The FIFA 2014 World Cup in Brazil starts today , but before we can get to the many feats of teamwork and talent , the opening ceremonial occasion will have an incredible show of neuroscience applied science . A paralytic person — one of eight Brazilian men and women who have trained for months — will do the first functionary kickof the tournament with the assistant of a brain - controlled automatonlike exoskeleton .
It ’s a public demonstration of the work done by theWalk Again Project , an international collaboration of over 100 scientist , leave by Professor Miguel Nicolelis of Duke University and the International Institute for Neurosciences of Natal , Brazil . Years of research have resulted in an exoskeleton controlled by monitoring electrical activity in the brainiac that reflects the wearer ’s intentions . As the person inside think about step forward , the automaton - same appendage lift their pegleg to conduct out the command . you could watch a straightaway video about a 2008 collaborative experiment that inspired this technology here :
" Our brains are very adaptative in the way that we can reach out our embodiment to use tools , as in drive a cable car or eating with chopsticks , " says Professor Gordon Cheng , head of the Institute for Cognitive Systems at the Technische Universitaet Muenchen ( TUM ) , one of the go partner in Walk Again . " After the Kyoto experimentation , we feel certain that the brain could also liberate a paralytic person to take the air using an external body . "
But this new arrangement provides more than mobility ; it also seeks to doctor sensation . It ’s called CellulARSkin technology , create by TUM , and it allows the freshly - Mobile River to interact with their surroundings in a centripetal way . In the Walk Again Project , CellulARSkin on the bottom of the feet send off signals to midget motor that tickle against the patient role ’s subdivision .
The World Cup manifestation does not represent an terminus for these projects ; there ’s still much to be done before the exoskeleton and artificial skin genuinely represent workable options for paralytic people . But it is a powerful testament to the step scientific discipline is convey to address the issue .
