Researchers Chinese recently launched an open-source brain-computer interface (BCI) platform compatible with dozens of existing technologies.
According to the South China Morning Post, China’s latest BCI project is called “MetaBCI”, to find ways to crack the technology’s software, including signal analysis and device connectivity. The project is co-developed by Tianjin University, CEC Cloud Brain, a joint venture between Tianjin University and China’s state-owned China Electronics Corporation, and startup BCI Suishi Intelligent Technology.
BCI is a technology that can translate a user’s brain activity into messages or commands for interactive applications. This is a direct communication pathway between brain electrical activity and an external device, usually a computer or robot.
According to Xu Minpeng, a professor at Tianjin University, who announced the project on November 20 at a conference in the city of Tianjin, the new platform can “standardize BCI data structure and processing processes, and at the same time standardize the BCI data structure and processing process, and at the same time make the BCI data structure and processing standard.” developing a common decoding algorithm framework,” “providing a solution for the whole process in the form of BCI software.” The system’s current version can support 14 BCI datasets, performing 16 data analysis methods and 53 decomposition models.
Written in the popular Python programming language, MetaBCI is now available on GitHub, a web-based source code hosting platform for software development projects. According to the introduction on GitHub, the new system only applies to non-invasive BCI devices, not to chips implanted under a person’s scalp.
In recent years, BCI technology has gained more and more attention from the public, especially after Neuralink, the company founded by US tech billionaire Elon Musk, released a video last year depicting a monkey playing a video game with a chip implanted in his brain.
Two Chinese technology giants, Alibaba Group Holding and Tencent Holdings, have established specialized groups to develop this technology. Chinese video game magnate and tech investor Chen Tianqiao also founded the Brain Frontier Laboratory to study brain signals in mice to provide future neurological treatments for humans.
The size of the worldwide BCI market is expected to reach $35 billion by 2030, with the US leading the way, according to a report published earlier this month by market research firm EO Intelligence.