Paraplegic set to kick off World Cup in mind-controlled robot suit

It's called the Walk Again Project and if everything goes according to plan, the first kick of a ball at the 2014 World Cup in Brazil will be made by a young paraplegic in a mind-controlled robotic exoskeleton.

Brazilian neuroscientist Dr. Miguel Nicolelis, with the help of over 150 researchers, developed the suit with the hope of drastically improving the lives of people who suffer from paralysis.

The plan is for an unidentified parapalegic to stand up from his or her wheelchair using the breakthrough technology controlled by brain activity, walk over to and kick the official World Cup ball during the tournament's opening ceremony.

"It's the first time an exoskeleton has been controlled by brain activity and offered feedback to the patients," Dr Nicolelis, a neuroscientist at Duke University, told the AFP news agency, via the BBC.

Dr Nicolelis goes on to say the display, performed in front of the world, is a setting that's unfamiliar for such experiments.

A computer installed in the suit's backpack will decode messages received from the cap placed on the paraplegic's skull and will send the signals to the legs of the suit. The motion of the robotic suit is powered by hydraulics and the backpack allows patients to use the technology for two hours.

[Courtesy: TomoNews US]