Next week, hundreds of millions of viewers will tune in to watch the , between Brazil and Croatia, in Sao Paulo. But before the Selecao begin their decimation of the Croats, viewers may witness the first public demonstration of a major breakthrough in prosthetic science: If all goes as planned, a young, paralyzed Brazilian will walk to center field and deliver the first kick by means of a mind-controlled exoskeleton.
, the idea came from a nonprofit organization called , inspired by the work of Miguel Nicolelis, a Brazilian neuroscientist at Duke University who has been exploring the intersection between neuroscience and prosthetics for more than a decade. In 2008, he helmed a project where a female rhesus monkey in his lab at Duke manipulated the movements of a robot in Japan using only her thoughts.
For the planned World Cup opening act, Nicolelis hopes to outfit the exoskeleton “pilot” with an electrode cap concealed beneath a helmet. The cap will decode the subject’s brainwaves and send them to a computer in the exoskeleton, which translates the brain signals to control the limbs of the apparatus. Powered by hydraulics, this robot suit has a battery allowing for approximately two hours of use.
“The main message is that science and technology can be agents of social transformation in the whole world,” Nicolelis . “That they can be used to alleviate the suffering and the limitations of millions of people.”