webnovelfull Chapter 191 Brain-Computer Interface
Chapter 191 Brain-Computer Interface
Zuo Cheng sent the brain-computer interface research document to the core management group at 8:00 AM. The document was only three pages long. The first page described the current state of global brain-computer interface development, the second page compared different technological approaches, and the third page contained only one question: Should 402 enter this field?
Han Lu was the first to reply: What about the market size?
Zuo Cheng said that the global market currently has 5 billion [units of currency], and is expected to reach 50 billion in five years. Medical rehabilitation is a basic need, while enhanced applications represent incremental growth.
Chen Hao asked, "Is the technical threshold lower or higher than that of aerospace?"
Zuo Cheng said that the acquisition end has a high barrier to entry, and the decoding end has an even higher barrier to entry. But 402's advantage lies not in the hardware, but in the algorithm. Our AI team decodes signals much faster than traditional neuroscience teams.
Shen Yiming said, "I've read Neuralink's paper, and their decoding algorithm still has a lot of room for improvement. If we use our federated learning framework, both privacy protection and accuracy can be improved simultaneously."
Zuo Cheng said, "That's why I called this meeting."
The meeting was scheduled for that afternoon. There weren't many attendees: Zuo Cheng, Yu Ying, Shen Yiming, Han Lu, Chen Hao, plus a neuroscience researcher from the research institute named Tang Ning, whom Yu Ying had poached from Huaxia University School of Medicine the previous month.
Tang Ning was in her early thirties, with short hair, and spoke very quickly. She turned on the projector, and the first slide was a picture of a macaque.
This is a Neuralink experiment from two years ago, where monkeys used their thoughts to control a cursor to play games. Their technique is invasive, involving creating holes in the skull to implant an electrode array. The advantage is good signal quality, but the disadvantages are high surgical risk and uncontrollable rejection.
She flipped to the next page, which showed the results of the China Brain Project. The non-invasive EEG cap method is safe, but the signal noise is significant, and the decoding accuracy is currently only around 70%, which does not meet the standards for clinical use.
Zuo Cheng asked, "What about Xingchen Technology?"
Tang Ning said that Xingchen's approach is somewhere in between, a semi-invasive method where nanoscale electrode patches are attached to the dura mater, eliminating the need for craniotomy, and the signal quality is close to that of invasive methods. However, their technical details have not been disclosed; the outside world only knows the general direction.
Zuo Cheng nodded. He knew better than anyone else present about the origins of Starry Sky Technology's technology; that nano-patch NX-07 was the system activation medium he encountered on the very first day of his rebirth. Starry Sky Technology's technological level far surpassed that of the current era.
He said, "I'll go to Xingchen Technology next week to see their laboratory in person."
Han Lu asked, "Do you need me to arrange business liaison?"
Zuo Cheng said, "No need, I've already contacted Zhao Wenbo. This isn't a business negotiation, it's a technical survey."
Yu Ying said, "I'll go with you."
Zuo Cheng glanced at her and said, "Okay."
After the meeting, Zuo Cheng returned to his office and reviewed the brain-computer interface data. He opened the system panel to check the status of the technology tree. Seven branches were neatly arranged on the panel, with the commercial aerospace branch being the most recently activated, all eight leaves lit up.
He clicked on the AI branch to view the unlocked leaves. Autonomous evolutionary intelligent systems, adaptive neural network compilers, and federated learning—these capabilities can all be directly applied to signal decoding in brain-computer interfaces.
Zuo Cheng clicked on the space photovoltaic branch again, and the description of the microwave energy transmission capabilities of the leaves made him pause. Long-distance, high-efficiency wireless energy transmission—if combined with brain-computer interfaces, could it solve the power supply problem for implanted devices?
The thought flashed through his mind, and he jotted it down in his notebook. The advanced cross-branch fusion permissions had just been unlocked; deep integration of the three branches might yield unexpected results.
Three days later, Zuo Cheng and Yu Ying flew to Shenzhen. Xingchen Technology's headquarters was located in Nanshan District of Shenzhen, in an ordinary-looking office building, but the interior decoration was extremely simple, with white walls, gray floors, and no superfluous decorations.
Zhao Wenbo greeted them in the lobby. He was wearing a light gray shirt and silver-rimmed glasses, looking much the same as when they last met.
Mr. Zuo, Dr. Yu, welcome. The chairman is not here today, so I will give you a tour.
Zuo Cheng said, "Mr. Zhao, you're too kind. We're mainly here to learn."
Zhao Wenbo smiled and said, "Xingchen and 402 are strategic partners. It's not a matter of learning, but rather an exchange."
They first went to the neural engineering lab on the third floor. The lab was large, divided into several areas: a signal acquisition area, an animal experiment area, and a data analysis area. A dozen researchers, wearing white lab coats, were busy at their respective tasks.
Zhao Wenbo led them to the animal experiment area. Through the glass, they could see a macaque sitting in a specially made chair with a thin electrode patch on its head, using its mind to control a robotic arm on the screen to grab objects.
Yu Ying leaned closer to the glass, watching intently. Under the monkey's mental control, the robotic arm accurately picked up a piece of fruit and brought it to the monkey's mouth.
Zhao Wenbo said, "This is our third-generation neural interface system. The patch is 0.3 millimeters thick, has 1024 acquisition channels, a sampling rate of 30 kilohertz, and a power consumption of only 50 milliwatts. The monkey has been trained for four months, and its grasping accuracy has stabilized at over 90%."
Zuo Cheng asked, "What about rejection reaction?"
Zhao Wenbo said that the patch material is biocompatible, and no obvious inflammatory reaction has been observed during the current observation period. More data is needed for long-term effects.
Zuo Cheng nodded and said, "The decoding algorithm was developed by yourselves?"
Zhao Wenbo said, "Yes, it's based on deep learning for end-to-end decoding, but there's still room for optimization. We've recently been trying to introduce transfer learning to allow the model to adapt to the differences in neural signals among different individuals."
Zuo Cheng and Yu Ying exchanged a glance. Yu Ying said, "Transfer learning happens to be one of our AI team's strengths."
Zhao Wenbo smiled and said, "That's one of the reasons we invited you two here."
After the tour, Zhao Wenbo led them to the conference room. Two documents were laid out on the table: a memorandum of understanding on technical cooperation and a confidentiality agreement.
Zuo Cheng said that General Manager Zhao acted very quickly.
Zhao Wenbo said that the chairman had instructed that 402 is Xingchen's most important strategic partner. We hope to cooperate deeply with 402 on this brain-computer interface project.
Zuo Cheng picked up the memo and quickly skimmed through it. The collaboration was divided into three phases: the first phase was joint algorithm optimization, the second phase was clinical application development, and the third phase was consumer product exploration.
He said the third phase was very interesting.
Zhao Wenbo said that medical rehabilitation is the present, while enhanced applications are the future. Starry Sky's vision is not just to cure diseases, but to expand the boundaries of human capabilities.
Zuo Cheng put down the documents and said, "402 agrees with this vision. But I need to go back and discuss the specifics of how we'll collaborate."
Zhao Wenbo said, "Of course, we'll wait for news from General Manager Zuo."
On the plane back to Hangzhou, Yu Ying leaned on Zuo Cheng's shoulder and said, "Starry Sky Technology's technology is even more advanced than I imagined."
Zuo Cheng said, "Yes, but their algorithm has weaknesses, which happens to be our strengths. We can cooperate and each get what we need."
Yu Ying said, "You knew all along?"
Zuo Cheng said he had guessed part of it. Stars have strong physical structures but weak soft structures; this is their structural characteristic.
Yu Ying didn't ask any more questions. The plane passed through the clouds, and sunlight streamed in through the porthole, falling on the back of Zuo Cheng's hand. He looked at the sea of clouds outside the window, his mind already beginning to outline the framework of the brain-computer interface project.
The eighth branch begins here.