Chinese firms ace brain-computer interface field, herald gains for several industries

When sci-fi meets China's high-tech business, reality can be better than fiction, generating benefits and gains for a plethora of industries and society at large, creating industry alliances, and giving the nation a leading role globally in a futuristic field pregnant with macroeconomic implications.

That, in fine, is the story of the rapid and fascinating progress that the brain-computer interface, or BCI, technology has been making in the country in recent years.

According to a report by market consultancy Market Research Future, the global BCI market is poised to grow 15 percent annually on average, from $1.91 billion in 2022 to $6.04 billion by 2030.

Small wonder, China, propelled by both the government and private sectors, is off the blocks in the global BCI race, trailing only the United States in certain segments, with focus sharpening on both invasive and noninvasive niches of the emerging industry as well as formulation of international standards.

"The BCI field in China has been developing really fast. In some niche sectors, China stands at the forefront with leading countries in the field," said Zhao Jizong, a renowned neurosurgeon and an academician at the Chinese Academy of Sciences.

If the US boasts Elon Musk-led Neuralink and Facebook parent Meta's Reality Labs in the BCI field, China has Nankai University and Beijing-based startup Neurohua among others that are blazing an utterly fascinating trail in certain segments.

For instance, BCI tech applications like a hairpin-like headband connected to an electronic glove can make a thought floating in the mind materialize on a computer monitor — proof of the rapid progress made from the era of the speech synthesizer that gave voice to British theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking, making him a legend in his own lifetime despite his incurable degenerative neuromuscular disease. BCI applications can help a person with cerebral injury make scrambled eggs and even catch a ball by merely thinking about such acts.

Not just the US and China, even other leading economies are all vying for a strong foothold in the BCI space as the technology has the potential to transform various industries, including healthcare, education, entertainment and communication. According to a report by China's Brain-Computer Interface Industrial Alliance, China and the US are both pioneers and markets for BCI tech applications.

The report stated that China has a lead in noninvasive acquisition and sensing technology. Applications for patents in the segment in China soared to 35 percent of the global total in recent years, followed by 30 percent from the US and 10 percent from Japan.

Zhao of the CAS said that at present, the BCI technology is mainly used in clinical trials in China to diagnose patients with impaired consciousness and to assist patients with mobility impairments to walk using certain equipment.

The US has long been a front-runner in BCI research. In May, Neuralink announced that the US Food and Drug Administration had given the green light to the world's first in-human clinical trial — a huge step forward in BCI development.

Not to be outdone, China is ramping up investments in BCI research and innovation. In May, a team from Nankai University, led by Professor Duan Feng, announced they have completed the world's first interventional BCI experiment in nonhuman primates.

Gao Xiaorong, a tenured professor at Tsinghua University, said: "The current Chinese market is dominated by noninvasive BCI companies, accounting for more than 85 percent, involving education, entertainment and other industries, while invasive brain-computer interface devices are mainly in the medical industry. The US counterparts are more advanced in invasive ones."

In invasive BCI, the sensors are implanted inside the brain in order to increase the information that is being extracted. In contrast, noninvasive BCI is relatively safer and easy to implement but has limited capacity in replacing or enhancing the lost bodily functions, Gao said.

Startup Neurohua in China has developed noninvasive BCI devices. Through an electronic hood, multiple indicators in fatigue, concentration and sobriety can be monitored and data communicated to back-end equipment for reminders.

Tang Zaixi, founder of Neurohua, said: "Such a technology has already been used in sectors with high risks, so that real-time reminders can be generated for safety and avoid hidden dangers caused by fatigue of staff during operations."

Such BCI equipment and technology have already been used in the subway construction of Line 13 of Beijing Metro and will be further used during the construction of highways in China's Tibet autonomous region soon.

Besides Neurohua, several Chinese companies have been active in the sector, mostly focused on noninvasive niches. Chinese tech giant Tencent Holdings established a dedicated BCI research division, while NeuraMatrix and BrainCo are developing their own BCI products and solutions.

Such active participation can be traced to 2019, when the Chinese government announced a $4.5 billion investment in a new neuroscience research center, to focus on BCI and other cutting-edge technologies.

During this year's Zhongguancun Forum, a tech event held in Beijing in late May, Zhao Zhiguo, chief engineer at the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, said the BCI technology will be strongly supported to be an important development direction for China and accelerated efforts will be made to explore more application scenarios for the technology.

"China has been proactively pushing for BCI industry development. The country has made breakthroughs in key BCI projects and nurtured a number of leading BCI innovative enterprises. It also has built a BCI industrial alliance with more than 100 members across the industrial chain," Zhao from the MIIT said during the forum.

Zhao further said China attaches great importance to standard-setting. The MIIT, for instance, has supported companies and related research institutes to take the lead in drawing up BCI international standards. The ministry has also led the establishment of a technical committee to lay a solid foundation for BCI research standardization.

Notably, the level of independent research and development of chips and electrodes, two critical components in BCI technology, is constantly improving in China, Zhao said.

Agreed Gao from Tsinghua University. "The ultimate goal of BCI development is to realize full integration of human brain and machine as one organic whole. As both China and the US are striving to drive progress in BCI, the goal is likely to be achieved over the next 50 years."

Amid all this optimism about the race to the future, He Jianghong, a renowned expert in neurosurgery at Beijing Tiantan Hospital, sounded a note of caution, saying safety problems should be given special attention during the BCI technology's development.

"Attention should be paid to track whether a BCI device can be safely put into operation and become compatible for a long time, and whether it will cause direct damage such as infections, bleeding or other problems to users," He said. "Also, once this technology is widely applied, it will inevitably collect data like a large number of human brain signals, thus potentially raising privacy concerns."

So, it is important that China and other countries should address ethical issues and take precautions so that the BCI industry can develop in a healthy way, he said.