Chapter 37: MEG-BCI

The MEG-BCI system was massive, occupying nearly half a room once assembled. It consisted of several modules: a reclining armchair, a colossal magnetoencephalography (MEG) scanner, and a suite of control equipment and operation panels. Compared to standard electroencephalogram (EEG) devices, its most distinct feature was the bulky MEG scanner. Everyone is familiar with EEG, where a flexible electrode mesh can be worn on the head like a hairnet. The MEG scanner, however, is a stationary, white cylinder over a meter tall. This behemoth hangs from a bracket behind the armchair, and during operation, it must be lowered over the subject’s head like an oversized hair-steaming machine; the user must sit in the chair and insert their head into it.

There was only one such MEG-BCI system at the Chengdu Research Institute. The day after Shang Lu received approval, Science City arranged for a Mi-171 helicopter to airlift it from Chengdu to Base 151. It was dismantled into several large modules, offloaded from the aircraft, transported by truck into the underground storage facility, and reassembled.

The MEG scanner is a precise and expensive piece of machinery. Its massive white cylinder is filled with hundreds of liters of -269°C liquid helium. In this regard, it is similar to the MRI machines common in hospitals, as both require their scanning coils to be kept in an extremely low-temperature environment to achieve a superconducting state. Consequently, handling this equipment requires great care; a quench would be a disaster.

Since the MEG-BCI system primarily monitors the magnetic field activity of the human brain, Shang Lu borrowed the only electromagnetic shielding room at Base 151 from Old Man Ji. This room originally belonged to the Operations Office and was used for Shen Jiang’s daily training. Now that the original equipment had been dismantled to make room for the MEG-BCI, 1047 was extremely dissatisfied with the Operations Office’s encroachment. He stormed into Old Man Ji’s office, fuming.

"This is absurd! Utterly absurd!" 1047 exclaimed. "How can they occupy precious training time? Working on some non-invasive brain-computer interface... isn't this just messing around?"

"What's the matter?" Old Man Ji asked, lifting his eyes lazily from behind his desk. "What's the problem?"

"The Operations Office has occupied the shielding room to work on a non-invasive BCI. Is it even possible to build such a thing?" 1047 argued. "If Science City couldn't pull it off, can they? Isn't this just a complete waste of time and energy?"

"Do you have a complaint?"

"Yes, I have a major complaint!"

Old Man Ji waved his hand. "Then go take it up with the Military Commission."

Shang Lu led the Operations Office in moving into the shielding room. The space was given a rather intimidating title: "Key Laboratory for Brain Cognition and Combat Training for Mech Pilots via BCI Systems."

The members of the Operations Office followed him inside, feeling anxious. They had never worked on anything like this before. A group accustomed to slacking off was suddenly dragged onto the battlefield by their director; it was truly like driving ducks onto a perch. This was especially nerve-wracking with a large group of people from the Engineering Office watching, led by the clearly furious 1047.

Shang Lu’s delegation of tasks was simple. He clutched the technical documentation, scanned the room, and asked, "Who understands Fourier transforms?"

Li Wenxuan, the cousin, hesitated before raising his hand. "I do."

Shang Lu nodded. "Very well. Cousin is responsible for filtering."

He continued looking through the technical documents and asked, "Who has a background in psychology or neuroscience?"

Bai Shu looked around and whispered, "I studied a bit of it in college..."

"Excellent," Shang Lu pointed to her. "Bai Shu is in charge of the C.S."

"C.S.?" the girl asked. "Is that Nature and Science? Do we need to publish papers for this work?"

"Central Nervous System," Shang Lu explained. "It’s a core module of the MEG-BCI system, mainly for monitoring brain activity. As for the mechanical and microelectronic side... let's give that to Uncle. Uncle, you are responsible for machine maintenance."

Wang Xiangbing nodded.

"What about me?" Zhang Zhong asked. "Comrade Grandpa, what am I responsible for?"

Shang Lu looked at his muscular frame from top to bottom and snapped his fingers. "You are the most important. You’re responsible for carrying everyone else back when it’s time to run."

The engineers at 151 spent the entire day installing and calibrating the MEG-BCI system. Shang Lu instructed everyone to leave all metal objects and electronic devices outside before entering. Wang Xiangbing was in a bind, asking, "How am I supposed to take off this iron-like iron will of mine?"

Li Wenxuan curiously poked and prodded everything, especially the massive scanner. He asked, "What’s inside this?"

"Liquid helium," Shang Lu replied. "Ever seen an MRI? MEG and functional MRI are both ways to obtain information about brain activity. Both methods have their own focus; real-time functional MRI has an advantage in spatial resolution, while MEG has an advantage in temporal resolution. Both capture magnetic signals, so they both require superconducting coils."

Bai Shu sat in the chair, curiously and cautiously straightening her back as she inserted her head into the scanner above. The contact surface between the scanner and the cranium was an inverted, concave bowl, reaching down to the bridge of her nose. Once her head was inside, even her eyes were obscured.

"How fast is the information output of this system?" Bai Shu asked.

"It’s only in its most basic configuration right now, so the output speed is about 60 bits per minute," Shang Lu answered.

"Can we try it now?" Bai Shu said, intrigued. "Let it guess what I'm thinking."

Shang Lu readily agreed.

After the MEG-BCI system was activated, there was a long initialization process. Shang Lu stood behind the control panel on the other side of the room and asked, "Text information?"

The red lips beneath the scanner pursed, and she said, "Text information."

The others crowded behind Shang Lu. On the blank monitor, a cursor blinked. The data output speed of the most basic brain-computer interface was at most 60 bits per minute. Eight bits make a byte, and two bytes make one Chinese character; in other words, it could recognize at most three characters per minute.

"How do I imagine the character so it can decipher my thoughts?" Bai Shu asked.

"This system doesn't know you, so it doesn't have a deep learning algorithm tailored to you. You have to use the basic library," Shang Lu said. "You must use the universal library."

"Universal library?"

"Everyone’s brain activity is different. If you asked a hundred people to imagine a hen in their minds, they might all imagine it differently. Fortunately, written language is a fixed symbolic system. For Chinese characters, they possess certain features that allow everyone to have a consistent mental representation when imagining them." Shang Lu leaned against the wall with his arms crossed. "Regardless of age or gender, when people imagine these characters, they must follow fixed rules and paths; everyone does it exactly the same way. Take a guess—what is this feature?"

Bai Shu thought for a moment. She was clever and immediately realized:

"Stroke order."

"Exactly. Stroke order is the most fundamental rule in this symbolic system; it is consistent and universal. So, you only need to imagine the process of writing the character in your mind, and the MEG-BCI system can recognize it," Shang Lu said. "This is no different from other BCI systems; it’s all basic virtual motor imagery."

"Alright."

Bai Shu began to imagine the character she wanted to write in her mind.

The rest of the group crowded in front of the monitor, waiting for the character to pop up.

But the process was agonizingly slow. Wang Xiangbing, Li Wenxuan, and Zhang Zhong’s eyes were sore from staring, and the character was still struggling to emerge.

"At this speed, can we really fight the Angels?" Wang Xiangbing muttered. "The Angels will have leveled our base before it even lets out a fart."

"Shut up, watch closely..." Li Wenxuan tugged at the uncle's clothes. "Wait, wait, wait! It's out!"

The cursor on the screen flickered and typed the first character:

"I."

"Sugoi!" Wang Xiangbing turned his head and gave Shang Lu a thumbs up. "It really can recognize it!"

Shang Lu chuckled.

Half a minute later, the second character appeared:

"Give."

The group applauded.

"It’s comparable to mind reading," Li Wenxuan said.

Shang Lu explained from the side, "It’s not as magical as you think. What it’s actually capturing are the signals from the oculomotor nerves. Try it yourself with your eyes closed—when you write characters stroke by stroke in your mind, don't your eyeballs move along with them?"

Next came the third character:

"Home."

"What is she writing?" Zhang Zhong asked. "Why can't it form a sentence?"

The fourth character appeared faster:

"Lu."

The final character:

"Shang."