Mind-controlled suits…and now we understand why we need to wear those funny bike helmets!!
Mind-controlled suit gets ready to kick off the World Cup: Paralyzed teenager makes final preparations to use the exoskeleton during the opening ceremony
- Motorised metal braces will be used to support and bend teenager’s legs
- Suit will be controlled by patterns of brain activity detected by electrodes
- The signals will be sent to a computer converting them into movements
- Unnamed teenager will then be able to kick a ball on pitch in Sao Paulo
- This is the first time an exoskeleton has been controlled by brain activity and offered feedback to the patient
The most impressive kick of the World Cup won’t come from a known football star.
Instead, it will be from a paraplegic teenager who will use a robotic bodysuit to kick a ball using his or her mind.
For the past few months, Brazilian doctor Miguel Nicolelis has been putting the final touches to the futuristic exoskeleton, which was designed to enable paralysis victims to walk.
At the World Cup opening ceremony on Thursday in Sao Paulo, a paraplegic – whose identity has been kept secret – will leave behind their wheelchair to take to the pitch in the suit.
The exoskeleton, which has been designed as part of the international ‘Walk Again Project’, will use motorised metal braces to support and bend the teenager’s legs.
The suit itself will be controlled by patterns of brain activity detected by electrodes placed either on the scalp or in the brain itself.
These signals will be sent wirelessly to a computer worn by the wearer, converting them into movements.
And now we understand why we need to wear those funny bike helmets!!
