The social media giant said the device would be able to control its augmented reality (AR) glasses – currently in development and expected to be launched this year. Wearers of the wrist band would be able to interact with the virtual world through finger movements, the company said in a blog post on the new technology.

The device, currently without a brand name, is a big step up for Facebook, in what is expected to become a hotly contested market for augmented reality devices.

A wristband would be able to serve as a platform for computing and supporting such functions, with the glasses simply acting as a display.

The interface is designed so that when working in AR users won’t be forced to choose between interacting with our devices and the real world.

Rather than dragging our attention to the periphery in the palm of our hand like our mobile phones, AR glasses will see the world exactly as we see it, the firm said.

It would do so by ‘placing people at the centre of the computing experience for the first time and bringing the digital world to us in three dimensions to help us communicate, navigate, learn, share, and take action in the world.

This is possible due to electromyography (EMG), which uses sensors to translate electrical motor nerve signals that travel through the wrist to the hand into digital commands that you can use to control the functions of a device.

This would be wrist-based input combined with usable but limited contextualised AI, which dynamically adapts to you and your environment.

According to Dailymail