The Official World Cup Kickoff Could Come From A Teen In A Mind-Controlled Exoskeleton

Instead of having an internationally renowned soccer star kick off the 2014 World Cup, a new project will have a teen piloting the latest exo-skeleton technology start the festivities.

According to the New Scientist, this will be a small showcase of a project called Walk Again.

Duke University Center for Neuroengineering, the Technical University of Munich, and other prestigious universities are working together on this project in order to figure out how technology can overcome paralysis.

Here's how the suit would work. It is stationed on the lower body. Through a series of electrodes on your head, the suit detects brain waves and harnesses them to initiate movement.

In order to make the process feel more natural and less robotic, the team behind the project wants to incorporate more sensors to monitor touch, temperature and force to deliver feedback to the user through either a visual display or vibrating rotor. The hope would to make this feel as a natural as possible.

The teen to test this out will be selected from a small group of applicants who are currently testing out the suit through a virtual reality process.

The 2014 World Cup will start this summer on June 12th.