A Moscow-based startup called Neiry is developing “human-friendly neural interfaces” applicable to a variety of daily tasks — from gaming and entertainment, to medical therapy, to training, to business.
Supported by Russian state innovation programs, this startup believes it can “improve and restore human abilities and functions that were previously unattainable,” and contribute to “the acceleration of computer-integrated human evolution.”
Neiry’s approach combines headsets with an advanced neural control approach. Its technology is non-invasive in the sense that no device needs to be implanted: “You simply wear it on your head just like you put on a watch or a sports bracelet on your hand,” says the company.
AI-enhanced brain-computer interfaces
“Our neural networks are trained in such a way that the user does not need to learn how to work with the neuro-headset, unlike other 99% of similar devices. And as early as from the second use of the device, artificial intelligence maximizes the impulse recording accuracy.”
As a result, users can perform “up to eight different actions per unit of a digital image, while 99% of similar devices barely perform two or three actions.”
The startup claims its solution is equally compatible with eye tracking, electrodermal activity (EDA), and speech recognition technologies. Combined with brain-computer interfaces, the latter can multiply the number of commands when using the neural interface.
Neiry is now developing an infrastructure for automated collection, processing and storage of large amounts or neural data. “Thanks to unique algorithms, the brain’s bioelectric activity can be analyzed, enabling users of the newest edtech applications and games to control the related parameters of brain signals. The system will collect, evaluate, and store anonymized personal data from all devices connected to the system,” says Skolkovo Foundation.
From Moscow schools to US market?
Earlier this year, Neiry launched three pilot projects in schools from Moscow, Kazan and the St. Petersburg region, involving more than 100 children. The technology was used in the training process twice a week to improve the kids’ math performance. At the end of the lessons, the children passed 10-minute test quizzes wearing Neiry’s VR-helmets with built-in interfaces.
According to Neiry, math performance improved by 16% on average while memory and other cognitive functions improved by 17% and 8%, respectively.
Neiry has just closed a Series A round of 541 million rubles (nearly $7.4 million at the current exchange rate). The better part of the funding came form state coffers with the National Technology Initiative Support Fund — a vehicle of state-owned fund-of-funds RVC, now affiliated with the sovereign fund RDIF — bringing in 360.5 million rubles. The remaining 180.5 million rubles came from unnamed investors “which work with the company.”
As a result of the transaction, the startup was valued at some 2.4 billion rubles ($32.6 million), according to “independent experts” cited by Skolkovo Foundation.
Neiry’s founder and CEO Alexander Panov said the recent capital injection will allow the company to expand the scope of the brain–computer interfaces in both the consumer and industrial segments. The company plans to “expand broadly” across foreign markets. It claims to serve clients already in Kazakhstan, Singapore and the USA.
“Our main clients now are schools, brain training centers and enterprises. We also have distributors in China and the Middle East, including the UAE,” said Neiry’s Chief Commercial Officer Tatiana Aleksandrova in an exchange with East-West Digital News.
The market of brain-computer interfaces is just emerging, she added, “with few apparent competitors to Neiry.”
Aleksandrova mentioned, however, Emotiv, Muse, NextMind, and Neurable as companies operating in the same field.
Sources: Skolkovo Foundation, VirtualRealityMarketing.
