The Ministry of Trade Industry and Energy said on Monday that the Korean Agency for Technology and Standards (KATS) division’s new proposal (NP) for the brain-computer interface (BCI) data format was approved at the BCI International Standardization Organization (ISO/IECJTC1SC43) plenary meeting held last week n Hangzhou, China.
Accordingly, an international standard for data formats, a key technological element that connects the human brain and computer, will be developed under Korea's leadership.
The BCI is a technology that has recently been developed mainly in countries such as the U.S. and can be utilized in various industries such as medicine, health, and mobility, to assist individuals people with limited physical movement or control the motion of a car with thoughts.
The new international standard is led by Professor Cho Young-im of Gachon University and it defines the scope of common data and essential data. It also presents a unified data format to ensure interoperability of data among BCI-related device manufacturers. The application of the proposed standard is expected to promote BCI-related industrialization and reduce product development costs.
In addition, a working group (WG) was established at this international standardization meeting to deal with the new NP proposed by Korea and additional proposed standards in the field of BCI data in the future. Korea plans to play a leading role in the process of establishing international standards by appointing the chair of the WG.
The international standardization process begins with the new proposal (NP) and evolves into a working draft (WD), a committee Draft, a draft of international standard (DIS), then the final draft international standard (FDIS), and lastly the international standard (IS).
"The advanced digital technology industry is evolving to a stage that extends to the connection between the human brain and the computer," said Jin Jong-wook, head of the KATS. "We will actively support the proposal of international standards and the leadership of working groups so that Korea can take the lead in the BCI International Standardization Committee (JTC1 SC43)"