The competitive landscape for Augmentative Alternative Communication (AAC) devices is quickly developing. We distinguish 3 main categories in the chart above: implants, wearable headsets and traditional eye-tracking / tablet devices. Only the first two categories represent Brain Computer Interfaces, able to help locked in patients who lost the ability to control their facial muscles. We focus on the non-invasive category in which only MindSpeaker is able to restore the signal quality required to decode imagined speech.

MindSpeaker restores natural communication (100 words per minute) decoding speech directly from brain signals. Market leader, Tobii assists communication (5 words per minute) allowing patients (who can still use their facial muscles to some extent) to use an eye tracker to select letters or icons on a screen.

Patients with a speech disorder can augment their communication in many ways: speech therapy, simple pen and paper, “point-it” books with pictures, keyboards, eye-trackers, ... The best solution for a specific case depends greatly on the origin and type of speech disorder the patient is suffering from. One can categorise speech disorders, based on their cause:

MindSpeaker will focus on the group of patients suffering from a motoric problem without or with limited cognitive problems (Dysarthria). This group consist of patients suffering from a.o. Stroke, Cerebral Palsy (CP), Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), Traumatic brain injury (TBI), Multiple sclerosis (MS) and Parkinson’s disease (PD). The reason for this is that two key components in the success of an Alternative Augmentative Communication (AAC)-device are the patient’s willingness to communicate and the cognitive ability to do so.

These are important as usually elaborate training is necessary for a patient to learn to work with a certain AAC-device. If a patient would need to simultaneously learn basic communication and/or language-skills as well as using the AAC, chances are low it will work out well. In the targeted patient segment, simple devices such as “point-it” books or tablets, pen and paper or therapy are seldom possible due to the motoric problem. More high-tech solutions are possible from case to case, such as EEG-headsets measuring event related potentials to decode a reaction to a stimulation ‘event’, eye- tracking systems and high-tech switches such as in the famous case of Stephen Hawking: using an infrared switch on his glasses to capture twitches/movements in the cheek muscle.

The latter two types of systems allow the user to “type” or select images or something similar on a secondary screen. Typically this is a slow process, which MindSpeaker can improve by training, contextual autocorrecting/completing and/or artificial intelligence which learns from the user’s habits. To date, no commercial AAC-device can decode communication directly from the brain.

To estimate the market size, consider the medical conditions leading to the need for 'Alternative Augmentative Communication (AAC) solutions which include Stroke, Cerebral Palsy (CP), Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis (ALS), Traumatic brain injury (TBI), Multiple sclerosis (MS) and Parkinson’s disease (PD) amongst others. Only considering the incidence rate (number per year) of the specifically mentioned conditions in the United States, yearly almost 160k new people suffer from a condition that could benefit from the MindSpeaker AAC solution. A pro rata approximation based on national populations translates to about 3.8M yearly cases worldwide, 215k in the EU and 5.6k in Belgium.

The type and value of AAC solutions differs greatly as the need and offering ranges from simple solutions such as pencil-and-paper or pictogram ‘point it’ (e-)books to high-tech solutions such as Stephen Hawking’s eye tracking technology or even brain implants. The existing, commonly used solutions for treating patients suffering from dysarthria (or anarthria) can also include low tech, individual training by a speech therapist. Traditional speech therapy is typically required throughout the lifetime of the patient, it presents a considerable potential cost savings factor for public or private healthcare insurers.

Assuming that 1 in 8 medical conditions considered above have the need for a complex solution such as the envisioned AAC BCI device. At an estimated total lifetime value of €8.5k per device (ca. 150 EUR/month), the total market can be estimated at about €3.3b yearly worldwide, about €327M in the US and EU and almost €4.9M in Belgium.

As the company will first target ALS patients shortly followed by Stroke and CP patients, the serviceable available market is estimated at about €120M. Note that this takes into consideration a limit in geographical scope approximated by considering the EU and USA, which does not mean that other regions are outside of scope or all regions within the EU and USA are in scope.