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On June 12, 2014, precisely at 3:33

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in a balmy winter afternoon
in São Paulo, Brazil,

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a typical South American winter afternoon,

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this kid, this young man 
that you see celebrating here

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like he had scored a goal,

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Juliano Pinto, 29 years old,
accomplished a magnificent deed.

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Despite being paralyzed

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and not having any sensation
from mid-chest to the tip of his toes

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as the result of a car crash six years ago
that killed his brother

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and produced a complete spinal cord lesion
that left Juliano in a wheelchair,

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Juliano rose to the occasion,
and on this day did something

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that pretty much everybody that saw him 
in the six years deemed impossible.

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Juliano Pinto delivered the opening kick

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of the 2014 Brazilian 
World Soccer Cup here

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just by thinking.

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He could not move his body,

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but he could imagine the movements
needed to kick a ball.

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He was an athlete before the lesion.
He's a para-athlete right now.

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He's going to be in the Paralympic Games,
I hope, in a couple years.

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But what the spinal cord lesion 
did not rob from Juliano

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was his ability to dream.

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And dream he did that afternoon,
for a stadium of about 75,000 people

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and an audience of close to a billion
watching on TV.

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And that kick crowned, basically,
30 years of basic research

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studying how the brain,

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how this amazing universe
that we have between our ears

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that is only comparable to universe
that we have above our head

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because it has about 100 billion elements

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talking to each other
through electrical brainstorms,

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what Juliano accomplished
took 30 years to imagine in laboratories

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and about 15 years to plan.

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When John Chapin and I,
15 years ago, proposed in a paper

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that we would build something
that we called a brain-machine interface,

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meaning connecting a brain to devices

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so that animals and humans
could just move these devices,

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no matter how far they are
from their own bodies,

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just by imagining what they want to do,

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our colleagues told us that
we actually needed professional help,

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of the psychiatry variety.

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And despite that,
a Scot and a Brazilian persevered,

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because that's how we were raised
in our respective countries,

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and for 12, 15 years,

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we made demonstration after demonstration
suggesting that this was possible.

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And a brain-machine interface
is not rocket science,

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it's just brain research.

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It's nothing but using sensors

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to read the electrical brainstorms
that a brain is producing

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to generate the motor commands

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that have to be downloaded
to the spinal cord,

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so we projected sensors that can read

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hundreds and now thousands
of these brain cells simultaneously,

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and extract from these electrical signals

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the motor planning
that the brain is generating

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to actually make us move into space.

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And by doing that, we converted
these signals into digital commands

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that any mechanical, electronic,
or even a virtual device can understand

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so that the subject can imagine
what he, she or it wants to make move,

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and the device obeys that brain command.

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By sensorizing these devices
with lots of different types of sensors,

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as you are going to see in a moment,

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we actually sent messages
back to the brain to confirm

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that that voluntary motor will
was being enacted, no matter where --

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next to the subject, next door,
or across the planet.

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And as this message gave feedback
back to the brain,

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the brain realized its goal:
to make us move.

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So this is just one experiment
that we published a few years ago,

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where a monkey, without moving its body,

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learned to control the movements
of an avatar arm,

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a virtual arm that doesn't exist.

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What you're listening to
is the sound of the brain of this monkey

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as it explores three different
visually identical spheres

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in virtual space.

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And to get a reward,
a drop of orange juice that monkeys love,

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this animal has to detect,
select one of these objects

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by touching,

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not by seeing it, by touching it,

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because every time this virtual hand
touches one of the objects,

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an electrical pulse goes back
to the brain of the animal

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describing the fine texture
of the surface of this object,

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so the animal can judge what is 
the correct object that he has to grab,

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and if he does that, he gets a reward
without moving a muscle.

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The perfect Brazilian lunch:

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not moving a muscle
and getting your orange juice.

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So as we saw this happening,

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we actually came and proposed the idea
that we had published 15 years ago.

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We reenacted this paper.

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We got it out of the drawers,

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and we proposed that perhaps we could get
a human being that is paralyzed

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to actually use the brain-machine
interface to regain mobility.

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The idea was that if you suffered --

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and that can happen to any one of us.

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Let me tell you, it's very sudden.

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It's a millisecond of a collision,

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a car accident that
transforms your life completely.

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If you have a complete lesion
of the spinal cord,

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you cannot move because your brainstorms
cannot reach your muscles.

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However, your brainstorms
continue to be generated in your head.

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Paraplegic, quadriplegic patients
dream about moving every night.

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They have that inside their head.

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The problem is how
to get that code out of it

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and make the movement be created again.

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So what we proposed was,
let's create a new body.

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Let's create a robotic vest.

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And that's exactly why Juliano could
kick that ball just by thinking,

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because he was wearing
the first brain-controlled robotic vest

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that can be used by paraplegic,
quadriplegic patients to move

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and to regain feedback.

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That was the original idea, 15 years ago.

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What I'm going to show you is how
156 people from 25 countries

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all over the five continents
of this beautiful Earth,

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dropped their lives,
dropped their patents,

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dropped their dogs, wives,
kids, school, jobs,

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and congregated to come to Brazil
for 18 months to actually get this done.

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Because a couple years after Brazil
was awarded the World Cup,

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we heard that the Brazilian government
wanted to do something meaningful

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in the opening ceremony

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in the country that reinvented
and perfected soccer

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until we met the Germans, of course.

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(Laughter)

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But that's a different talk,

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and a different neuroscientist
needs to talk about that.

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But what Brazil wanted to do
is to showcase

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a completely different country,

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a country that values science
and technology,

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and can give a gift to millions,
25 million people around the world

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that cannot move any longer
because of a spinal cord injury.

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Well, we went to the Brazilian government
and to FIFA and proposed,

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well, let's have the kickoff
of the 2014 World Cup

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be given by a Brazilian paraplegic

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using a brain-controlled exoskeleton
that allows him to kick the ball

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and to feel the contact of the ball.

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They looked at us,
thought that we were completely nuts,

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and said, "Okay, let's try."

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We had 18 months to do everything
from zero, from scratch.

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We had no exoskeleton, we had no patients,

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we had nothing done.

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These people came all together

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and in 18 months, we got eight patients
in a routine of training

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and basically built from nothing this guy,

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that we call Bra-Santos Dumont 1.

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The first brain-controlled
exoskeleton to be built

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was named after the most famous
Brazilian scientist ever,

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Alberto Santos Dumont,

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who, on October 19, 1901,
created and flew himself

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the first controlled airship on air
in Paris for a million people to see.

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Sorry, my American friends,

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I live in North Carolina,

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but it was two years
before the Wright Brothers flew

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on the coast of North Carolina.

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(Applause)

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Flight control is Brazilian.
(Laughter)

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So we went together with these guys

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and we basically put
this exoskeleton together,

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15 degrees of freedom,
hydraulic machine

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that can be commanded by brain signals

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recorded by a non-invasive technology
called electroencephalography

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that can basically allow the patient
to imagine the movements

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and send his commands
to the controls, the motors,

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and get it done.

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This exoskeleton was covered
with an artificial skin

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invented by Gordon Cheng,
one of my greatest friends, in Munich,

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to allow sensation from the joints moving
and the foot touching the ground

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to be delivered back to the patient
through a vest, a shirt.

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It is a smart shirt
with micro-vibrating elements

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that basically delivers the feedback
and fools the patient's brain

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by creating a sensation that it is not
a machine that is carrying him,

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but it is he who is walking again.

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So we got this going,
and what you'll see here

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is the first time one of our patients,
Bruno, actually walked.

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And he takes a few seconds
because we are setting everything,

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and you are going to see a blue light
cutting in front of the helmet

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because Bruno is going to imagine
the movement that needs to be performed,

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the computer is going to analyze it,
Bruno is going to certify it,

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and when it is certified,

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the device starts moving
under the command of Bruno's brain.

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And he just got it right,
and now he starts walking.

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After nine years without
being able to move,

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he is walking by himself.

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And more than that --

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(Applause) --

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more than just walking,

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he is feeling the ground,

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and if the speed of the exo goes up,

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he tells us that he is walking again
on the sand of Santos,

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the beach resort where he used to go
before he had the accident.

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That's why the brain is creating
a new sensation in Bruno's head.

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So he walks, and at the end of the walk --
I am running out of time already --

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he says, "You know, guys,

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I need to borrow this thing from you
when I get married,

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because I wanted to walk to the priest

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and see my bride and actually
be there by myself.

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Of course, he will have it
whenever he wants.

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And this is what we wanted to show
during the World Cup, and couldn't,

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because for some mysterious reason,
FIFA cut its broadcast in half.

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What you are going to see very quickly
is Juliano Pinto in the exo doing the kick

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a few minutes before we went to the pitch

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and did the real thing
in front of the entire crowd,

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and the lights you are going to see
just describe the operation.

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Basically, the blue lights pulsating
indicate that the exo is ready to go.

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It can receive thoughts
and it can deliver feedback,

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and when Juliano
makes the decision to kick the ball,

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you are going to see
two streams of green and yellow light

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coming from the helmet
and going to the legs,

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representing the mental commands
that were taken by the exo

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to actually make that happen.

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And in basically 13 seconds,

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Juliano actually did.

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You can see the commands.

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He gets ready, 
the ball is set, and he kicks.

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And the most amazing thing is,

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10 seconds after he did that,
and looked at us on the pitch,

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he told us, celebrating as you saw,

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"I felt the ball."

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And that's priceless.

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(Applause)

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So where is this going to go?

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I have two minutes to tell you

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that it's going to the limits
of your imagination.

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Brain-actuating technology is here.

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This is the latest: We just
published this a year ago,

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the first brain-to-brain interface

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that allows two animals
to exchange mental messages

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so that one animal that sees something
coming from the environment

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can send a mental SMS,
a torpedo, a neurophysiological torpedo,

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to the second animal,

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and the second animal performs
the act that he needed to perform

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without ever knowing what
the environment was sending as a message,

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because the message came
from the first animal's brain.

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So this is the first demo.

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I'm going to be very quick
because I want to show you the latest.

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But what you see here
is the first rat getting informed

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by a light that is going to show up
on the left of the cage

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that he has to press the left cage
to basically get a reward.

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He goes there and does it.

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And the same time,
he is sending a mental message

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to the second rat
that didn't see any light,

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and the second rat,
in 70 percent of the times

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is going to press the left lever
and get a reward

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without ever experiencing
the light in the retina.

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Well, we took this
to a little higher limit

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by getting monkeys to collaborate 
mentally in a brain net,

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basically to donate their brain activity

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and combine them to move
the virtual arm that I showed you before,

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and what you see here is the first time
the two monkeys combine their brains,

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synchronize their brains perfectly
to get this virtual arm to move.

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One monkey is controlling the x dimension,

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the other monkey
is controlling the y dimension.

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But it gets a little more interesting
when you get three monkeys in there

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and you ask one monkey to control x and y,

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the other monkey to control y and z,

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and the third one to control x and z,

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and you make them all
play the game together,

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moving the arm in 3D into a target
to get the famous Brazilian orange juice.

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And they actually do.

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The black dot is the average
of all these brains working

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in parallel, in real time.

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That is the definition
of a biological computer,

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interacting by brain activity
and achieving a motor goal.

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Where is this going?

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We have no idea.

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We're just scientists.

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(Laughter)

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We are paid to be children,

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to basically go to the edge
and discover what is out there.

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But one thing I know:

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One day, in a few decades,

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when our grandchildren
surf the Net just by thinking,

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or a mother donates her eyesight
to an autistic kid who cannot see,

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or somebody speaks because
of a brain-to-brain bypass,

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some of you will remember
that it all started on a winter afternoon

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in a Brazilian soccer field
with an impossible kick.

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Thank you.

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(Applause)

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Thank you.

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Bruno Giussani: Miguel,
thank you for sticking to your time.

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I actually would have given you
a couple more minutes,

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because there are a couple of points
we want to develop, and, of course,

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clearly it seems that we need connected 
brains to figure out where this is going.

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So let's connect all this together.

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So if I'm understanding correctly,

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one of the monkeys
is actually getting a signal

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and the other monkey
is reacting to that signal

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just because the first one is receiving it
and transmitting the neurological impulse.

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Miguel Nicolelis: 
No, it's a little different.

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No monkey knows of the existence
of the other two monkeys.

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They are getting a visual feedback in 2D,

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but the task they have
to accomplish is 3D.

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They have to move an arm
in three dimensions.

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But each monkey is only getting
the two dimensions on the video screen

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that the monkey controls.

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And to get that thing done,

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you need at least two monkeys
to synchronize their brains,

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but the ideal is three.

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So what we found out is that
when one monkey starts slacking down,

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the other two monkeys
enhance their performance

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to get the guy to come back,

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so this adjusts dynamically,

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but the global synchrony remains the same.

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Now, if you flip
without telling the monkey

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the dimensions that each brain
has to control,

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like this guy is controlling x and y,

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but he should be controlling now y and z,

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instantaneously, that animal's brain
forgets about the old dimensions

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and it starts concentrating
on the new dimensions.

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So what I need to say is
that no Turing machine,

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no computer can predict
what a brain net will do.

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So we will absorb technology
as part of us.

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Technology will never absorb us.

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It's simply impossible.

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BG: How many times have you tested this?

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And how many times
have you succeeded versus failed?

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MN: Oh, tens of times.

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With the three monkeys?
Oh, several times.

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I wouldn't be able to talk about this here
unless I had done it a few times.

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And I forgot to mention, because of time,

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that just three weeks ago,
a European group

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just demonstrated the first
man-to-man brain-to-brain connection.

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BG: And how does that play?

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MN: There was one bit of information --
big ideas start in a humble way --

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but basically the brain activity
of one subject

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was transmitted to a second object,
all non-invasive technology.

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So the first subject got a message,
like our rats, a visual message,

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and transmitted it to the second subject.

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The second subject received
a magnetic pulse in the visual cortex,

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or a different pulse,
two different pulses.

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In one pulse, the subject saw something.

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On the other pulse,
he saw something different.

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And he was able to verbally indicate

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what was the message
the first subject was sending

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through the Internet across continents.

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Moderator: Wow.
Okay, that's where we are going.

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That's the next TED Talk
at the next conference.

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Miguel Nicolelis, thank you.
MN: Thank you, Bruno. Thank you.