Exoskeleton kicks off World Cup

In this edition of the Worldwide wrap a paraplegic man kicked off the soccer World Cup competition in Brazil yesterday using a mind-controlled exoskeleton and Xbox One owners are complaining that a new TV advert is switching their consoles on without their permission. Get the details on these stories and more below.

A 29-year-old paraplegic man kicked off the soccer World Cup competition in Brazil yesterday, using a mind-controlled exoskeleton that looks as if it came from the "Iron Man" movies.

The organisers of the international Walk Again Project said the symbolic soccer-ball kick was performed during the World Cup's opening ceremonies in S~ao Paulo's Corinthians Arena by Juliano Pinto. He's an athlete from Galea in Brazil's S~ao Paulo state who lost the use of his legs after a car accident in 2006.

Duke University neuroscientist Miguel Nicolelis spearheaded a team of more than 150 scientists to create the exoskeleton - an effort that he says cost the Brazilian government $14 million over the past two years.
Via: NBC

Ann Makosinski, a 15-year-old Canadian girl, has developed a flashlight powered by body heat, which can be developed cheaply and deployed to populations that can't afford electricity to light their homes with the aim of reducing the number of single-use batteries that are thrown in landfills.

To create the thermoelectric flashlight, Makosinski used peltier tiles, which produce electricity when heated on one side and cooled on the other. Makosinski fashioned the flashlight out of an aluminium tube housed in a PVC tube with an opening to allow a person's hand to come into contact with the peltier tiles.
Via: Inhabitat

True&Co, a San Francisco-based e-commerce start-up, aims to help women find the right bra for their bodies using data science. Each True&Co customer takes a two-minute quiz about her body before buying a bra. Then, much like Netflix does with TV and movies, True&Co shows each shopper bras from a variety of brands that are a good fit for her based on the quiz.

The problem Michelle Lam, the founder and CEO, is trying to solve is the fact that most women are wearing the wrong bras.
Via: Wired

Researchers at Ohio's University of Akron think they have found the solution to make users screen shatterproof by creating a coating for smartphone glass made up of copper nanowires that makes the screens more flexible and all-around tougher.

The new coating that the team has created consists of a network of linked copper nanowires that can be deposited directly on rigid glass or flexible polymer sheets through a process that is scalable for mass production.

The researchers tested the coating on transparent polymer and it retained its conductivity after having Scotch tape repeatedly applied to and removed from the surface and it was bent 1 000 times without any loss of conductivity.
Via: Tree Hugger

Xbox One owners are complaining that a new TV advert is switching their consoles on without their permission.

The ad - featuring Breaking Bad's Aaron Paul - has the actor say "Xbox On" near its start.

The instruction appears to trigger the machine's Kinect voice/motion sensor, activating the console.

A spokesman for the firm said it had no comment at this time, but noted that previous ads had also featured voice commands.
Via: BBC

A 360-degree virtual training programme has been created using the Oculus Rift headset to prepare the medical teams for the realities of war.

The technology uses 'head tracking' to enable the user to look around the virtual world they have entered, just as they can in real life.

Essex-based developers Plextek Consulting and Bespoke VR created the virtual simulation using the Facebook-owned technology, so trainee medics can assist injured soldiers in life-like battle scenarios.

The simulation emulates pre-hospital care on the battlefield and allows trainees to negotiate and prioritise clinical needs.
Via: Daily Mail