來源：譯言
2017年4月19日，臉書在其年度F8開發(fā)者大會上透露，該公司成立了一個60名工程師的團隊，正在研制無需侵入式植入讓人僅用意念就可以打字的腦機接口......
臉書正在研制腦機接口，有望實現(xiàn)人腦打字、皮膚聽聲
Facebook is building brain-computer interfaces for typing and skin-hearing | TechCrunch
譯者：Jenny_Peng 原文作者：Josh Constine
Today at F8, Facebook revealed it has a team of 60 engineers working on building a brain-computer interface that will let you type with just your mind without invasive implants. The team plans to use optical imaging to scan your brain a hundred times per second to detect you speaking silently in your head, and translate it into text.
2017年4月19日，臉書在其年度F8開發(fā)者大會上透露，該公司成立了一個60名工程師的團隊，正在研制無需侵入式植入讓人僅用意念就可以打字的腦機接口。該團隊計劃利用光學(xué)成像技術(shù)來掃描人腦，速度達到每秒一百次，檢測大腦中無聲的意識語言，然后將其翻譯成文本。
Regina Dugan, the head of Facebook’s R&D division Building 8, explained to conference attendees that the goal is to eventually allow people to type at 100 words per minute, 5X faster than typing on a phone, with just your mind.
里賈納·杜根系臉書研發(fā)部Building 8的負責人，她向會議觀眾解釋道，其團隊目標是，最終能使人用意念打字的速度達到每分鐘100字，比手機輸入速度快5倍。
Eventually, brain-computer interfaces could let people control augmented reality and virtual reality experiences with their mind instead of a screen or controller. Facebook’s CEO and CTO teased these details of this “direct brain interface” technology over the last two days at F8.
最終，腦機接口可以使人僅用意念便可以控制增強現(xiàn)實和虛擬現(xiàn)實活動，而不是靠屏幕或控制器。在F8會議的最后兩天，臉書的首席執(zhí)行官和首席技術(shù)官一直調(diào)侃該“直腦接口”技術(shù)的細節(jié)。
Brain-Typing
人腦打字
“What if you could type directly from your brain?” Dugan asked. She showed a video of a paralyzed medical patient at Stanford who can type using their mind thanks to an implanted sensor. She went on to explain how Facebook wants to do this without surgical implants.
“假如你能直接通過大腦意識打字，將會怎么樣？”杜根問到。她展示了一段視頻，內(nèi)容展示了一位來自斯坦福的癱瘓內(nèi)科病人，得益于植入的傳感器，實現(xiàn)了用大腦意識打字。接著，她闡明臉書如何嘗試拋棄外科植入物，實現(xiàn)人腦打字。
Building 8 only began working on the brain typing project six months ago, but it now is collaborating with UC San Francisco, UC Berkeley, Johns Hopkins Medicine, Johns Hopkins University’s Applied Physics Laboratory and Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. Researchers who specialize in machine learning for decoding speech and language, building optical neuroimaging systems with advanced spatial resolution and next-generation neural prosthetics are involved.
Building 8團隊于6個月前才剛開始啟動人腦打字項目，但是該團隊目前正與舊金山大學(xué)、加州大學(xué)伯克利分校、約翰霍普金斯醫(yī)學(xué)院、約翰霍普金斯大學(xué)應(yīng)用物理實驗室和位于圣路易斯的華盛頓大學(xué)醫(yī)學(xué)院合作。相關(guān)人員主要是機器研究專家，領(lǐng)域涉及解碼言語與語言，建立高級空間解析度的光學(xué)神經(jīng)成像系統(tǒng)，以及新一代神經(jīng)假肢。
The plan is to eventually build non-implanted devices that can ship at scale. And to tamp down on the inevitable fear this research will inspire, Facebook tells me “This isn’t about decoding random thoughts. This is about decoding the words you’ve already decided to share by sending them to the speech center of your brain.” Facebook likened it to how you take lots of photos but only share some of them. Even with its device, Facebook says you’ll be able to think freely but only turn some thoughts into text.
計劃最終目的是制作可以運輸?shù)姆侵踩胧皆O(shè)備。為了降低該項研究引發(fā)的不可避免的恐懼，臉書告訴我們，“這并不是解碼雜感，而是解碼你發(fā)送到大腦語言中心已經(jīng)決定要分享的話?！蹦槙鴮⑵浔茸髋牧撕芏嗾掌环窒砥渲幸徊糠?。臉書表示，使用該設(shè)備時，你仍可以自由思考，但它僅僅只轉(zhuǎn)換一部分思考。
Skin-Hearing
皮膚聽聲
Meanwhile, Building 8 is working on a way for humans to hear through their skin. It’s been building prototypes of hardware and software that let your skin mimic the cochlea in your ear that translates sound into specific frequencies for your brain. This technology could let deaf people essentially “hear” by bypassing their ears.
同時，Building 8團隊還在探索讓人類通過皮膚聽聲的方法。該團隊一直在制作硬件軟件原型，讓皮膚模仿耳朵里的耳蝸，為大腦將聲音轉(zhuǎn)換成特定頻率。這項技術(shù)可以使聾人避開耳朵從本質(zhì)上進行“聽聲”。
A team of Facebook engineers was shown experimenting with hearing through skin using a system of actuators tuned to 16 frequency bands. A test subject was able to develop a vocabulary of nine words they could hear through their skin.
臉書工程師團隊使用一組調(diào)制到16頻帶的制動器，進行了皮膚聽聲的試驗。一位測試對象打出了一個通過皮膚聽到的8個字母組成的詞匯。
To underscore the gravity of Building 8s mind-reading technology, Dugan started her talk by saying she’s never seen something as powerful as the smartphone “that didn’t have unintended consequences.” She mentioned that we’d all be better off if we looked up from our phones every so often. But at the same time, she believes technology can foster empathy, education and global community.
為了強調(diào)Building 8團隊的讀心技術(shù)，杜根開場就表明，她從未見過與智能手機一樣強大的東西，且“無非預(yù)期后果”。她提到，如果我們偶爾抬起頭不看手機，會過得更開心。但與此同時，她認為，科技可以培育同感，形成教育和全球社區(qū)體系。
Building 8’s Big Reveal
Building 8團隊新聞大放送
Facebook hired Dugan last year to lead its secretive new Building 8 research lab. She had previously run Google’s Advanced Technology And Products division, and was formerly a head of DARPA.
去年，臉書聘用杜根領(lǐng)導(dǎo)其神秘的Building 8研究實驗室。她之前負責谷歌的技術(shù)與產(chǎn)品部，曾是美國國防部高級研究計劃局的負責人之一。
Facebook built a special Area 404 wing of its Menlo Park headquarters with tons of mechanical engineering equipment to help Dugan’s team quickly prototype new hardware. In December, it signed rapid collaboration deals with Stanford, Harvard, MIT and more to get academia’s assistance.
臉書在其門洛帕克總部建立了特區(qū)404，備有數(shù)噸機械工程設(shè)備，幫助杜根的團隊快速制作硬件原型。12月，該公司與斯坦福、哈佛、麻省及其他高校迅速簽訂了合作協(xié)議，以獲得學(xué)術(shù)支持。
Yet until now, nobody really knew what Building 8 was…building. Business Insider had reported on Building 8’s job listings and that it might show off news at F8.
截至目前，無人知曉Building 8團隊究竟在研發(fā)什么。商業(yè)內(nèi)幕網(wǎng)（Business Insider）曾報道過Building 8團隊的職責清單，并披露該團隊可能在F8會議上放送新聞。
According to these job listings, Facebook is looking for a Brain-Computer Interface Engineer “who will be responsible for working on a 2-year B8 project focused on developing advanced BCI technologies.” Responsibilities include “Application of machine learning methods, including encoding and decoding models, to neuroimaging and electrophysiological data.” It’s also looking for a Neural Imaging Engineer who will be “focused on developing novel non-invasive neuroimaging technologies” who will “Design and evaluate novel neural imaging methods based on optical, RF, ultrasound, or other entirely non-invasive approaches.”
根據(jù)該職責清單，臉書正在尋找一名人機界面工程師，“負責集中研發(fā)高級腦機接口技術(shù)的2年B8項目”。職位描述包括，“神經(jīng)成像和電生理學(xué)數(shù)據(jù)的機器學(xué)習(xí)方法應(yīng)用，包括編碼與解碼模型。”另外，臉書也在招聘一名神經(jīng)成像工程師，“負責研發(fā)新型神經(jīng)成像方法，基于光學(xué)、射頻、超音波，或其他完全非侵入式途徑?！?/font>
Today’s announcements are naturally unsettling. Hearing about a tiny startup developing these advanced technologies might have conjured images of governments or coporate conglomerates one day reading our mind to detect thought crime, like in 1984. Facebook’s scale makes that future feel more plausible, no matter how much Zuckerberg and Dugan try to position the company as benevolent and compassionate. The more Facebook can do to institute safe-guards, independent monitoring, and transparency around how brain-interface technology is built and tested, the more receptive it might find the public.
臉書4月19日的公告自然令人感到不安。聽到一個微型創(chuàng)業(yè)公司在研發(fā)這些高科技，可能會使人聯(lián)想到，政府或聯(lián)合企業(yè)有朝一日會利用讀心術(shù)來檢測潛在犯罪，就像《1984》里描述的。臉書的規(guī)模使人感覺這些畫面更可信，無論扎克伯格和杜根多么想將公司定位為充滿仁慈、同情之心的形象。臉書在創(chuàng)立保護條款、獨立監(jiān)管，和提高腦機接口技術(shù)搭建和測試的透明度方面做的愈多，公眾可能愈發(fā)能接受該項技術(shù)。
A week ago Facebook was being criticized as nothing but a Snapchat copycat that had stopped innovating. Today’s demos seemed design to dismantle that argument and keep top engineering talent knocking on its door.
在此一周前，臉書還被批評為一無是處，不過是停止創(chuàng)新的Snapchat模仿者。19日的示范產(chǎn)品看似意在反駁該觀點，使高端工程人才絡(luò)繹不絕前往。
“Do you want to work for the company who pioneered putting augmented reality dog ears on teens, or the one that pioneered typing with telepathy?” You don’t have to say anything. For Facebook, thinking might be enough.
“你愿意為倡導(dǎo)將增強現(xiàn)實的小狗耳朵置于人頭上，或倡導(dǎo)憑意念打字的公司工作嗎？”不必說出你的答案。對于臉書來說，思考足矣。
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