Paralysed man drinks beer by himself after 13 years by using his mind

34 years old Eric Sorto is right now enjoying the time of his life. He was a Quadriplegic for 13 years, due to a gunshot wound when he was 21.

Since then, he has not been able to move his hands and legs.

Respite came his way, when Caltech, Keck School of Medicine of USC and Rancho Los Amigos National Rehabilitation Center collaborated to try out a Mind-Controlled Robot Arm which they recently developed.

According to Sorter, “I joke around with the guys that I want to be able to drink my own beer , to be able to take a drink at my own pace, when I want to take a sip out of my beer and to not have to ask somebody to give it to me.”

In an official statement, Dr. Richard Andersen, a Caltech neuroscience professor said: "When you move your arm, you really don't think about which muscles to activate and the details of the movement -- such as lift the arm, extend the arm, grasp the cup, close the hand around the cup, and so on. Instead, you think about the goal of the movement. For example, 'I want to pick up that cup of water. So in this trial, we were successfully able to decode these actual intents, by asking the subject to simply imagine the movement as a whole, rather than breaking it down into myriad components."

See the excitement in his face, in this video.