This coming June 12th at the Arena Corinthians stadium in Sao Paulo, Brazil, will be a historic date. After all, it signals the day when the opening ceremony of the biggest international competition in football (aka soccer), the World Cup, will kick off. There will be something else other than a month’s worth of pure, quality football on display to look forward to, as the 2014 World Cup’s opening ceremony too, will see the debut of cutting edge technology – a mind-controlled exoskeleton which would allow a previously paralyzed person to walk.
Should everything go according to plan, the robotic suit will hopefully run without any glitches, springing to life in front of a live audience of 70,000 souls, not to mention a global audience that could number in the billions. This particular exoskeleton was developed by an international team of scientists, being a culmination of over 10 years’ worth of work by Dr Miguel Nicolelis, a Brazilian neuroscientist who is based at Duke University in North Carolina.
There does seem to be an extremely bright future when it comes to the likes of exoskeletons helping humanity out, but it remains to be seen whether the overall cost can be reduced to make it affordable enough for the masses. Well, if you can’t buy one, at least you can lease one in Japan.
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