Wisear and Pico: neural earbuds for VR control announced
French deep-tech startup Wisear announces a new form of VR control for the Pico VR headset.
Imagine being able to navigate VR environments with your mind – no hand gestures, no voice commands, no buttons or controllers. Wisear is working to make that vision a reality. The Paris-based deep-tech startup is developing new ways to control consumer devices. In layman's terms, these earphones can be used to control mobile phones, computers, and even VR headsets.
However, Wisear's products are still far from being able to read thoughts; instead, they recognize facial muscle movements and derive actions from them.
Wisear partners with Pico
This type of control will soon be available on Pico's VR headsets. Wisear announced the collaboration in a YouTube video.
The video shows people wearing Pico VR headsets using facial muscle movements to perform various actions with the Wisear earbuds. They start a phone call, pause a game, or scroll through a social media feed.
In the video, the subjects appear to be using the Pico 4 and Pico Neo 3 Pro VR headsets. Wisear has already confirmed compatibility with the Pico Neo 3 Pro. No word yet on whether the earphones will support other VR headsets from the manufacturer, how much they will cost, or when they will be available.
DigiLens recently partnered with Wisear also, signaling that this technology is moving out of the research phase and will become available for consumer and enterprise use.
Advantages of the Wisear headphones
Wisear's earbuds, when paired with a Pico VR headset, allow users to interact in virtual reality without hand gestures or voice commands. This can provide, for example, a way for people with speech or movement impairments to interact with VR.
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