The first kick of the 2014 FIFA World Cup may be delivered in Sao Paulo next June by a Brazilian who is paralyzed from the waist down. If all goes according to plan, the teenager will walk onto the field, cock back a foot and swing at the soccer ball using a mechanical exoskeleton controlled by the teen's brain.
Motorized metal braces tested on monkeys will support and bend the kicker's legs. The braces will be stabilized by gyroscopes and powered by a battery carried by the kicker in a backpack. German-made sensors will relay a feeling of pressure when each foot touches the ground. And months of training on a virtual-reality simulator will have prepared the teenager to do all this using a device that translates thoughts into actions.
"We want to galvanize people's imaginations," said Miguel Nicolelis, the Brazilian neuroscientist at Duke University who is leading the Walk Again Project's efforts to create the robotic suit. "With enough political will and investment, we could make wheelchairs obsolete."