China is leading the world in tech, ahead of the U.S. and Japan, by achieving something that no one has ever done before-Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) technology. On Thursday, Chinese startup NeuroAccess reportedly conducted two tests using its flexible BCI device. The device could decode the thoughts of a brain injury patient and also decode Chinese speech in real-time.
As reported by Xinhua, BCI technology could already let patients use their minds to control the functioning of software, interact with AI models, manipulate objects and control speech-controlled digital avatars.
World’s first! A Chinese company on Thursday reported two significant clinical-trial milestones: its flexible brain-computer interface (BCI) device successfully decoded the precise intended movements of one patient with a brain injury in real time, and decoded Chinese speech in… pic.twitter.com/dpVGkTdvZa
— People’s Daily, China (@PDChina) January 3, 2025
In August 2024, neurosurgeons at Huashan Hospital, part of Fudan University, implanted a 256-channel, high-throughput flexible BCI device in a 21-year-old female epilepsy patient. The device was produced by Shanghai-based NeuroAccess and uses a lesion in her motor area for the treatment of the lesion, using the ECoG data from her brain signals. From the neural network, a trained system is made to decode in real-time; the whole process was shown to have achieved a system latency below 60 milliseconds, henceforth mapping functional areas of the brain just after the surgery.
Producing understanding of speech through brain signals forms one of the most advanced frontiers in BCI technology.In December 2024, a collaborative group initiated China’s first clinical trial by converting Chinese speech into synthetic speech through the means of high-throughput flexible BCI. The device was implanted in the female patient suffering from epilepsy and a tumor found in the language area of her brain. After only five days of practice, the subject was able to decode 71% accuracy of speech composed of 142 common Chinese syllables with an overall latency in decoding at under 100 milliseconds.
