Chinese BCI firm aims to bring sight to 10m blind people with cheaper treatment

Brain-computer interface enterprise Mindtrix Technology Co Ltd expects its visual reconstruction system to enter the market by 2030 or 2031 upon Class III medical device registration, Chen Wenkai, the company's chief marketing officer, released the information during a media interview on Thursday.

With the treatment package priced at around 300,000 yuan ($44,145), which includes surgery and postoperative rehabilitation, Mindtrix's flagship MXIRV1024 visual reconstruction system is projected to offer the first-ever clinical solution for an estimated 10 million postnatally blind individuals in China, he said.

Mindtrix's treatment is roughly one-tenth of the cost of comparable US solutions. The system is positioned to become more accessible as supplementary medical insurance coverage is expected to further reduce out-of-pocket costs.

Apart from the initial certification and clinical rollout in China, Mindtrix intends to simultaneously pursue regulatory clearances in other major markets.

Beyond the immediate clinical goal of vision restoration, Mindtrix has outlined a longer-term vision for the upcoming years. Once the system's safety and efficacy are firmly established, the company aims to expand into broader sensory reconstruction, including hearing, touch, and even motor control. This evolution would enable bidirectional interaction between neural signals and algorithmic processing, a step toward true carbon-silicon integration, Chen said.