Thursday 12 June 2014

AMAZING...! A PARAPLEGIC will kick off the Brazil 2014 World Cup..!!!

A young paraplegic is expected to make the first kick of the World Cup on TODAY using a mind-controlled robotic exoskeleton.

If all goes as planned at the opening ceremony, the paraplegic will leave behind his or her wheelchair to take to the pitch in the suit and kick one of the new Brazuca balls.

The identity of the young volunteer is being kept a secret.

The development of the suit has been led by Brazilian neuroscientist Dr Miguel Nicolelis, under the banner of a consortium called the Walk Again Project.

Dr Nicolelis, who is based at Duke University in the US, is a leading scientist in the field of brain-machine interfaces. In breakthrough work published in 2003, he showed that monkeys could control the movement of virtual arms on an avatar using just their brain activity.

In a statement, the Walk Again Project said the World Cup demonstration would be "just the beginning" of a future "in which people with paralysis may abandon the wheelchair and literally walk again".

"It's the first time an exoskeleton has been controlled by brain activity and offered feedback to the patients," Dr Nicolelis, a neuroscientist at Duke University, told the AFP news agency.

"Doing a demonstration in a stadium is something very much outside our routine in robotics. It's never been done before."

The exoskeleton uses a cap placed on the patient's head to pick up brain signals and relay them to a computer in the exoskeleton's backpack.

"The basic idea is that we are recording from the brain and then that signal is being translated into commands for the robot to start moving," Dr Gordon Cheng, at the Technical University of Munich, who is a member of the team, told the BBC in May.

It is applied on the soles of the feet and allows the patient to receive tactile stimulation when walking with the exoskeleton. When the robotic suit starts to move and touches the ground, signals are transmitted to an electronic vibration device on the patient's arm, which stimulates their skin.

After lots of practice, the brain starts associating the movements of the legs with the vibration in the arm. In theory, the patient should start to develop the sensation that they have legs and that they are walking.

When questioned by the BBC last month about the opening ceremony kick, Dr Nicolelis was non-committal: "That was the original plan," he explained, adding: "But not even I could tell you the specifics of how the demonstration will take place."

However, the latest statement from the Walk Again Project appears to confirm that the patient will perform a "symbolic kick-off" of the tournament, using one of the official Brazuca balls.

The suit has been named Bra-Santos Dumont, which combines the three-letter designation for Brazil and Alberto Santos-Dumont, the aviation pioneer who was born in the country's southern state of Minas Gerais.

Wowwwwww...!!!!

Keep staying Healthy, Informed and Entertained...!!!
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Monday 9 June 2014

Larger women more attractive to men who are hungry..!!!

Analysts from Westminster University found that both men and ladies are more prone to be pulled in to individuals who are bigger when they go out on an empty stomach.

Hungry men are more attracted to curvy ladies, a study indicates.  The study has been headed by an Indian-source researcher, who found that craving can change your view of who is appealing.

Men, specifically will pick more shapely ladies on the off chance that they have missed a feast while ladies strive for bigger, heavier set men, the study found.

Then again, researchers caution that when people's craving is satiated, they may not feel the same.

Psychologist Dr Viren Swami of Westminster University showed 266 men a series of cartoons of women and asked them to rate them in terms of attractiveness.  They found out that men who were hungry found fuller cartoons more attractive.

Appetite can change your impression of who is appealing.  In the event that a man is ravenous they favor somewhat bigger breast estimate in ladies.  They likewise incline toward somewhat bigger ladies all in all, said Swami at the Cheltenham Science Festival.

Swami accepts that when hungry, individuals are searching for accomplices who can supply them with sustenance, and a bigger individual proposes they have been effective at discovering nourishment.

Keep staying Healthy, Informed and Entertained..!!
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