StairMed Achieves Millisecond-Level Response in Brain-Computer Interface, Enabling Paralyzed Patients to Live and Work by Thought
StairMed
Developer of Implantable Brain-Computer Interface Technology
The Second Participant in the Clinical Trial During the Brain-Control Process
Experience Exchange on Control with Zhao Zhengtuo, Founder of StairMed
Recently,Shanghai StairMed Technology Co., Ltd.StairMed announced that its second invasive brain-computer interface clinical trial has been successfully completed. This trial achieved significant technological breakthroughs, transitioning from 2D screen cursor control to 3D physical world interaction, enabling a high-level paraplegic patient to stably control a smart wheelchair and a robotic dog through brain signals, completing autonomous movement and object retrieval in real-life scenarios.
From"The Ladder from 'Two-Dimensional Interaction' to 'Three-Dimensional Life Reconstruction'"
The second clinical trial patient suffered from high-level paraplegia due to spinal cord injury in 2022. After more than a year of rehabilitation, there was no significant improvement, with only the head and neck capable of movement. In June 2025, the patient was implanted with StairMed's invasive brain-computer interface system.
After weeks of training, the patient has been able to stably control the computer cursor and tablet, achieving a leap from "unable to actively operate terminals" to "independently conducting information interaction." Building on this, StairMed further expanded the system to three-dimensional physical device control, enabling continuous, stable, and low-latency operation of smart wheelchairs and robotic dogs, assisting patients in performing various functional activities in complex daily scenarios.
In terms of application expansion and social integration, StairMed actively responds to the "technology-assisted disability support" needs, collaborates with local disabled persons' federations, and guides patients to participate in online data annotation tasks, gradually transforming them from passive recipients of assistance into creators of social value.
Technological Breakthrough: From Neural Signals to"Millisecond Response" Mind Control
To achieve the leap from "two-dimensional interaction" to "three-dimensional life reconstruction," the StairMed team has achieved multi-layered breakthroughs in its technology stack.
First, in the neural information extraction phase, the team developed a high-compression, high-fidelity neural data compression technology, and innovatively integrated several data compression methods: "spike frequency band power," "interspike interval," and "spike count." This hybrid decoding model can efficiently extract valid signals even in noisy environments, improving overall brain-control performance by approximately 15%–20%.
To address the issue of signal instability caused by acoustic, optical, and electromagnetic interference in real environments, as well as fluctuations in patients' physiological and psychological states, the team introduced "neural manifold alignment technology" to extract stable low-dimensional features from high-dimensional dynamic neural signals, significantly enhancing the decoder's environmental adaptability and cross-day stability.
In terms of system maintenance and user experience, StairMed has revolutionized traditional calibration methods by independently developing "Online Recalibration Technology." The system can fine-tune decoding parameters in real time during the patient's daily use, eliminating the need for interruptive specialized calibration and ensuring consistently high decoding performance, providing users with an increasingly smooth experience the more they use it.
Response speed is one of the core metrics of brain-computer interfaces. The conduction delay of the human body's natural neural circuit is approximately 200 milliseconds. This study, through customized communication protocols and system-level optimization, reduces the end-to-end delay from signal acquisition to command execution to within 100 milliseconds, which is below the physiological delay level, making the patient's control experience smoother and more natural.
As patients become more proficient in controlling brain-computer interface peripherals, task-related neural activity gradually shifts from being widely distributed among many neurons to being dominated by a few highly efficient neurons. This reduces cognitive load while enabling an "internalized" control of the device, explaining the formation process of "effortless control" at the neural mechanism level. Zhao Zhengtuo, founder of StairMed, described it with a vivid analogy: "It's like learning a foreign language—from needing mental translation to being able to speak fluently without hesitation."
During a face-to-face conversation with Zhao Zhengtuo, the patient described their genuine feelings as follows: "It’s like controlling a character in a game. You don’t need to consciously think about which direction to move the joystick; naturally, wherever you want to go, it just happens. The signal transmission is relatively stable, and there isn’t much delay." This simple statement captures the most direct experience of the clinical trial participant.
Notably, in October 2025, the third clinical trial of brain-computer interface patients by StairMed was successfully completed. It has now achieved stable control of a robotic arm, further expanding the application boundaries of "mind-based living" and "mind-based working."
It is precisely based on the successful validation and data accumulation from clinical trials that StairMed has gained the confidence to advance towards higher-performance systems. Not long ago, building on the first-generation high-throughput wireless invasive brain-computer interface system (WRS01), they unveiled an "upgraded version" (WRS02) at the Brain-Computer Interface Conference. Compared to the previous generation, the second-generation system achieves a leapfrog upgrade across multiple dimensions, with the number of channels increased to 256. The first prospective clinical trial of WRS02 is planned to commence in the near future.
With Real Needs as the Compass, Build an Open and Collaborative Ecosystem
"The driving force behind StairMed is to solve specific problems faced by patients in their real lives."StairMed Founder Li XueShe expressed. Her teacher — an academician in the field of artificial crystal biomaterials — once said that the happiest moment in life was when a patient said "I can see" after the postoperative bandages were removed. This sense of accomplishment brought by "solving real problems" is deeply rooted in the R&D culture of the team.
Therefore, whether it’s controlling a wheelchair for an outdoor "stroll" or using a robotic dog to fetch items in daily life, the essence of all the company's demonstrations revolves around comprehensive "solutions" built for real-world scenarios. This "end-goal-oriented" mindset ensures that the company consistently directs its R&D resources toward areas with the highest clinical and societal value.
In terms of industrial layout and capital support,Recently, StairMed has successfully completedB+ Round of financing, with an amount of several hundred million RMB，Provided a strong guarantee for subsequent product iterations and large-scale clinical applications.. On this basis, the company adheres to the "Open Ecosystem" strategy. Downstream, it collaborates with various smart devices and application platforms to enrich the value outlets of brain-computer interfaces; upstream, it coordinates with supply chain enterprises in semiconductors, materials, communications, and other fields to introduce advanced processes from the consumer electronics sector into the brain-computer field, enhancing system performance; on the clinical and research front, it establishes joint laboratories with top-tier hospitals and neuroscientists to ensure that technology development closely aligns with the most cutting-edge clinical needs and scientific discoveries.
One of the key factors for industrial implementation is the collaboration with external intelligent ecosystems. StairMed actively cooperates with external device manufacturers to jointly define control protocols and application scenarios, forming a win-win model of "brain-computer interface bridging, intelligent peripherals empowering."
Looking ahead,Founder of StairMed, Zhao ZhengtuoExpressed the hope to accelerate the clinical transformation and application verification of new products, allowing brain-computer interface technology to truly move towards clinical implementation. With an open mindset, collaborate with various smart devices and application platforms to jointly promote the high-quality development of brain-computer interface technology in China.
This breakthrough is rooted in Shanghai's excellent innovation ecosystem and has been made possible by the collaborative efforts and strong support from the government, hospitals, and various institutions. The relevant work has received support from major projects such as the Shanghai Municipal Science and Technology Major Project "Key Technologies and Core Devices of Brain-Computer Interface," the Shanghai Science and Technology Commission's Strategic Frontier Brain-Computer Interface Special Project, the Shanghai Strategic Emerging Industry Development Special Project, and cooperative units like the Shanghai Key Laboratory of Brain-Computer Interface Clinical Trials and Transformation.
