Through a high-speed internet connection, the brain signals of a monkey in North Carolina are transmitted to a robot in Kyoto, Japan, where the robot mimics the monkey’s every movement.

This was last week’s joint demonstration put on by the Japan Science And Technology Agency and Duke University, who say it is the first time brain signals have ever been used to make a robot walk. Electronic impulses in the monkey’s brain were transmitted halfway around the world into the robot, demonstrating that signals can be transmitted across the Earth in the same time scale that a biological system works. It is also an exciting experiment that may one day lead to enabling paralyzed people to walk using robotics controlled by brain signals.