Ike
10/2/2009, 12:17 AM
Better start stocking up on pesticides.
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn17895-freeflying-cyborg-insects-steered-from-a-distance.html
Free-flying cyborg insects steered from a distance
It's tempting to call them lords of the flies. For the first time, researchers have controlled the movements of free-flying insects from afar, as if they were tiny remote-controlled aircraft.
By connecting electrodes and radio antennas to the nervous systems of beetles, the researchers were able to make them take off, dive and turn on command. The cyborg insects were created at the University of California, Berkeley, by engineers led by Hirotaka Sato and Michel Maharbiz as part of a programme funded by the Pentagon's Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).
The project's goal is to create fully remote-controlled insects able to perform tasks such as looking for survivors after a disaster, or acting as the ultimate spy.
http://brightcove.newscientist.com/services/player/bcpid1873822884?bctid=42939806001
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn17895-freeflying-cyborg-insects-steered-from-a-distance.html
Free-flying cyborg insects steered from a distance
It's tempting to call them lords of the flies. For the first time, researchers have controlled the movements of free-flying insects from afar, as if they were tiny remote-controlled aircraft.
By connecting electrodes and radio antennas to the nervous systems of beetles, the researchers were able to make them take off, dive and turn on command. The cyborg insects were created at the University of California, Berkeley, by engineers led by Hirotaka Sato and Michel Maharbiz as part of a programme funded by the Pentagon's Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA).
The project's goal is to create fully remote-controlled insects able to perform tasks such as looking for survivors after a disaster, or acting as the ultimate spy.
http://brightcove.newscientist.com/services/player/bcpid1873822884?bctid=42939806001