A recent commercial in the Super Bowl showing paralyzed actor Christopher Reeve walking drew world-wide attention to the possibility of major breakthroughs for the disabled. Is it a real possibility? Ed Yeates has an amazing story about how some people are literally getting "rewired."

When most of us think of moving an arm or leg - it just happens. Quadraplegics who come to rehab hospitals think about those same movements, but the message from the brain never gets through.

In the movie "Robocop," a badly injured man walks and moves again because scientists find a way to mesh man and machine. Though it appears far-fetched - the concept is real!

A tiny set of electrodes developed by University of Utah bioengineers and implanted in the brain could bypass a spinal cord injury and relay messages to a wheelchair, an artificial leg or an arm and hand.

Engineers have already perfected robotic arms and limbs which mimic human dexterity and grace. Now imagine them - like a lightweight exoskeleton - covering immobilized parts of the body.

These newly developed electrodes would dispatch commands from inside the brain - and the machinery would move.

Dr. Ed Maynard / University of Utah Bioengineering: "SO IN A SENSE YOU HAVE AN INDIVIDUAL WHO IS A PASSENGER ON A ROBOTIC VEHICLE THAT IS ALLOWING HIM TO MOVE AROUND AND STAND AND WALK."

21-year-old Jared Kehl has his whole life ahead of him. He does well on his own and holds down a good job. But imagine how much more he could do if technology could give him added mobility.

"ANYTHING TO HELP ME STAND UP WOULD BE GREAT."

Jared Kehl: "IT WOULD BE NICE TO FINALLY STAND UP AND WIPE MY ROOF OFF FOR ONCE AND GET IT ALL CLEAN."

Moving exoskeletons - commanded by the brain - are still a long way off. Closer are a new generation of wheelchairs.

"THE PRIME CANDIDATE IS TO PROVIDE WHEELCHAIRS THAT CAN IN FACT MOVE JUST BY THOUGHT ALONE."

The first step - map patterns of activity in the brain - directly related to specific commands. For example this is the area of the brain which makes both sides of the mouth move. And this area makes one knee move.

For someone like Christopher Reeve - brain commands for moving forward, left, or right, could be relayed to a new wheelchair.

He thinks of a move, the electrodes send the command, and the wheelchair responds!

University of Utah scientists will begin implanting electrodes in human patients within a month. But these early experiments are only to get a better understanding of how command centers in the brain work. Actual clinical trials are still a long way off.