????在今年巴西世界杯揭幕戰上，開球的是一個名叫朱利亞諾?平托，雙腿癱瘓的殘疾青年。憑借身上穿戴的一套“外骨骼裝置”，他僅靠自己的意念就完成了開球動作——沒錯，既不靠按鈕，也不靠肌肉，而是靠腦電波。

????拜腦電圖傳感器（EEG）所賜，這套裝置背后的工程師團隊成功開發了一套似乎能夠閱讀大腦意圖的系統。當然，要讀懂一個人的心并不容易，所以朱利亞諾?平托必須要學會如何去“想”——他要把這個動作想上一會兒，才能讓這套裝置明白他的意圖。

????外骨骼系統一直是漫畫書和未來風格電影中不可缺少的元素之一，但現在，它們已不再是一種科學幻想了。根據市場調研公司WinterGreen提供的數據，康復機器人、機械假肢和外骨骼系統的市場價值已經達到4,300萬美元，到2020年預計將達到18億美元。幾乎可以肯定，要不了多久，我們就會看到許多人穿戴著各種各樣的機械做越來越多的事情。

????這并不是說以后你的西裝下面也會藏著一套“鋼鐵俠戰衣”（當然你也可以選擇這么做）。你需要穿戴哪種機器，很大程度上取決于你需要完成的工作。比如寶馬公司(BMW)今年一月宣布，該公司研制了一種新型手套，其主要功能是，在工人往車身框架的排水孔上塞橡膠塞（為了方便噴漆）時，可以減輕手指的壓力。雖然這似乎并不是多么驚人的功能，但此類工具的應用只會變得越來越精巧。

????外骨骼系統據稱是這些工具中最復雜的類別。它們不僅可以讓我們更輕易地完成一個簡單的動作，而且還有可能幫助我們完成人體能夠做到的最復雜的動作。在外骨骼系統的幫助下，殘疾人也可以完成并體驗之前幾乎不可能做到的事，比如走路。另外，外骨骼系統還能幫助健康人（比如士兵）跑得更快、負載更多東西。

????不管是簡單的還是復雜的，這些機器人設備為什么一夜之間離我們如此之近？說來也奇怪，這恰恰是由于智能手機的崛起，Mail.ru集團首席執行官，Grishin Robotics公司創始人，企業家，投資人德米特里?格里辛這樣說道。

????他指出：“歸功于科技革命和智能手機的興起，很多并非為機器人設計的元件，比如攝像頭、傳感器、電池和處理器等等，都變得非常便宜了。這從根本上改變了整個行業的面貌?！?/p>

????外骨骼裝置以及其它一些沒有那么復雜的可穿戴機械設備，很可能會率先在以下三個市場上出現。它們分別是：醫療設備行業、重工業和軍事領域。

????At this year’s FIFA World Cup, the first kick was delivered by a man with paralyzed legs, Juliano Pinto. He was wearing an elaborate exoskeleton suit that enabled him to, remarkably, tap a soccer ball with his foot using only his mind—no buttons, no muscles, just brainwaves.

????The engineers behind the suit had developed a system that appears to read the brain’s intentions courtesy of electroencephalographic, or EEG, sensors. It’s not that simple to read someone’s mind, of course, so Pinto had to learn to think—ponder that one for a moment—in such a way that would give the suit orders it could understand.

????Exoskeletons have long been a fixture of comic books and futuristic movies, but they aren’t science fiction any more. According to the market research firm WinterGreen Research, the market for rehabilitation robots, active prostheses, and exoskeletons is already worth $43 million and is projected to reach $1.8 billion by 2020. That many people will soon wear different kinds of machines to get more work done is, at this point, nearly a given.

????That’s not to say that you will have motors and gears hidden inside your chalk-stripe suit. (Well, you might.) The type of machine to use will largely depend on the type of work to accomplish. For example, BMW announced in January the creation of a new glove that takes the stress off of a single action—inserting a rubber plug in a car’s frame to close drain holes for the paint coat—for workers in its factories. A modest start, sure, but the applications for such tools will only become more elaborate.

????Exoskeletons are arguably the most complex category of these tools. They don’t just promise to make it easier to complete a simple action; they promise to support or accomplish some of the most complicated maneuvers our bodies are capable of. With exoskeletons, people with disabilities can do and experience much more than they might have otherwise had reason to believe possible, such as walking. Exoskeletons also promise to allow able-bodied people, such as soldiers, run faster and carry more than the average human body otherwise would.

????Simple or complex, why are all of these robotic devices suddenly possible? Oddly enough, it’s because of the rise of the smartphone, says Dmitry Grishin, an entrepreneur and investor who serves as chief executive of Mail.ru Group and founded Grishin Robotics.

????“Right now, because of the revolution in technology and smartphones. a lot of components that weren’t designed for robots—cameras, sensors, batteries, processors, and all of that—have become really cheap,” he says. “And that has completely changed the whole industry.”

????There are three markets where exoskeletons and their less sophisticated siblings are most likely to first appear: the medical devices industry, heavy industry, and the military. Here’s a look at each.