Brain-Computer Interface (BCI)

Category hub. A BCI is any device that interfaces neural tissue directly with external hardware to restore, augment, or bypass lost sensory or motor function. This hub organizes the category into two subcategories:

Subcategories

Subcategory	Scope	Page
🧠 Brain interface	Cortical/cerebral implants: penetrating arrays, surface arrays, endovascular, cortical visual prostheses	brain-interface
Retinal prosthesis	Devices implanted in/around the eye that substitute for lost photoreceptors	retinal-prosthesis
Visual prosthetics (combined)	Umbrella for retina + cortex vision restoration	visual-prosthesis
Company schema	Side-by-side of current companies (device, channels, status, regulatory)	retinal-prosthesis-companies

Classification across the category

• By target tissue: cortical (visual cortex, motor cortex) vs. retinal/ocular (epiretinal, subretinal, suprachoroidal) vs. peripheral nerve.
• By invasiveness: non-invasive (EEG/EMG), partially invasive (ECoG, endovascular), fully invasive (penetrating microelectrode arrays, subretinal chips).
• By function: motor decoding (Neuralink N1, Synchron, Paradromics, BrainGate), sensory restoration / vision (PRIMA, Argus II, Blindsight, Orion, Gennaris), speech restoration, memory/modulation.

Why the retina is the strategic wedge

Hodak’s thesis (see max-hodak, science-corp): the retina is an extension of the brain; its structure is relatively simple, the surgery risk is controllable, and the patient population is clear — AMD-associated geographic atrophy alone affects

5 million people globally, with no treatment restoring lost vision. A disease-first BCI therefore offers the fastest path to regulatory approval and revenue, in contrast to the “full brain interface” ambition of neuralink.¹

Status snapshot (Aug 2026)

• First CE-marked BCI for form vision: PRIMA (Science Corporation), EU commercial launch July 22, 2026 across 30 countries; FDA review ongoing (Breakthrough Device designation 2023; two HUD designations July 2026).²
• Cortical players: Neuralink Blindsight (FDA Breakthrough Device designation), Cortigent Orion, Monash Gennaris (pre-clinical).
• China context: cebsit (CAS, Shanghai) ran China’s first prospective invasive-BCI clinical trial (Mar 2025, with Huashan Hospital/Fudan + StairMed WRS01; cursor/chess/wheelchair control; 256-ch WRS02 upgrade 2026).
• Historical lessons: Argus II (CE 2011, FDA 2013, discontinued 2019, patients left unsupported) and Alpha AMS (CE 2013, company dissolved March 2019) show that regulatory approval alone does not guarantee a sustainable product — see retinal-prosthesis-companies. The IEEE Spectrum investigation (Strickland & Harris, Feb 2022) documented the human cost: >350 Argus II implantees abandoned without support after Second Sight’s Mar 2020 wind-down; patients unable to get MRIs, crowd-sourcing spare parts, and left with unsupported implants in their eyes. ³
• Market: retinal implants ≈ $52.1M(2024)\to$84.1M forecast (2030), CAGR 8.3% (Grand View Research).

Open questions

• Will retinal (photovoltaic, subretinal) or cortical (Blindsight, Orion, Gennaris) stimulation win for different etiologies? Cortical targets retinitis pigmentosa and optic-nerve/lateral cases; retinal targets diseases with intact inner retina.
• Resolution ceiling of photovoltaic stimulation vs. high-density cortical arrays; longevity of chronically implanted electronics; reimbursement and surgical-locale scaling; electrical vs. optogenetic approaches (Science’s Lightsheet targets RGCs).
• Ethical guardrails for participant protection — research-vs-care distinction, long-term support guarantees, orphaned-device contingencies (see implantable-bci-ethics).

Related pages

• brain-interface — cortical/cerebral subcategory
• retinal-prosthesis — retinal subcategory
• retinal-prosthesis-companies — company schema/comparison
• science-corp, pixium-vision, max-hodak, neuralink
• implantable-bci-ethics — ethical framework for implanted BCI studies (Miller et al., Nat Neurosci 2026)

References

• Holz FG, Le Mer Y, Muqit MMK, et al. Subretinal photovoltaic implant to restore vision in geographic atrophy due to AMD. N Engl J Med. 2026;394:232-242. ⁴
• Science Corp. news archive: NEJM results (2025-10-20), Pixium acquisition (2024-04-25), CE mark/EU launch (2026-07-22). ¹
• BrightFocus Foundation, “PRIMA Implant Brings Vision Restoration Within Reach” (July 2026). ⁵

Footnotes

1. raw/articles/science-corp-prima-nejm-2025.md ↩ ↩²

2. raw/articles/science-corp-prima-ce-mark-2026.md ↩

3. raw/articles/ieee-spectrum-argus-obsolete-2022.md ↩

4. raw/papers/holz-2026-prima-subretinal-photovoltaic.md ↩

5. raw/articles/brightfocus-prima-2026.md ↩