms in October – said in a blog post last year that it planned to develop a wristband that would control augmented reality glasses, allowing users to interact with a virtual world using finger movements.

Zuckerberg was in Milan to discuss plans for new smart glasses with the eyewear company, he said.

Tech companies Amazon.com Inc, Apple Inc and Alphabet Inc’s Google have piled in to the wearable tech business, developing augmented reality glasses in a bet they could one day replace mobile phones. Google also embraced fitness tracking technology by acquiring Fitbit for $2.1 billion.

In 2020, EssilorLuxottica and Meta Platforms announced a multiyear collaboration to develop smart glasses. They currently sell frames like the classic Ray-Ban Wayfarer model that are embedded with technology, allowing the wearer to take photos and listen to music and calls, starting at $299.

(Reporting by Mimosa Spencer in Paris; Editing by Matthew Lewis)