Mark Zuckerberg teases wearable tech with neural interface in Facebook post By Reuters

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 (NASDAQ:), 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 (NASDAQ:), Apple Inc (NASDAQ:) and Alphabet (NASDAQ:) 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 (NYSE:) 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.