 In one week, a paralyzed volunteer will walk onto the field of the World Cup and, with the help of a robotic exoskeleton, open the games with a ceremonial kick. There is no joystick or steering wheel involved here. The person inside is controlling the suit with just their mind. It's one of the most advanced versions of a brain-machine interface, or BMI. And while it sounds like science fiction, it's actually just the latest proof we've entered the cyborg era. This suit was created by the Walk Again Project, a consortium of over 100 neuroscientists and engineers from around the world. It's spearheaded by Dr. Miguel Nicoleles and his colleagues at the Duke Center for Neuroengineering, building on more than 40 years of research on how to record and translate the electrical activity in our brains, the natural language of thought, into commands that a computer can understand. BMI research began in the lab with rats and monkeys. Scientists were able to gather data on mental activity by implanting microelectrodes into the animals' brains. Beginning in 2000, they were able to take that information and translate it in real time so that a monkey, for example, could use its mind to control a robotic arm. In one of Dr. Nicoleles' most famous experiments, a monkey in the lab at Duke was able to make a robot in Japan walk simply by thinking about moving its legs. In recent years, scientists have been working to bring the advances from the lab to humans in the real world. But there's one major challenge. Most people aren't willing to get the kind of invasive surgery and implants necessary to gather enough data. The Walk Again Project solves that big challenge. It works using an EEG headset that is able to gather enough brain activity to control a robotic suit without any invasive surgery. As BMI continues to improve, it holds great promise for people with lost mobility or limbs. DARPA's DECA arm, a BMI-controlled prosthetic, for example, has already been approved by the FDA for testing outside the lab. The big transformation, however, will come when this technology is deployed not just to help those with medical need, but to augment and improve the abilities of everyday people. From soldiers to construction workers to extreme athletes, BMI may push human bodies well beyond their natural limits. As we learn how to translate the language of the brain in real time, BMI may also open up new avenues for communication. At the University of Washington earlier this year, researchers demonstrated a brain-to-brain interface in which one subject could use his thoughts to control the movement of the person he was connected to. BMI advocates like Dr. Nicoleli's hope that in the future, this kind of technology may allow us not just to control robots, but to share our thoughts, memories, and emotions with our fellow humans in a neural network that connects us all.