China opens leading laboratory focused on brain-machine interaction
- Sixty scientists are working at the Tianjin lab, which the government hopes will drive innovation, according to official newspaper
- The interface technology aims to create a direct communication link between the human mind and a device like a computer
Brain-machine interfaces can help people in many ways – for example, by assisting doctors to treat patients, by making robots smarter and taking video games to the next level. They can also tell scientists more about how the brain works.
The government wants the recently opened Sixth Haihe Laboratory – in the northeastern port city of Tianjin – to drive innovation and create new areas for economic growth, Science and Technology Daily – an official newspaper run by the Ministry of Science and Technology – reported on Monday.
Ding Ruiqing, who heads the laboratory, told the newspaper that it had the world’s largest and most comprehensive patent pool for brain-machine interaction.
He also said the laboratory was a world leader in three areas – EEG recognition accuracy, the quantity of control instructions that can be reliably detected and used by the machine, and the information transmission rate.
The South China Morning Post could not independently verify these claims.
EEG – or electroencephalography – measures electrical activity in the brain through electrodes placed on the scalp. It is important for brain-computer interfaces because it enables the real-time monitoring of brain activity, which can then be translated into computer-generated commands.
Ding said the laboratory would coordinate Chinese research on key technologies and components used in the interfaces.