This Paris-based Startup Snaps To Perfect Its AR Technology

JAKARTA - Snapchat's parent company Snap has just announced its acquisition of NextMind, its self-titled controller startup. This technology utilizes brain signals to transfer images on a PC interface.

It is not known in more detail how much money Snap spent to buy the Paris startup. But set NextMind to integrate into Snap Lab, the social media company's hardware research arm.

"NextMind has joined forces with Snap to help drive long-term augmented reality research efforts within the Snap Lab," Snap said on its official blog.

"Spectacles is an ever-evolving research and development project, and the latest generation is designed to support developers as they explore the technical boundaries of augmented reality (AR)."

This acquisition marks the end of the NextMind dev kit as a standalone. Tech bits from that startup are sure to make their way into Snap's future products, including AR games like Camera and Spectacles.

Founded in 2017 by a team of neuroscientists and hardware engineers, NextMind technology uses a wearable headband with a built-in electroencephalogram to detect and read neural activity in the cortex.

When a user sees an image on the screen, the headset can determine that they want to move it. Mind-controlled interfaces like this make a lot of sense for AR devices.

According to TechCrunch, Thursday, March 24, head-mounted displays, in particular, have long had controller issues, which such technology can solve.

“This technology monitors neural activity to understand your intent as it interacts with a computing interface, allowing you to press virtual buttons simply by focusing them. This technology doesn't 'read' minds or send any signals to the brain," Snap said.

It is claimed the team will continue to work out of Paris, with its 20 employees (mostly technical), and focusing on long-term research and development.

Earlier in May last year, Snap bought WaveOptics, making components used in AR headsets. That same month, the company previewed the fourth-generation Spectacles, which it called the first glasses to bring an AR system to life.