Recently, Brain-computer interface technology provider Blackrock Neurotech announced that it has acquired MindX, a spatial computing software company, integrating the company's AR and BCI/AI technologies. Neither side has disclosed the exact amount of the acquisition, but as part of the acquisition, MindX's health technology entrepreneur Julia Brown and her team will join Blackrock.
Blackrock said the acquisition will strengthen its existing software portfolio and position the company to develop innovative full-stack, integrated BCI products. Prior to that, Blackrock had exclusive neural decoder licensing agreements with Stanford University and Columbia University.
According to Blackrock, implantable brain-computer interfaces are currently used to restore patients with paralysis and neurological disorders, and 31 out of 35 patients worldwide who use neurotechnology are using their brain-computer interface hardware and technology, which have been shown to restore movement, communication and touch, thereby improving patient independence and quality of life.
At the heart of BCI's clinical applications is the development of user-friendly software that decodes neural activity and converts brain signals into digital commands, while MindX's proprietary spatial neural computing technology focuses on real-world applications that recognize and interpret the motion of objects in physical space. By combining decoded biological data, we improve patient interactions with the physical environment and digital world in which they live, and ultimately help patients achieve overall improvements in quality of life, independence, and autonomy.
Marcus Gerhardt, co-founder and CEO of Blackrock, said: "MindX has fantastic engineers who are developing groundbreaking cutting-edge software at the intersection of neurotechnology, AR and AI, and we are particularly excited to work more deeply with Julia Brown. Enhance neural data analysis by fusing our hardware DNA with their software DNA, and enabling flexibility and customization of a variety of BCI applications. In addition, the opportunity to expand applications through space software and AR has multiplied our commercialization goals. ”
Blackrock expects to release its first commercial BCI platform, MoveAgain, in early 2023, and the acquisition is a key step in its patient-facing software development, technology platform expansion, and seeding of AI core capabilities. While BCI's original goal was to help paralyzed patients interact with devices such as keyboards, other applications are being explored today, such as those that restore vision through human optical prosthetics. In addition, Blackrock plans to accelerate research into the recovery of language skills in people with aphasia.