Mind-controlled exoskeleton kicks off World Cup
Source: cnn.com
Perhaps the most interesting kick of the World Cup so far comes from a young adult who is paralyzed from the waist down.Clad in a metal vest, sporting a blue cap dotted with electrodes, he kicked off the world’s biggest soccer championship in an exoskeleton.It was, according to the scientist behind the exoskeleton’s kick, "meant to shock the world."But even more shocking than the exoskeleton’s first tentative steps is learning how it worked: controlled by the paralyzed patient’s mind.Let’s back up.Before there was a mind-controlled exoskeleton, there was a neuroscientist named Dr. Miguel Nicolelis who was curious about "brain storms," flurries of activity caused by neurons at any given moment."We have about 100 million cells interconnected in our brains," said Nicolelis, a professor of neuroscience at Duke University. "They communicate with one another through electrical signals."Nicolelis wanted to know how brain storms generated behavior, so he began recording them."We wanted to understand how large populations of brain cells interact," how memories are built, how we move our bodies or how we sense the world around us, said Nicolelis.Scientists quickly realized that decoding the alphabet of neurons in the brain meant that its language could be transmitted to devices outside the brain.Thus began the creation of the mind-controlled exoskeleton, or what Nicolelis and his colleagues call a "brain-machine interface," a way of connecting brain tissue to artificial devices.[...]Read the full article at: cnn.com--- Paralyzed Man Takes First Kick of 2014 World CupBy Tanya Lewis | LiveScienceThe honor of first kick of the 2014 FIFA World Cup went not to Brazilian soccer star Neymar, but to 29-year-old Juliano Pinto, who is paralyzed from the waist down.In a much-hyped demonstration at the tournament’s opening ceremony yesterday (June 12) at the Corinthians Arena in Sao Paulo, Brazil, Pinto made the kick while wearing a robotic exoskeleton controlled by his brain. But those viewing it at home got only a brief glimpse of Pinto performing the ceremonial kick before the cameras rolled back to singer Jennifer Lopez and the day’s other entertainers.The high-tech demonstration was masterminded by Duke University neuroscientist Miguel Nicolelis, as part of the Walk Again Project, an international nonprofit initiative that aims to develop and implement a brain-machine interface to allow severely paralyzed patients to regain mobility. The project is a collaboration between researchers at Duke University, the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology and the Lily Safra International Institute of Neuroscience of Natal in Brazil."The World Cup is the world’s largest sports competition, the ultimate sharing opportunity," Nicolelis told CBS News earlier this year. "We proposed to the government that instead of a regular musical or typical opening ceremony that has been done in the past, we could surprise the world by doing a scientific demonstration instead."In addition to showcasing the futuristic brain-controlled technology, Nicolelis hoped the demonstration would inspire the next generation of innovators.[...]Read the full article at: livescience.com
