Sitting in a mock-up, screen-studded demo zone here at CES, designed to look like the interior of a future smart car, I extended my hand to swipe through the app dashboard in front of me. But instead of touching the screen, I was using air gestures while wearing Meta's neural EMG band.
I've done this with Meta's Ray-Ban Display glasses, but now I've seen the first attempt to take Meta's wearable wristband tech, which recognizes finger gestures based on electrical signals collected from electrodes around the wristband, and decouple it from glasses completely. The demo, part of a continuing partnership with Meta and Garmin, is a proof of concept to explore how neural input bands and cars could work.
Garmin's AI-infused, multiscreen smart Unified Cabin demo setup I sat in has plenty of other ambitious features, too, but I was there to see how the band connection worked. When I spoke to Meta's CTO Andrew Bosworth last fall, he suggested the neural band released in September would eventually work to control other devices. I didn't expect a car would be the first, though.Â
Cars have been testbeds for new immersive interface ideas for years, and even though I don't cover car tech (but my colleague Antuan Goodwin, who does, demoed the experience with me), I've been curious about how screen-studded cars and hands-free or haptic ideas in them could be models of how AR glasses function safely down the road.
I found the controls a little hit-and-miss, and Garmin's demo only showed a few functions. I could use my balled-up fist and thumb swipes to scroll around, and finger pinches to open apps. I played Tetris with it -- not exactly the thing you'd first think of in a car. Garmin and Meta think the interactions could work while also holding a steering wheel, but I didn't try that.
Also, you don't need to keep your hand in the air. The whole appeal of these bands' neural sensing tech is they can be used with your hands anywhere, resting at your side if you want. I kept my hands in the air in the photos because that way you could see the band on my wrist.
Me in the passenger seat during my demo. We both wore neural bands.
The Garmin smart cabin integration supports two bands connected at once, so a driver and a passenger could control a dashboard menu to open an app or play a movie or music. I sat in the passenger seat for my demo while Kip Dondlinger, Garmin's product design and planning leader for automotive OEMs, guided me through the demos as he swiped around with a band too.
Garmin's Unified Cabin concept is meant to be a platform for other car manufacturers to integrate into their own vehicles, so this neural band connection could eventually end up in other cars if the idea takes off. I'm more into the idea of just connecting whatever peripherals I need to use with the car I drive rather than being stuck with the ones built into the car, but I'd need to see a lot more than what I demoed to be convinced it would work safely and seamlessly.
You don't need to lift your hand up to use the band: you could keep it resting by your side. I just wanted to make my hand visible for the photo.
I don't have a smart car: I have a 2012 Honda CR-V that I connect my phone to with a crappy vent clip. But I do wonder when wrist wearables, including watches, could connect and do more things with other things in the world. We already connect our phones to everything, but I expect that we'll be doing the same with watches and bands soon. And Meta's neural band, which doesn't even have a watch integration yet, needs those connections to feel like a thing I'd want to wear more often than just the times I put Ray-Ban Displays on my face.
But I'm keeping an eye on this Garmin-Meta relationship. Garmin's watches work with Meta's glasses, and if there's a watch I expect to see Meta's neural band on in the future, it would be one of Garmin's.Â
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