Scientists have given a boy with disabilities the ability to play the piano – by just blinking his eyes.
Thanks to a revolutionary piece of virtual reality technology, the youngster was able to play the whole of Joy To The World at his school's Christmas concert, accompanied by a choir of classmates in wheelchairs.
The moving footage is now on YouTube and it really shows the power of science to help overcome disability.
It shows the unnamed Japanese boy, who is confined to a wheelchair, wearing a Virtual Reality headset called Eye Play the Piano.
The headset – a collaboration of Japanese manufacturer Fove and the University of Tsukuba – tracks the eye movement of its wearers, who blink on panels within the interface to trigger a preferred note. The note is then sent to the piano.
After only four months of practice, the schoolboy plays the piano for the December 2014 Christmas concert at the University of Tsukuba's Special Needs Education School for the Physically Challenged.
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As he enters the concert hall, the boy puts on the headset which allows him to see a chart of colours, each of which represents a piano key. He then focuses on the key colour he wants to play and blinks to play the note.
The results are profoundly moving as the boy slowly blinks his way through the famous Christmas carol while wheelchair-bound students sing along. At the end, the lad receives a rapturous round of applause.
Fove's chief executive Yuka Kojima said: "The idea of expression coming only from the actions of the human eyes does not only apply to playing the piano but we also believe that this technology can open up many new possibilities to all humans."
Fove wants to raise 1.5million yen (£8,450) via their Just Giving page so they can send the hardware to 135 schools for physically-disabled children around Japan.