China emerges as brain-computer interface technology innovation hub: report

BEIJING, May 31 (Xinhua) -- China has become a major innovation hub and target market for brain-computer interface (BCI) technology, according to a report released at the recently held Zhongguancun Forum in Beijing.

The report showed that advances in fields such as imaging, microelectronics, AI and neuroscience have contributed to the notable progress in the understanding of brain function and interaction as well as emerging business opportunities.

Zhang Qian, senior engineer with the China Academy of Information and Communications Technology, said that biomedicine, materials science, electronics and other disciplines have laid a good foundation for implantable electrode manufacturing, and implantable neural microelectrode has entered the iterative innovation stage.

According to the report, China accounted for 35 percent of global patent applications for non-implantable acquisition and sensing technology while the patents for Canonical Huffman Coding mainly came from China, the United States, the Republic of Korea and Japan.

BCI holds obvious advantages in the treatment of Parkinson's disease, depression and other diseases, attracting the attention of both domestic and foreign capital, Zhang said.