Implantable bioelectronics hold tremendous potential in the field of healthcare, yet the performance of these systems heavily relies on the interfaces between artificial machines and living tissues. In this paper, we discuss the recent developments of tethered interfaces, as well as those of non-tethered interfaces. Among them, systems that study neural activity receive significant attention due to their innovative developments and high relevance in contemporary research, but other functional types of interface systems are also explored to provide a comprehensive overview of the field. We also analyze the key considerations, including perforation site selection, fixing strategies, long-term retention, and wireless communication, highlighting the challenges and opportunities with stable, effective, and biocompatible interfaces. Furthermore, we propose a primitive model of biocompatible electrical and optical interfaces for implantable systems, which simultaneously possesses biocompatibility, stability, and convenience. Finally, we point out the future directions of interfacing strategies.

The emerging paradigm of “fusion of lifeforms” represents a transformative shift from conventional human–machine interfaces toward deeply integrated symbiotic systems, where biological and artificial components co-adapt structurally, energetically, informationally, and cognitively. This review systematically classifies multi-level perception systems within fusion of lifeforms into four functional categories: sensory and functional restoration, beyond-natural sensing, endogenous state sensing, and cognitive enhancement. We survey recent advances in neuroprosthetics, sensory augmentation, closed-loop physiological monitoring, and brain–computer interfaces, highlighting the transition from substitution to fusion. Despite significant progress, critical challenges remain, including multi-source heterogeneous integration, bandwidth and latency limitations, power and thermal constraints, biocompatibility, and system-level safety. We propose future directions such as layered in-body communication networks, sustainable energy strategies, advanced biointerfaces, and robust safety frameworks. Ethical considerations regarding self-identity, neural privacy, and legal responsibility are also discussed. This work aims to provide a comprehensive reference and roadmap for the development of next-generation fusion of lifeforms, ultimately steering human–machine integration from episodic functional repair toward sustained, multi-level symbiosis between biological and artificial systems.

Irreversible anterior segment blindness with preserved retinal integrity (e.g., dense corneal opacity) remains a major clinical challenge because effective sight-restoring options are limited. Here, we describe an intraocular micro-light-emitting diode (Micro-LED) epiretinal microdisplay intended to deliver patterned optical stimulation to intact photoreceptors by bypassing opaque anterior optics. The prototype was based on a color-capable VGA microdisplay (640 × 480 pixels) and operated at <30 mW under typical conditions. An ultra-thin flexible cable and a copper-mesh–reinforced polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) encapsulation provided a compact, conformable intraocular package with high pixel density. We evaluated a monochromatic (green) prototype in a single beagle eye $(n=1)$ using a transscleral implantation approach and performed 7 days of postoperative follow-up with slit-lamp examination and multimodal imaging. Patterned stimulation via the implanted display elicited flash-evoked visual evoked potentials (VEPs) with consistent within-session waveform morphology, providing preliminary neurophysiological surrogate evidence of upstream visual pathway activation under the tested conditions in this single-animal pilot. The short-term postoperative course included transient hypotony and anterior segment inflammation, and implant rotation with associated inferior retinal detachment was observed by day 7, highlighting current biomechanical limitations. Beyond anterior segment opacity, the same intraocular optical interface could be explored as a modular light-delivery platform to pair with emerging retinal therapies (e.g., optogenetics), pending chronic safety and functional validation. This pilot large-animal study therefore provides a translationally relevant testbed while delineating key engineering constraints that must be addressed next.

Remote-sighted assistance (RSA) is a technology designed to provide assistance for visually impaired people (VIPs). In this scene, a remote-sighted agent communicates and sends commands to navigate and assist VIPs via real-time video sent back. However, the latency in real-time video and the deviation in the execution of instructions by VIPs are two important factors that affect the performance of agents to guide them. Therefore, how to enable agents to better guide VIPs under conditions of video transmission latency and deviation in instruction execution is an important issue. In this paper, we utilize Unreal Engine to create a virtual training platform for RSA, which simulates VIPs executing instructions in the real world and resembles the environment in RSA systems. We aim to help remote-sighted agents quickly master the set of vibration commands formed after encoding tactile vibrations and enable them to guide VIPs more effectively. Our experiment results show that, compared with untrained novices, when guiding people through the same path, agents trained on this platform reduce their average time by 32.09% and their average number of contacts with the environment by 57.57%. Our work provides agents with a simple and convenient simulation and training platform designed to enhance their performance by guiding VIPs with less travel time and fewer environmental contacts. Through this platform, agents can more effectively assist the visually impaired.

Heterogeneous unmanned ground vehicle-unmanned aerial vehicle (UGV-UAV) collaborative systems offer clear advantages for field exploration. However, when tethered unmanned aerial vehicles (TUAVs) are introduced to extend mission capability, a major compatibility gap emerges for small and highly maneuverable UGVs: existing industrial tethered ground stations are generally too heavy and bulky to be carried by such platforms. In addition, on unstructured ground, residual station tilt can significantly complicate UAV launch and recovery. To address these issues, this paper develops an ultralight vehicle-mounted tethered ground station for micro unmanned aerial vehicles (micro-UAVs) that can be integrated directly with small UGVs. Through co-design of a 2-degree-of-freedom (2-DOF) self-leveling launch platform and a passive tether-assisted recovery scheme without visual fiducials, in which a customized UAV flight-control loop is coordinated with the state transitions of the ground tether-management system, the proposed system achieves practical tether-assisted recovery. Experiments show that the complete platform weighs only 4.1 kg and that the self-leveling mechanism compensates for ground inclinations over a total range of 24 degrees. Repeated passive-landing tests further demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed recovery scheme and its tolerance to moderate bay tilt and terminal off-axis activation. System-level flight validation confirms practical tether-assisted recovery without visual fiducials. In addition, we conduct a simplified exploratory simulation of tether-based ground-anchor localization under the proposed system architecture. Overall, these results establish a lightweight and low-cost hardware design and a practically viable recovery strategy for multimodal micro air-ground robotic systems.

Retinal responses to ultrasound depend on carrier frequency, but whether a constrained tissue-to-neuron model can predict this dependence on a common published response scale remains unclear. We developed an acoustic-radiation-force (ARF) modelling workflow that couples an effective tissue-scale stress proxy to a stochastic Hodgkin–Huxley retinal ganglion cell population. One non-negative affine observation model, shared across frequencies, linked raw simulated spike counts to the published three-frequency ex vivo RGC response scale without frequency-specific rescaling. In a nested leave-one-frequency-out model-selection assessment, the workflow achieved an overall $Q^2$ of 0.915 and an RMSE of 0.0752 across 25 held-out observations. Mean-response transfer remained strong across frequencies, although probabilistic calibration was weakest at 1.9 MHz. An in-sample fixed-map sensitivity analysis using moment-matched log-normal, Gamma, and Weibull thresholds yielded overall RMSEs of 0.0434–0.0461 and preserved positive overall K-ablation NLPD differences of 0.219–0.238, with the effect concentrated at 43 MHz. These results show that shared-scale modelling captures the main cross-frequency response structure and that a high-threshold inhibitory functional component improves the description of high-intensity rolloff. Within the published three-frequency dataset, the workflow provides a reproducible benchmark for targeted comparisons of retinal ultrasound mechanisms.