Imagine a paralysed person getting up from a wheelchair. Walking, shopping with his family. Imagine him going to see an Arsenal match in the Champions League and have a beer with his mates, once again.
The mind-machine-interface expert Miguel Nicolelis, a professor at Duke University, was one of the first to explore this field. Control “the machine” with your mind.
With $15 million grant from Brazil’s government, Nicolelis, and his team built an exoskeleton propelled by the wearer’s thoughts. The wearer was expected to stand up and hit the opening ball at World Cup 2014.
On paper, the idea is quite straightforward. Collect the brain signals with an EEG cap, translate them and send them to the machine for processing. However, the signals produced – that way, at that time – were not able to control the exoskeleton.
Some say that Nicolelis failed in his task. He, on the opposite, declared that “those 17 months of hard work” were a success. The truth is that rather than seeing a man rising from a wheelchair and walking, the exoskeleton achieved the task of moving one foot forward to hit the ball.
Two years later and we are in 2016. We know much more about the Brain-Machine interfaces. We understand the human brain better to a point where we want to try telepathy. 2016 is the year when the first functional brain-controlled exoskeleton is “for real.”
I’d say that success in “new technology” means that your device, your gadget or your product can solve a problem. However, “the right time” plays a big part in the success of your idea. It might not be now. It might not be tomorrow. But still, you’ll be successful one day, just don’t give up. Good luck.
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