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Virtual preview of how the suit would look in action. Gizmodo

Official World Cup kick-off could be taken by teen in a mind-controlled exoskeleton

Welcome to the future, football fans.

ORGANISERS OF THIS summer’s World Cup in Brazil look like they will learn from the mistakes of the Diana Ross selection in 1994.

Rather than a have famous name from the world of music, football or politics kick off the 2014 World Cup, a new project hopes that a teenager piloting the latest exo-skeleton technology will 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.

Stationed on the lower body, the suit detects brain waves through a series of electrodes on your head 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 begin on June 12.

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