Welcome to Quration. Stand-out stories of technological disruption.
In today's edition, I speak with the CEO of Control Bionics, Rob Wong, about the disruptive technology that's enabling severely disabled people to connect with their world.
🎙️ LISTEN to the interview with Rob Wong☝️
📖 READ the feature article👇
Disrupting Disability
For the first 20 years of his life, Justin Yerbury was completely unaware of motor neuron disease (MND). Only a decade later, the renowned molecular biologist was himself diagnosed as having it. Completely shocking, but not a complete surprise.
Years earlier, Yerbury changed lanes in his career to begin researching MND, hoping to find treatments and a cure for the disease. His uncle and cousin had been diagnosed with the degenerative disease, and it became apparent that fifty percent of his family carry a faulty SOD-1 gene that’s thought to influence its occurrence. After his youngest sister died from MND, Yerbury and his sister Naomi were tested for the gene. Naomi was cleared, but Yerbury’s test was positive.
Each year, another 56,000 people are diagnosed with debilitating conditions that will severely limit their ability to connect with their world. In Yerbury’s case, his deterioration reached a point where he required numerous life support interventions, including a laryngectomy that left him unable to speak.
Fortunately for Yerbury, and thousands of others with severe disabilities, the protagonists of our story had begun working on a solution decades before. Technology that assists Justin to communicate with family and friends, and continue his important research.
The Vision
Control Bionics was founded by former CNN anchor, Peter Ford, and is being led by seasoned entrepreneur and tech investor, Rob Wong.
As the story goes, Peter taught himself to code seventeen years ago and, inspired by the work of Stephen Hawking, began developing neural communication tools. Peter noticed that a patient’s disabled muscles still emit small electrical signals which enable communication. Professor Hawking noticed that Peter was onto something.
Peter spent a number of trips to Cambridge, to meet with Professor Stephen Hawking when he was touring the U.S., and then the relationship continued. He gave us great advice on the core technology and what we were doing, and that helped us shape a very robust technology that really, no one else in the AAC space was really considering. The [revolutionary] idea was to use EMG signals, which we all send to our muscles, but actually use them as a communication device.
— Rob Wong, CEO of Control Bionics
AAC (Augmentative and Alternative Communication) encompasses the communication methods used to supplement or replace speech or writing for those with impairments in the production or comprehension of spoken or written language.
EMG (Electromyography) measures muscle response or electrical activity in response to a nerve's stimulation of the muscle.
Control Bionics flagship product, the NeuroNode, processes the neuroelectric signals that are sent from the brain to a muscle, into electronic commands that control a keyboard, mouse, joystick or touchscreen. The technology also enables a person to use their eyes to replace a mouse in controlling a cursor on a screen simply by looking where they want to cursor to move.
Rob: Our system involves a watch like device that can go over the top of any muscle in your body. So it could go over your frontalis. It could go behind your wrist. It could go on your knee or your calf muscle. As long as we can pick up a volitional signal to that muscle, it acts like a click to a computer. And then we combine that with the access method of eye gaze, where we trace your eyes. We triangulate the direction of your eyes onto whichever part of the page you want to go to. And then instead of having to use the traditional method of activating, which was to wait on that letter for about a second before it selects that item, with our technology you don't have to do that.
You simply look at the letter that you want to select. And the moment you send a cross signal to your NeuroNode device on your arm or on your leg it instantly makes that selection. And as a result of that, combining it with speech technology, we've been able to get a solution, which we think is world-class in terms of faster speed and significantly less fatigue compared to traditional techniques.
The Industry
If some of this is sounding familiar, it may be due to the recent attention billionaire Elon Musk has been receiving for Neuralink - a company that’s building devices that interface with the brain to expand human abilities. When asked to explain it as simply as possible, Musk responded:
"...think of it like a FitBit in your skull. Or an apple watch in your skull. So we take out a section of skull, we replace that with the chip and the inductive charger and Bluetooth antenna, and it’s really quite, almost quite literally like, a FitBit in your skull. With tiny wires that go into your brain."
It appears that the initial application of the Neuralink will be to transmit signals from brain activity to an external device. For example, a quadriplegic will be able to control a mobile device, mouse or keyboard with their mind.
Future application will see two-way communication between brain and device(s). Instead of just sending signals that control a device, the brain could receive information that would enhance its capabilities. Musk's goal is to create a “symbiosis with artificial intelligence” that will boost human cognition.
The live press conference, held at the end of August 2020, was like nothing you’ve seen before. In an event live-streamed on YouTube, Musk showcased a pig, Gertrude, that had been outfitted with a Neuralink device.
The Neuralink was recording signals coming from an area of Gertrude’s brain that was linked to her snout. As her snout touched things, an array of dots and a series of noises indicated when more neurons were firing. Watch👇
Neuralink connects directly to the brain, with threads at the scale of the human hair. It requires surgery to cut a whole into the skull, and implant the device by connecting its threads to the brain. Surgery that will be performed by this robot.
Control Bionics chose a different path. Instead of an insertable device, like the Neuralink, they went with a wearable.
Rob: We just looked at what was workable for the users, caregivers and clinicians, what could they use right now? And all of the stuff that Elon Musk is doing , the raw intent, we're up there in terms of being able to actually deliver that today with no latency.
And that's the issue with things coming out of the brain. You have a latency issue. You also have the issue of implants and surgery. What do you do if the technology suddenly needs to be refitted?
All of those things, have major implications. Not to say that we shouldn't be doing that, but for us, we want to supply something to our users now, not in 10 years time. We want something that they can really use now. And that really is non-invasive.
The Mission
After successfully exiting a digital advertising startup in 2013, the founder of the VC firm that had backed Rob’s venture asked him to give strategic advice to another company in their portfolio.
Rob: The founder of Nightingale, Lindsay Phillips said to me, Rob, what are you doing? We've got this fantastic little business called Control Bionics. It has amazing technology, but we'd like your opinion on how we could take the business forward?
And so I presented to the board and, 24 hours later, Peter Ford, the founder [of Control Bionics], came up to me and said, “You know that plan you recommended Rob, how'd you like to implement it?”
And because of the work we're doing, helping people with severe disabilities be able to communicate again, it was a pretty easy decision to say I think this would be an exciting business to grow globally.
That’s the mission: expand the global impact of Control Bionics with its current suite of products and the iterations to come. To that end, Rob led the charge that secured FDA approvals, and recently took the business to an IPO on the Australian Stock Exchange.
The Control Bionics Limited (ASX: CBL) share price started at $0.60 on Monday, 7th December 2020, and at the time of writing, the company’s shares are fetching $1.09.
Rob: What's really pleasing about the capital raise is that we'll net out at around $14 million (AUD), which means that I can really lay down some solid plans for international growth now.
Rob’s an experienced professional who knows what it takes to successfully build and operate a technology business. Financial success is an essential focus. But for Rob, Peter and the team that they lead, it’s a means to a greater end that’s always front of mind.
Rob: [One great example is a] 25 year old lady in Singapore, who has had cerebral palsy. At age four, she was diagnosed [as having] no voluntary movement. And has struggled to have any sort of communication, right up to that age. And yet I was able to take the technology, place it on her arm and prove to the team that at a micro level, she did have volitional control and I could pick up in the millions of volts, her reaction to things.
That's when I asked her to think about moving a finger, and she was able to play a game. A simple shoot game within about five minutes. And it was just absolutely flooring for the team that this girl had this potential. And yet had never been given the right technology to be able to begin to communicate.
Congratulations to the Control Bionics team on their successful IPO, and thank you for your commitment to disrupting disability.
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