Maxwell achieves high-precision, standardized intelligent simulation prosthesis customization

On the Ganzi Grassland in September, a breeze carrying the faint scent of Gesar flowers brushed past the newly reconstructed nose of Zhuoma, a 10-year-old Tibetan girl. The gap left by her nose being bitten off by a ferret when she was a child is now filled by a prosthetic nose that is now warmer than the plateau's sunshine. This prosthetic nose, which conforms to her facial features and matches her skin tone, has restored a sweet and confident smile to the rosy-cheeked girl.

The operation, named "Snowfield 'Re' Appearance · Charity Together," showcased the decade-long technical breakthrough by Professor Wang Jing's team from Xi'an Jiaotong University in the field of intelligent simulation prosthetics.

As the founder of Shaanxi Maxwell Medical Technology Co., Ltd. (hereinafter referred to as "Maxwell"), Wang Jing led her team to advance traditional prosthesis customization from manual crafting to precision manufacturing through self-developed AI modeling system completes the entire process from facial scanning to 3D modeling in just a few minutes. The unique high-precision silicone automated coloring technology can fully restore skin tone, which is the key to why Zhuoma's prosthetic nose appears so "natural."

The fourth person from the left in the picture is Wang Jing, founder of Maxwell, and the sixth person from the left is Zhuoma.

Maxwell's founder, Wang Jing, is a senior engineer at the School of Mechanical Engineering of Xi'an Jiaotong University. After obtaining his Ph.D. from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee in the United States, he worked at the Suzhou Institute of Biomedical Engineering and Technology of Chinese Academy of Sciences. In 2016, he joined Xi'an Jiaotong University through a talent recruitment program. Wang Jing has over 20 years of extensive experience in the field of medical-engineering integration and more than 10 years of practical accumulation in personalized precision medicine.

In 2018, an accidental clinical exchange led Wang Jing onto the path of entrepreneurship. At that time, a breast specialist showed him a prosthetic breast product from Japan. This prosthetic breast was extremely realistic in appearance, but its production process required 2 to 3 months of hand-painting, and each unit cost about 500,000 yuan. "The patients' suffering from the price and the long wait far exceeded the pain caused by the surgery itself," Wang Jing clearly remembered the expert's words.

This ignited the "spark" of entrepreneurship in his heart. Relying on his accumulation in the field of biomedical engineering, he decided to lead his team in developing a prosthetic breast that can be mass-produced through digital processes, reducing costs and shortening the production cycle, allowing technology to restore people's dignity and wholeness.

In 2022, Shaanxi Maxwell Medical Technology Co., Ltd. was officially established. The company's name comes from Wang Jing's admiration for the physics master Maxwell that symbolizes both the pursuit of scientific rationality and reflects the ups and downs of life.

The company's core team is diverse and integrated. Professor Koichi Shimizu from Waseda University has joined full-time as a co-founder and chief scientist, bringing deep academic expertise and practical experience in the field of material science. The company has established professional teams in systems engineering, color matching, imaging, and algorithm control, including members such as an off-campus mentor for master’s students from the Beijing Institute of Technology and former engineers from ASML in Netherlands. In addition, the company has engaged expert consultants from the medical device industry to provide comprehensive intellectual support.

Maxwell started with breast prosthesis business and built an efficient, replicable, and highly personalized production system relying on technologies such as digital design, 3D printing, and automated coloring processes. Based on this, Maxwell gradually expanded to customizing personalized organs such as prosthetic ears and noses, and even robotic simulation skin.

Maxwell's core breakthroughs are mainly reflected in two aspects. The first is automated silicone coloring technology. Due to the chemical inertness of silicone material, traditional manual coloring methods are inefficient and lack precision. Maxwell, through in-depth research on the molecular structure of silicone, successfully developed a specialized ink that enables direct coloring on silicone surfaces. By integrating self-developed generative AI and customized processes, Maxwell can accurately reproduce color differences and ensure the precise replication of every detail using 3D "printing-style" coloring technology.

Another breakthrough is full-process digital technology. Starting from data collection, Maxwell uses high-precision imaging scanning technology to obtain 3D data of the patient's missing part. Combined with the patient’s frontal and profile photos, skin type, parental features, and other information, it utilizes self-developed AI algorithms and a model library to generate personalized prosthetic designs, ensuring precise alignment with residual tissues. Next, molds are created using 3D printing technology, followed by an innovative automated coloring process that employs 3D spray painting technology to accurately reproduce real skin tones. The entire process, from data collection to final delivery, takes approximately one week.

Taking the nasal repair of the Ganzi girl mentioned at the beginning of the article as an example, the team utilized implant generation, AI reconstruction, and dynamic skin tone matching technology to eliminate color differences with the help of self-developed software and hardware. The team ensured color accuracy using specific color cards, palettes, and proprietary algorithms, while reshaping the nasal structure through AI reconstruction. By integrating color difference elimination and real color restoration data, they ultimately created a digital model that closely matches the shape and color of the girl’s nose.

Wang Jing emphasized that the key material "ink" independently developed by Maxwell is one of the core technologies for breaking through the inertness of silicone materials. At the same time, the entire process from AI design to automatic drawing, as well as the related production equipment, has been independently developed. These technologies together form a high competitive barrier for the company. Other companies attempting to imitate will face significant challenges in terms of processes, equipment, and materials.

In the commercialization process, Maxwell has maintained steady progress. In the first year after its establishment in 2022, the company focused on patent layout; in 2023, it actively participated in national innovation competitions and won awards; in 2024, it successfully launched its first batch of products; and by 2025, the company has achieved profitability and collaborates with West China Hospital, Shaanxi Pharmaceutical Group, Beijing Aier Foundation, and Milan-Baiyu (Bravou). It has reached cooperation with many well-known hospitals and medical aesthetics brands.

In July 2024, Maxwell signed a strategic cooperation agreement with Shaanxi Pharmaceutical Group to jointly promote the research, development, and application of intelligent bionic prosthetics.

In addition to delving into commercialization fields, Maxwell also actively explores paths for philanthropic applications. The company collaborates with the Red Cross to provide repair support for economically disadvantaged families. "For technology to truly make an impact, it must not only serve a small minority," emphasized Wang Jing.

At present, embodied intelligence has been written into the government work report, and the humanoid robotics industry is entering a golden age of vigorous development. Building on existing technical expertise and reserves, Maxwell has begun to venture into the field of robotic simulation skin, focusing on achieving seamless integration between the skin and the robot's main body to comprehensively enhance the robot’s overall performance and aesthetic appeal. Currently, the company has successfully developed robot skin with expression management capabilities. The next step is to equip it with temperature, humidity, and pressure sensing functions, allowing the robot to "breathe and have a sense of touch."

In a broader vision, Maxwell hopes to leverage emerging technologies such as AI, 3D printing, and digital twins to drive a disruptive transformation in the customized prosthesis industry, akin to the "digital dentistry" revolution. Just as digitalization enabled standardization and scalability in dentistry, Maxwell aims to transition prosthesis customization from craftsmanship to large-scale intelligent manufacturing.

In the new era of digital healthcare, Maxwell's story has just begun.

References:

1. "Our School's Jiusan Society Member Wang Jing's Team Collaborates with Huaxi Hospital to 'Grow' a Hopeful Nose for a Tibetan Girl", Jiaotong United Front