Bicheng Han: BrainCo is a brain-machine interface (BMI) startup in Boston. We develop artificial intelligence-enabled technology that allows your brain to communicate with electronic devices.

　　I thought of the idea for BrainCo after spending time investigating BMI during my PhD study at Harvard Center for Brain Science. I realized the potential of this technology and the incredible number of applications. When I decided to start the company I was lucky enough to incubate BrainCo in the Harvard Innovation Lab.

　　From there I met with hundreds of people to put together our core team. We worked out of a townhouse at first, some of us living there to save on costs and get the company off the ground. We won contests along the way to help fund our company like the Harvard-China Forum Pitch Competition and later a MassChallenge Gold Medal. Then, in the summer of 2016 we raised a $5 million seed round to develop our first product, Focus EDU, which is designed to improve education outcomes by measuring student engagement via their brainwaves.

　　Rohampton: Facebook announced last month that it's working to create a brain-computer interface that lets you type with your thoughts. What's the future of social media in the light of this?

　　Han: Technology has always progressed towards ease and integration. Decades ago we had light switches and manual dials, then we had remote controls, then touchpads, and recently voice control with products like Alexa and Siri. I see brain-machine interface as the next natural step in this evolution.

　　When we’re able to share our ideas with even more ease, and even more naturally, I see clearer communication and higher efficiency, as well as more fun. If you can type with your brain, social media will become a more natural extension of yourself, and a deeper way to express yourself.

　　Rohampton: As a player in the space developing brain typing applications, does Facebook's announcement pose any threat to what you do?

　　Han: Brain typing is something that BrainCo is working on. We’re combining BMI with artificial intelligence to develop algorithms that will make advances in what’s currently possible. We see it as a good sign that Facebook is in this field with us. It’s a sign that the BMI market is going to be huge. Similarly with Neuralink, Elon Musk’s new company, we view it as validation that we’re working in an industry that is on the verge of tremendous growth. The best part is we are already profitable after 2 years, so while other players are focusing on research, we have sales that make the company sustainable, and allow us to reinvest in new technological developments.

　　Our goal with the first 20,000 devices, each of which will be used by multiple students in schools, is to capture data from 1.2 million people. This will enable us to use artificial intelligence on what will be the world’s largest database to improve our algorithms for things like attention and emotion detection.

　　Rohampton: There's already a lot of concerns about privacy invasion on social media. Is this technology not about invading users' thoughts? Do you see any more privacy concerns arising?

　　Han: Brain typing is more about sharing only what you want, when you want, as easily as possible. People will always be concerned about privacy, and it’s important to consider, but you will have total control over what you share. It’s about effectively sharing in a new and engaging way.

　　（文章来源：福布斯杂志英文网，文章及图片版权归原作者所属）

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