Why The World Cup Exoskeleton Kickoff Is More Than Impressive

An artist's rendering of the World Cup exoskeleton kickoff

If all goes according to plan, on June 12 at the 2014 FIFA World Cup opening ceremony in Sao Paolo, Brazil, with hundreds of millions of people watching, a paralyzed person wearing a robotic suit will walk onto the field and kick the first ball of the tournament.

The person will be wearing a cap full of electrodes that will detect brain signals involved in controlling movement, and send them wirelessly to a laptop-size computer worn inside a backpack that will translate them into commands that enable the robotic suit, or exoskeleton, to walk over the grass and deliver the kick.
Researchers from Duke University in Durham, North Carolina, have spent years preparing for this ambitious demonstration, which builds upon widespread progress in both brain-machine interfaces, which connect the brain to devices in the outside world, and exoskeletons designed to assist people who have severe disabilities or are paralyzed.