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DARPA shows off its remote-controlled cyborg beetles
Yep. You read that right: cyborg beetles. Remote controlled ones, no less. It's the work of a team of puppet masters over at UC Berkley, who have successfully wired up beetles with electrodes that allow them to be controlled remotely.
"We demonstrated the remote control of insects in free flight via an implantable radioequipped miniature neural stimulating system," the team reported in a paper titled Frontiers in Integrative Neuroscience. "The pronotum mounted system consisted of neural stimulators, muscular stimulators, a radio transceiver-equipped microcontroller and a microbattery."
The research is (of course) sponsored by DARPA, and the UC Berkley team isn't the only group reporting success — researchers at the University of Michigan have their very own cyborg moth.
Tomorrow's headline? "Cyber Beetle to Take Cyborg Moth This Sunday SUNDAY SUNDAY!"
Wired, via Geekologie
By Old Man Dotes at 4:44 PM ON 09/25/09
This will be a lot more fun when the Japanese bring in their own cyborg moth - a hundred-foot wingspan and supersonic, it's Mothra!
By Hank Jekyll at 5:05 PM ON 09/25/09
This is some real futurisitc stuff right here. Every movie I've ever seen with micro-brain-control-chips is suddenly seeming less fake. Super soldiers here we come!!!
By TearEmUp at 7:15 PM ON 09/25/09
Yeah, I remember the remote control beetle from The Fifth Element.....
By dashiell hammett at 6:23 AM ON 09/26/09
This technology isn't new. Didn't Dick Cheney had one implanted in Bush years ago.
By pakodoom at 9:01 AM ON 09/26/09
does anyone else feel slightly sorry for that beetle getting prodded with electrodes to fly around in circles like a poorly operated kid's RC helicopter? running the sorry little beast into walls and such? it doesn't seem very fun for it
By Jessica Hellerman at 10:31 AM ON 09/26/09
@pakodoom that was my first reaction. poor little things been controlled by shock therapy to slam into walls.
By promet at 2:07 PM ON 09/26/09
Wow, that's rather...horrible. The lack of empathy it takes to doggedly pursue something like that is remarkable.
By dj57 at 3:15 PM ON 09/26/09
O.K. Ugh!!, I love my little town; and I know it's full of the smartest, cutest people like totally ever....but sometime yewwwwww.
By mcborge at 10:30 AM ON 09/27/09
surley the speed at wich robotics and micro flight control is advancing, this kind of research is a dead end. I bet this poor hercules beetle is not a willing subject, plus dvice the forward carapace is called a pronatum not pronotum.
By mrecho at 4:08 AM ON 10/01/09
What i see its just a show of how the future soldiers will take commands,decisions etc.... And prolly not only soldiers..... cheers....
By Teknogeist at 5:20 AM ON 10/01/09
Very crude and rudimentary controls so far. But it's only a matter of time before they attach optics on these things and drop them from predator drones to spy on the mooj's in the dirt huts, and perhaps even inject a poison to assasinate them while they're sleeping. Talk about a bug bite.
By leodavinci at 11:58 AM ON 10/01/09
@Promet, forget the lack of empathy.
How about a lack of simple foresight as to what this will eventually lead to.
By Beetlejuice at 1:13 PM ON 10/01/09
Doesn't everyone realize this technology has been around for years? Just look at how the democrats blindly follow each other....
By Darth Rock at 1:19 PM ON 10/01/09
TearEmUp said: Yeah, I remember the remote control beetle from The Fifth Element.....
That was a roach... ;-) Anyway... this is creepy... how long now before we're swatting cyborg beetle/moth spies creeping into our homes and not even Raid can kill them?
By Whatwhatwhat at 2:53 PM ON 10/01/09
Doesn't everyone realize this technology has been around for years? Just look at how the Republicans blindly follow each other...
By dmmerchant at 3:00 PM ON 10/01/09
Terrorists would love this - they could force even more ppl to become suicide bombers (murderer bombers, I mean). They already use mentally challenged ppl and kids, they would have no shame, no qualms, to use. This poor beetle is a higher life form than they (is their a paradise for beetles? they deserve it more than murderers).
By whipit at 4:47 PM ON 10/01/09
Doesn't everyone realize this technology has been around for years? Just look at how the Politicians blindly follow each other...
By jahman at 12:04 PM ON 10/02/09
my money's on the beetle - the moth doesn't stand a chance.
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