Bridge Neurotech launches ultrasound brain-interface programme

Bridge Neurotech emerged from stealth with a plan to build a fully non-invasive brain-computer interface based on ultrasound. The company launched with $13.5 million in funding and has begun enrolling participants in an observational human study in Redwood City, California.

Bridge also signed a multi-year research and development agreement with Butterfly Network. It will license Butterfly's Ultrasound-on-Chip technology and use functional ultrasound imaging with AI-based neural decoding to measure brain activity without surgery or implanted electrodes. The agreement includes technology-access and development-milestone payments plus hardware-purchase commitments.

Ultrasound avoids an implant but introduces a different engineering constraint: blood-flow changes are an indirect and slower proxy for neural firing. Bridge's approach therefore depends not only on better sensing through the skull, but also on predictive modelling that can recover useful signals quickly enough for interaction.