Watch a paraplegic in an exoskeleton open the World Cup -- with a kick
As promised,
a paralyzed man did indeed kick off today's World Cup festivities by
wearing a mind-controlled robotic exoskeleton. Juliana Pinto, a
29-year-old paraplegic, was one of eight patients chosen for the opening
ceremony after extensive training in a lab in Sao Paulo. Dr. Miguel
Nicolelis, a neuroscientist from Duke University who's the leader of the
Walk Again Project,
was ecstatic, proclaiming on Twitter "We did it!!!" Though the kick, as
you can see above, was just a simple nudge to the ball, it's actually
extremely complicated. Nicolelis told the AFP news agency that it's "the
first time an exoskeleton has been controlled by brain activity and
offered feedback to the patients," and that "doing a demonstration in a
stadium" has never been done before. Unfortunately, it seems this
momentous occasion wasn't captured on as many television networks as the
rest of the opening ceremony, which strikes us as a crying shame. Hit
the source links for more information on this miraculous innovation and
have a peek at a fan-captured video of the event after the break.
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