Facebook to buy start-up for controlling computers with your mind

Facebook Inc. agreed to acquire CTRL-Labs, a technology start-up that is building software to let people control a digital avatar using only their thoughts. The world’s largest social network is paying between $500 million and $1 billion, according to people familiar with the deal.

The closely held four-year-old start-up, which has dozens of employees and raised tens of millions in venture capital, uses a bracelet to measure neuron activity in a subjects arm to determine movement that person is thinking about, even if they aren’t physically moving. That neuron activity is then translated into movement on a digital screen. Facebook declined to comment on the price of the acquisition.