Radio Controlled Cyborg Insects At MEMS 2009 46
Frankie Modellismo writes "During MEMS 2009, a Micro Electro Mechanical Systems conference taking place in Sorrento (near Naples in Italy), the University of California, Berkeley showed a wireless system to control a live rhinoceros beetle. The researchers controlled the movement of the beetle thanks to six electrodes installed in the insect's brain. The rhinoceros beetles can carry up to 3gr, and fly carrying the control module that weighs a little more than 1 gr." The page is in Italian, but the pictures speak for themselves.
I for one... (Score:1, Funny)
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Call me stupid (Score:2)
By why isn't MEMS used to make better STMs and AFMs? .. which you could use to make even smaller machines .. which could be used to make even smaller machines .. until you get to this stuff [molecularassembler.com].
It's like they're not even trying.
Re: (Score:2, Interesting)
If you don't understand the principles of construction, better tools aren't automatically going to lead to better construction (perhaps you mean that having better tools is a worthwhile motivation for better understanding of the principles, but then, maybe the problem is that it is 'hard').
engrish (Score:4, Informative)
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Better link (Score:3, Informative)
English version [nikkeibp.co.jp]
Ethics (Score:2)
This can surely cause some ethical discussions. Next we try to poke into a mouse, cat, dog,... human. The real question we should be asking here whether this should be done all the way.
I can see the benefits of using external stimuli, but when does that go over to control. A grey area ahead...
Re: Ethics (Score:2)
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Next we try to poke into a mouse, cat, dog,...
Actually in 2002 humans were able to control rat by stimulating specific parts of its brain, similary to this bug. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Guided_rat [wikipedia.org]
There is also a US patent on this: http://www.freepatentsonline.com/5791294.html [freepatentsonline.com]
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,a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xk_7eTGF0N4">This has been done to a cat in the 1960s already.
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This has been done to a cat in the 1960s already. [youtube.com]
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While looking at the video you linked to, I came across this: Cyborg insects [youtube.com]. It is a video from NewScientist that shows wired moths. They also show a clip where they are studying the moth's vision for use in robotics.
Interesting stuff...
For two or 3 sxecs, i was imagining... (Score:1)
cybersects... talk about boosting performance and output...
Beware of article link (Score:3, Informative)
Re:Beware of article link (Score:5, Funny)
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Now I gotta go back and look at that damn gallery, thanks a lot.
And yes, I AM at work :P
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I wish there was more text to go with that bikini girl, so I could understand why she's holding a hammer, while bending toward a vise...
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It's not a hammer, it's a mallet.
If it was a hammer, I'd expect to see something getting nailed.
But that's definitely a mallet, so maybe somethings just going to get whacked.
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damnit i can't stop! there is a "page 2" link at the bottom, but no page 3 =( and it's all in italian, but goddamn!
What's a gr? (Score:2)
Did they mean a gram [wikipedia.org]?
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Did that 30 years ago ... (Score:1)
... by tying a string around the beetle I could make that thing go where ever I wanted.
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On a more serious note, How good is the flight control on this thing? Also, where can I get the schematics and a bunch of Rhinoceros Beatles?
Science Fiction calls it first! (Score:2)
That is right out of The Fifth Element when someone is spying on the president using a remote-controlled live beetle.
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It was a cockroach...
girl in ad (Score:1)
Just Pictures (Score:4, Funny)
Yes the pictures do speak for themselves. But where are the details? I can tie an SBC to the back of my dog's head and then wrap some wire to it's nose also. That doesn't make it a remote controlled dog.
I want proof and a blueprint on how to do this to a beautiful woman, just saying.
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Yes the pictures do speak for themselves. But where are the details? I can tie an SBC to the back of my dog's head and then wrap some wire to it's nose also. That doesn't make it a remote controlled dog.
I want proof and a blueprint on how to do this to a beautiful woman, just saying.
No problem [burchardgalleries.com].
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No, that makes it a dog tied to a small-block chev.
While that might be fine for either a car geek or a redneck, I'm still wondering why you'd do it.
~/Rockwolf
anyone heard of animal cruelty? (Score:1)
No I'm not a secret PETA spy or anything, and I'm not a conservative type, just a somewhat normal ordinary IT person. Can't help but think that this is animal cruelty tho, even if it is just a beetle. Electrodes implanted in its head to make it fly wherever you want? Thats not interesting, its sick.
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Electrodes implanted in its head to make it fly wherever you want? Thats not interesting, its sick.
Not any more than a bug zapper or pesticides.
As for interesting, I would find it very interesting to be able to decode information from the bug's vision sensors. It might help create working artificial eyes or robotic vision systems.
Now, if they decide to pack these in plastic and sell them at WallMart as toys, I might object.
Apparently, they've got lots of control... (Score:2)
They implanted a module with six neural electrodes into the beetles when they were still in the pupae stage, and so the beetles mature, they have the electronics already embedded into their bodies. At that point, a battery pack and receiver are added, and by sending radio signals, the beetle can be made to take off, land, fly forwards and backwards, and steer left and right.
Source [botjunkie.com]
/. articles are so-so, some are amazing, and every once in a great while there's one that ... well, kinda scares the shit out of me.
... Are you a little creeped out because you believe beetles may have some form of free will and even if it's "just a beetle" they shouldn't be flown about like some kind of "machine"? What if we managed to create a machine with the intelligence of a Beetle? Not at all an unreasonab
Alot of
This is one of those articles. Does this article kind of creep you out?
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Beatles don't have a higher brain. They don't even have the ability to feel pain. There is no personality or emotions in these animals. They are (compared to more complex animals) simplistic, biological machines. They do not have rights, nor can they demand them. Quit anthropomorphizing. Do you feel bad about the billions upon billions of bacteria that have been experimented on, had their DNA manipulated, and their kin slaughtered?
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Wait, what are those things that unthinkingly regurgitate stuff they've been fed without thinking? Right, simplistic biological machines.
But the battery... (Score:1)
nsfw (Score:1)