14 DAY TRIAL // Being paralyzed from the waist down is among the worst fates, some even considering it worse than death, but it might not be so debilitating in the near future.
You see, bionics, prosthetics and, most importantly, 3D printing technologies have advanced to the point where man-made contraptions can compensate for this condition.
To prove it, a paraplegic will kick off the FIFA World Cup on June 12.
The Walk Again Project has been doing its best to make sure that a person unable to walk or even feel their lower extremities will get up from their wheelchair, walk to the ball and kick it.
They will be outfitted with an at least partially 3D printed set of bionic prosthetics, controlled by the mind, more or less.
Well, not a set of bionic prosthetics exactly, but a bionic exoskeleton, custom-made with 3D printed parts and controlled by a brain-machine interface.
So while the user won't be able to walk on his own legs, exactly, he will be able to control the leg braces to move them for him.
Eventually, this type of exoskeleton could be distributed to everyone suffering from crippling ailments or injuries. There are around 25 million people thus disabled in the whole world.
