Recently, Professor Jia Wang's team of neurosurgeons from Beijing Tiantan Hospital affiliated to Capital Medical University and Professor Hong Bo's team from Tsinghua University successfully used minimally invasive brain-computer interface technology to successfully help high-grade paraplegic patients achieve ideation-controlled cursor movement for the first time. Such a major breakthrough shows that brain-computer interfaces are expected to change people's lives and become one of the important directions of the future industry.

According to media reports, the patient is a 35-year-old young male. He was paraplegic of the cervical spine due to an accident 5 years ago and completely lost his ability to take care of himself. On December 19, 2023, Jia Wang's team successfully performed minimally invasive wireless brain-computer interface implantation surgery for the patient, implanted a miniature brain-computer interface processor into the patient's skull, and successfully collected neural signals from sensorimotor brain regions outside the meninges. The patient was successfully discharged from hospital on the 10th day after surgery.

Jia Wang explained that after the patients stayed at home, the research team used remote guidance to assist them in rehabilitation training through a wireless brain-computer interface. The system wirelessly supplies power to the internal body through an extracorporeal device across the patient's scalp, transmits neuroelectrophysiological data, and translates EEG signals into control instructions for external devices. After nearly two months of rehabilitation training, patients can not only drive pneumatic gloves to hold the water bottle through ideological activity, but also control the movement of the cursor on the computer screen.

This function can be achieved thanks to precise positioning and implantation of electrodes and efficient transmission and accurate decoding of neural electrophysiological signals

The era of brain-computer interfaces is coming at an accelerated pace

The so-called brain-computer interface generally captures electrical activity within the brain through a device and then creates a direct communication path so that signals connect the brain to the computer, and achieve“Mind Control Computer”.

Recently, many tests by our team were successful. Professor Hong Bo's team at Tsinghua University School of Medicine designed and developed NEO technology for wireless minimally invasive brain implantation; Zhao Guoguang, director of Xuanwu Hospital of Capital Medical University, and the team of chief physician Shan Yongzhi collaborated with Tsinghua University to conduct the first clinical implantation test on October 24, 2023. After surgery, a patient who has been quadriplegic for 14 years achieved brain control actions such as drinking water independently after undergoing rehabilitation training with a home brain-computer interface.

On the foreign side, on January 29, Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla in the US, announced the “successful operation” of the brain-computer interface, which also attracted widespread attention in the market.

Yesterday (1/28), the first human patient underwent implant surgery from the “Neural Connection” company and is currently recovering well. Preliminary results show that neuronal spike detection is promising.

Musk wrote on the platform that he named his first product “telepathy,” and when the brain is implanted into the device, only the mind can control “almost any device” such as a mobile phone or computer.

Imagine if Stephen Hawking could communicate faster than a typist or auctioneer. That's our goal.

China prepares the first “Ethical Guidelines for Brain-Computer Interface Research”

Recently, the Artificial Intelligence Ethics Sub-Committee of the National Science and Technology Ethics Commission prepared the “Ethical Guidelines for Brain-Computer Interface Research”. As the first ethical guideline in the field of brain-computer interface research in China, the “Guidelines” clearly carry out brain-computer interface research to ensure that research has social value, should focus mainly on restorative brain-computer interface technology, and emphasize serving the health needs of the public through technological development. Non-medical enhanced brain-computer interface technologies such as attention regulation, sleep regulation, memory regulation, and exoskeleton should encourage exploration and development to a certain extent under the premise of strict regulation and clear benefits.

It is worth mentioning that China has listed brain-computer interface technology as one of the key directions for future industrial innovation. Seven departments including the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology jointly issued the “Implementation Opinions on Promoting Future Industrial Innovation and Development”, proposing that “brain-computer interfaces” be included in the top ten iconic products of the future industry, clearly “breaking through key technologies and core devices such as brain-computer fusion, brain-like chips, and computational neural models of the brain, developing a number of easy-to-use and safe brain-computer interface products to encourage exploration of applications in typical fields such as medical rehabilitation, driverless driving, and virtual reality.” This points out the focus and direction for the development of brain-computer interfaces.

Looking forward to the future, the brain-computer interface market has great potential for development. The size of the brain-computer interface market in 2022 is 1.74 billion US dollars, and it is expected to reach 3.3 billion US dollars by 2027. From 2023 to 2024, many leading companies will enter the clinical stage. This will also be a key year for brain-computer interface to enter the commercial market.

fromDomestic marketLook, according to a special report on qubits, the comprehensive market size of China's brain-computer interface industry is expected to exceed 120 billion yuan by 2040, and the direct market size (mainly equipment) may exceed 50 billion yuan. The market for pure brain-computer interface devices in China will have an obvious amplification effect after being combined with specific usage scenarios. It is estimated that in 2040, China's brain-computer interface pure device market size is expected to reach 56 billion yuan, with a compound annual growth rate of 21%. Among them: 1.5 billion yuan for scientific research and 54.5 billion yuan for consumers. It is predicted that the market for pure brain-computer interface devices in China may reach 100 billion yuan in the future.

Changjiang Securities pointed out that there are many potential downstream user groups for brain-computer interfaces, and the market size is broad. The downstream market for brain-computer interfaces is mainly in the three directions of medicine, health, and entertainment. It is recommended to focus on the upstream manufacturers of electrodes, algorithms, and operating systems for brain-computer interfaces, as well as the development of midstream medical, entertainment, and education-related industrial chains.

Guotai Junan also said that brain-computer interfaces are boosting the development of the multi-modal field of AI and are expected to drive a new round of markets. Currently, the development of large models of EEG often faces difficulties in collecting and processing EEG data. With the development of brain-computer interfaces, after brain-computer interfaces become a new method of human-computer interaction, brain waves may become one of the modes in larger models, which will effectively improve the efficiency and scale of EEG data collection and processing. As the AI multi-modal model represented by the Sora model enters rapid development, brain-computer interfaces will continue to empower multi-modal related training.

Concept stocks at a glance:

Innovative healthcare:By participating in Hangzhou Boring Medical Technology Co., Ltd., a brain-computer interface technology company, we are indirectly involved in this cutting-edge technology field.

Hanwei Technology:An application of a novel flexible tactile sensor-like brain-like interaction developed by the subsidiary Suzhou Nengstar is also one of Nestar's future concerns and layout.

New intellects:Its subsidiary Xinzhi Digital Technology Co., Ltd. and Fudan University and the Yangpu District Government jointly funded the establishment of “Shanghai Xinhelium-like Brain Intelligence Technology Co., Ltd.”, which is the carrier of a functional platform for the development and transformation of brain-like chips and intelligent systems on a chip in Shanghai.

Yingqu Technology:In terms of brain-computer interfaces, in addition to cooperating with Tianjin University, which has the third highest number of patents in the world, the company has also cooperated with Canadian Neurotechnology Interaxon, which ranks 8th in the world, for over ten years, and has become a shareholder investor.

Jiahe Intelligence:The subsidiary Specom has an invented patented brainwave acquisition communication system, communication frame generation device, and reading device. The patented technology uses a 12-channel EEG sensor EEG headset

Century Huatong:An ecological enterprise invested by the company, its “Attention Enhancement Training Software” has obtained a Class II medical device certificate from the State Drug Administration, and is actively experimenting with applications to connect to various brain-computer interfaces.

Sanbo Neurology:Brain-computer interface technology has great application prospects in the fields of clinical diagnosis and treatment in neurology and neurological rehabilitation.

Zhongke Information:Continued development of the Internet of Things for medical devices, new technologies/products based on multi-omics tumor efficacy and prognosis prediction, and “brain-computer interface” have all achieved phased results.