Is a grape soft or hard, and a glass of water is cold or hot?
Ordinary people do not want to think about the problem, but Zhejiang Qiangbrain Technology Co., Ltd. is currently focusing on the problem.
In Strong Brain technology, this critical plan is called “iterative research of intelligent bionic hands”.
In October 2023, at the opening ceremony of the Asian Para Games in Hangzhou, the last torchbearer lit the torch with the help of the intelligent bionic hand developed by Strong Brain technology.
This is the first generation product of the enterprise, with 10 movable joints, 6 driving degrees of freedom, which can realize the independent movement and cooperative operation of 5 fingers.
Iterative research focuses on tactile perception: can intelligent bionic hands make the wearer strength and conduction temperature become a better part of the body?
To add touch to this product, behind it is the multi-dimensional breakthrough in brain-computer fusion technology.
” Our research focuses on vibration, pressure, slip and other aspects, hoping to help the wearer perceive the environment with the help of bionic hands and achieve more flexible and complex operations.
” Enterprise founder and CEO Han Bicheng said.
Brain-computer interface is in the forefront of artificial intelligence, biomedicine, neuroscience and other interdisciplinary fields. It is not only an emerging industry, but also a new track for the future industry of global competition.
In 2021, China’s “14th Five-Year Plan” and the 2035 Vision goal outline will include “brain science and brain-like research” in the seven frontier areas of science and technology.
Ten years ago, many people thought that brain-computer interfaces were just whimsical.
At that time, Han was doing a PhD in neuroscience, studying the underlying technology of brain-computer interfaces.
An intern in the team once lost his right hand due to a laboratory accident, which made Han Bicheng see the direction of the technology application.
” Can you be a bionic hand that can be controlled by the brain, just like the original hand?
” Along this line, team members quickly noticed that a significant number of people needed a smart intelligent prosthesis.
At that time, for the products on the market, the wearer seemed to operate complex machinery, which needed to remember various passwords and cooperate with the operation speed of the hardware. It was very difficult to use, not to mention to realize such operations as playing the piano and typing.
” Brain-computer interface, is through the equipment and technology to the brain and external directly connected, it has invasive, non-invasive two technical route, strong brain technology advocates non-invasive, no craniotomy, lower risk, but need to continue breakthrough on the sensor and algorithm ability, capture signal outside the brain, ‘translation’ good brain convey instructions.
” Han Bicheng said.
This involves a series of work: extracting reliable and stable brain wave signals, and designing a set of algorithms to capture the corresponding features of the intention.
During that time, the team members gathered in the basement late at night, with the shiny computer electrodes on their heads constantly exploring and trying to solve one challenging problem after another.
Finally, it took five years, and they put on the concept map.Transforming paper into the first generation of intelligent bionic hand products.
Take capturing signals as an example, EEG signals are very weak, about one millionth of the voltage of a No. 5 battery. In complex environments, it is necessary to overcome interference such as noise aliasing. In order to make EEG experiments more accurate, Han Bicheng often acted as the experimental subject himself, applying wet conductive paste for experiments. At most, he had to wash his head four times a day.
In 2017, the team independently developed a new electrode material – solid gel electrode, which solved the problem of signal acquisition. A large number of test results have shown that without applying conductive paste, the information accuracy has also reached a relatively high level of about 95%. And this small sampling electrode has undergone thousands of iterations in terms of material formulation and structural design.
It is through these breakthroughs from 0 to 1 that QiangBrain Technology has achieved technological productization and product localization, breaking foreign monopolies and reducing the price of intelligent bionic hands to one-fifth of imported products.
In 2018, QiangBrain Technology settled in Yuhang, Hangzhou, becoming another “runner” on the West City Science and Technology Innovation Corridor. In 2022, QiangBrain Technology achieved mass production of 100000 units of the world’s first high-precision brain computer interface product, breaking through the engineering and technical challenges of consumer grade brain computer interface equipment. Now, QiangBrain Technology has preliminarily achieved the verification of tactile feedback principles and algorithm design based on vibration and electrical stimulation. It is collaborating with multiple research enterprises and institutions to develop new sensing materials, in order to complete hardware design and production as soon as possible and launch a new generation prototype.
In addition to intelligent prosthetics, companies are also expanding into the fields of intelligent rehabilitation and consumer electronics, using innovative brain computer interface products to assist users in solving problems such as physical disabilities, depression, and insomnia.
Brain computer interface technology is entering a period of accelerated development, but related products are just a few stars in the vast starry sky. This is an emerging market that cannot be measured by ‘market share’, “said Han Bicheng. QiangBrain Technology has accumulated multiple patented technologies and a large amount of EEG data, and invests more than 60% of its total revenue in research and development every year.” We hope to eventually become a technology-based enterprise, using more cutting-edge technology fields to overcome challenges and open up infinite possibilities in life
(Source: Zhejiang Daily)