DARPA Creates Remote Controlled Insects

EmagGeek writes "Attempts by the US Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to create cybernetic insects (hybrids of biological and electronic 'bugs') have yielded ultra-low power radios to control the bugs' flight and a method of powering those circuits by harvesting energy, according to research that will be reported this week at the IEEE International Solid-State Circuits Conference. 'Electrodes and a control chip are inserted into a moth during its pupal stage. When the moth emerges the electrodes stimulate its muscles to control its flight. I expect a run on bug zappers any day."

Comments

I, for one, welcome our new Insect Overlords

[relikx]

If you sign up now you won't get hive duty and can assist as a pollinator.

Re:I, for one, welcome our new Insect Overlords

[conureman]

This sounds far too inexpensive to trust our Fearless Leaders with. The only thing that has saved us so far is the cost of deployment.

Re:I, for one, welcome our new Insect Overlords

[relikx]

Point taken unless Klax'nor is at the other end of the remote and they start swarming.

Re:I, for one, welcome our new Insect Overlords

[morgan_greywolf]

Well, I for one, welcome our new^H^H^Hold dupe posting editors.

Re:I, for one, welcome our new Insect Overlords

[thePowerOfGrayskull]

Hm, not sure how this is a dup? Original article said what BAE systems were working on in the UK (but did not even have a working prototype of); this article says what DARPA and Boyce are working on in the US (but also no working prototype).

Too, DARPA's project seems to be focused on combining bio and electronic/mechanical systems, while BAE's was basically a robot.

Re:I, for one, welcome our new Insect Overlords

[fractoid]

"You really think these guys spend $1500 on a hammer?"

Re:I, for one, welcome our new Insect Overlords

[Denihil]

No, i think the taxpayers spend $1500 on a hammer. Sucks for them! Oh wait....dammit.

Re:I, for one, welcome our new Insect Overlords

[Migity]

No it was just a small bug.

Re:I, for one, welcome our new Insect Overlords

[FiloEleven]

On behalf of English-speaking readers everywhere, I ask you to PLEASE refrain from abbreviating "duplicate" by using the word "dup." You may pronounce it "doop" but the rest of us can't help but hear the little reading voice in our heads say "dhupp!" The sheer glee with which it utters the errant syllable is enough to drive one mad. I feel dumber for having allowed it to traverse my neural pathways. The "e" is silent, but that doesn't make it unimportant.

Thank you.

Re:I, for one, welcome our new Insect Overlords

[endymion.nz]

A hammer is never just a hammer when it is bought by the military. It is a hammer, enough replacement hammers for the projected life of the hammer, training to use those hammers, etc etc.

Re:I, for one, welcome our new Insect Overlords

[FiloEleven]

No. If I take the pills, giant insects peer at me through my windows at night. The pills must change my body chemistry and attract them. At least, that's what I thought at first. Now I'm pretty sure that they're mutated chip-implanted insect overlords from Homeland Security.

Re:I, for one, welcome our new Insect Overlords

[thePowerOfGrayskull]

Pronounce it dhup if you wish. Me, I pronounce it "George" every time I read it.

Re:I, for one, welcome our new Insect Overlords

[FiloEleven]

Oh, well that's all right then.

Carry on.

Bugs?

[Locke2005]

Queue avalanche of "debugging" jokes in 4... 3... 2...

Re:Bugs?

[PrescriptionWarning]

1... 0... -1... -2... -3...

oops, sorry the damn while loop was never told to break at 0, looks like it will just have to wait till CTRL+C!

Re:Bugs?

[Eudial]

... -4... 1... -14... 23... 5.

Re:Bugs?

[Arthur Grumbine]

Someone better debug the countdown timer again...

Re:Bugs?

[ndege]

CTRL+C .... CTRL+C .... [no response]... ALT+SysRq+B

It hasn't happened!!

[Marc_Hawke]

What a waste of time. They are presenting papers about what their research goals are. They haven't actually done it yet.

There are other people with research goals to find a cure for cancer....but that's not news.

Re:It hasn't happened!!

[flaming error]

> Re:It hasn't happened!!
Citation Needed.

FTA:

Boyce Thompson Institute ... presented progress.. describing silicon neural interfaces for gas sensors that were inserted into insects during the pupal phase. ... Researchers led by DARPA contractor MIT will present a low-power ultrawide-band radio, a digital baseband processor, and a piezoelectric energy-harvesting system that scavenges power from vibrations.

I didn't find a more specific article, but it sounds to me like they've got some working hardware they're going to demo. If I'm reading it wrong, I'd appreciate a better link.

Re:It hasn't happened!!

[DrLang21]

They are presenting papers about what their research goals are. They haven't actually done it yet.

Welcome to academia. Have a nice stay.

Re:It hasn't happened!!

[tsa]

Yeah let's scrap all research that doesn't have to do with cancer. Great idea.

Hmm.

[contra_mundi]

Extra meaning for the phrase "bugged"?

Re:I saw this in a B movie on the sci-fi channel.

[ink]

That was a miniseries called Charlie Jade. Not the best acting, and they fucked the story up a bit -- but I still enjoyed it.

They would have had this technology ages ago

[dmomo]

But in QA they decided they were to buggy.

potential application:

[circletimessquare]

they should outfit their zombie remote control insects with some sort of nanobot syringe that injects enemy troops with some sort of bioweapon, such as an intracellular parasite genetically attuned to weaken enemy troops and render them unable to fight

oh, wait...

Re:potential application:

[fractoid]

If they ever do implement such a crazy scheme, I bet they codename it "Bad Air" or something.

countermeasures?

[Anonymous Coward]

I have a batch of Made-In-USA cyber-bats for sale to combat this threat. Buy American!

Can I Get One for Me?

[Bob9113]

Can I get one of these things to take my lazy butt down to the gym in the morning?

Re:I saw this in a B movie on the sci-fi channel.

[someone1234]

I saw a bugged cockroach in Fifth Element too.
I hope one day they will be able to reconstruct a person from fragment DNA too :)

Re:I saw this in a B movie on the sci-fi channel.

[Jabbrwokk]

I recall a remote-controlled cockroach in this movie...

Kind of gives new meaning to the "this room is bugged" cliche.

Re:I saw this in a B movie on the sci-fi channel.

[cHALiTO]

I hope they can reconstruct my own personal Milla Jovovich from fragment DNA :)

This gives a whole new meaning...

[spinlight]

... to the act of filing a "Bug Report".
"What did the bugs report today?"
"Don't ask me, it was filed in the bug report."
"Have the bugs reported?"
"Not yet, but they'll be buzzing the tower in a few minutes."

So then.

[unity100]

do we know what fucked up mutations these stuff may eventually bring ?
 
what if a harmful mutation starts to breed like there's no tomorrow ? WHO will fix it ?

Re:So then.

[rahuja]

Nope, I don't think WHO (World Health Organization) will fix it.

Oh, you meant, who will fix it. Nevermind then.

Re:So then.

[geekoid]

It's an implanted device. It can't mutate.

You might as well wonder what will happen if you cell phone mutates.

Re:So then.

[Dekker3D]

you.. bastard! why'd you have to tell me about that? now i can't even trust my phone anymore!

*sigh*
*puts on a little tinfoil hat*

Re:So then.

[John Hasler]

*puts on a little tinfoil hat*

Don't leave it on too long. The tin whiskers could grow right into your brain.

And then there is tin disease ...

At mere $3,000,000 per bug...

[Phizzle]

At mere $3,000,000 per bug our government will create swarms of moths to charge into the windshields of Taliban truckers and irk the crap out of them.

Re:At mere $3,000,000 per bug...

[MichaelSmith]

At mere $3,000,000 per bug our government will create swarms of moths to charge into the windshields of Taliban truckers and irk the crap out of them.

No they will take up residence in Osama's beard.

Re:At mere $3,000,000 per bug...

[jamstar7]

No, those are the $5,000,000 fleas. The $3,000,000 moths are just prototypes.

Timeliness

[overshoot]

ding to research that will be reported this week at the IEEE International Solid-State Circuits Conference

Nice future tense, there. The fact that ISSCC was last week -- ten days ago -- shouldn't be allowed to interfere with anyone's plans to attend.

Re:Timeliness

[myspace-cn]

Don't ya get it yet?

Timing is a weapon.

Obligatory...

[GlobalColding]

ZOMG, do they run Linux?!

Re:Obligatory...

[SpartaChris]

zOMG!

Re:I saw this in a B movie on the sci-fi channel.

[moteyalpha]

The problem is she would probably clone me from a fragment of my DNA and leave you.

War of the Bugs

[mezzaninex]

I saw a demonstration of something just like this at UC Berkeley. Cool stuff. http://www.eecs.berkeley.edu/Research/Projects/Data/105682.html

Video of RC Beetle

[velocirupture]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hFguLwUT5lg. they don't mention range though...

Moses claims prior art . . .

[PolygamousRanchKid]

. . . didn't he have swarms of 'dem critters? Sicked 'em on the Ancient Egyptians, and stuff. Since Moses was a meticulous man, he probably kept the blueprints for his remote controlled insects in a safe place. All we need to do is find the Ark of the Covenant; the plans are probably in there.

Or have the patents belonging to biblical leaders expired already?

And if you need God to power the insects, that might be a bit of a problem. Only CERN has that much energy at their disposal.

I think I saw this before

[mahohmei]

This was in an episode of the 1960s spy comedy "Get Smart", where Max was shown their new, multimillion-dollar insect microphone, and he destroyed it by swatting it with a newspaper. Repeated in the 2008 movie when The Rock kills the bug with his hand.

I could never do that research in my house. "Look honey, this is my new remote controlled..." MEOW! *swat* *nom nom nom*

Re:I think I saw this before

[Viraptor]

I could never do that research in my house. "Look honey, this is my new remote controlled..." MEOW! *swat* *nom nom nom*

A wife that goes "MEOW" and eats bugs would really disturb me. But if you like that...

Re:I think I saw this before

[jamstar7]

A wife that goes "MEOW" and eats bugs would really disturb me. But if you like that...

She can has cheeseburger?

The good news is...

[greenguy]

...they can control the bugs' muscles, thus making them fly.

The bad news is, they have to push the button dozens of time per second.

"oops"

[Collinp6]

I wonder how much you would have to pay if you squashed one of these things by accident...

Still can't resist the sex...

[7Prime]

He cites some limitations for insects, including a tendency for moths to approach light sources (the proverbial flames) and a powerful sex pheromone response that could override attempts at remote electronic control. "Pheromones are incredibly powerful," he says.

Even billions of dollars in US military funding can't keep a moth from getting laid.

Re:Still can't resist the sex...

[Arancaytar]

On the other hand, Slashdot can accomplish the same for millions of nerds with no government funding at all!

Re:Still can't resist the sex...

[Benfea]

The whole moths-flying-at-light sources isn't about mating, it's a malfunction of their navigation methods.

Resistence is futile!

[N3wsByt3]

I, for one, welcome our new cybernetic-cockroaches Overlords!

Re:Resistence is futile!

[JoeMerchant]

See also: http://games.slashdot.org/firehose.pl?op=view&id=3295039

Re:I saw this in a B movie on the sci-fi channel.

[ijakings]

I remember something similar sounding in Time Crisis 4, which incase anyone was wondering is the worst time crisis ive ever seen.

I know you arent, but I dont care.

Re:How will they exploit this against the people?

[Anonymous Coward]

It's easy to call somebody a troll when you have mod points, but it's even easier than that to blindly accept everything you're told.

This has been achieved... here are some videos.

[Anonymous Coward]

One group of researchers doing this sort of control of moths:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DP9ZA8dUU5g&NR=1

Another group that does metabolic research of moths to see how much they can carry and how long they can fly for:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JFKEWDfDO1A

"War of the Coprophages"

[Anonymous Coward]

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/War_of_the_Coprophages/

Cellphones mutating?

[Anonymous Coward]

Its more likely than you think. ;)

Re:Cellphones mutating?

[fractoid]

That has to be one of the coolest things I've seen on youtube in a long while.

Back on topic, in answer to "what if a harmful mutation starts to breed like there's no tomorrow ?" - "breeding like there's no tomorrow" is what most living creatures do, especially the small ones such as mice, rats, bugs, bacteria (HALP NANOBOTS), and 12-year-old English boys.

holy cow

[unity100]

the device is not going to mutate. the INSECT will. you are introducing an unnatural element into the very body of a living organism.

Why Moths?

[Narnie]

Why the hell are they using moths? If they want to weaponize insects, they should pick something like the honey bee. You only have to control one, make it sting your target, and then the rest of the hive will defensively respond to the sting alarm pheromones.

Or maybe pick a cockroach. Sure they don't do much, but they should be able to survive the nuclear holocaust.

Or pick a social insect like the ant and have it lay a "food here" trail to your enemy's food stockpiles. You control a few hundred ants and manipulate the actions of whole colonies. I think that controlling moths posses a "that's neato" aspect, but controlling a social insect could yield more interesting results.

Re:Why Moths?

[justinlee37]

You could use the moth as a spy device. Of course that presumes that you can manage to attach audio and/or video bugs to the moth without weighting him down.

Re:Why Moths?

[Narnie]

you could do the same with a wasp or an ant. Ants can carry many times their weight. And from the article, moths still have the tendency to go "towards the light" thus overriding the RC signals.

Old story I read...

[atraintocry]

When I was in grade school we read a short story that featured a sentient cloud of bugs or nano-bots. Maybe they assembled into a human shape, but I don't remember.

The protagonist was at a station on a colonized planet or moon. I think the it revolved around a young boy and girl. Most likely the story was part of one of those hardcover literature anthologies that grade schoolers use. I thought it was a cool story but some of the stuff in those is pretty low-rent and I've mostly given up hope of pinning it down.

I want to say it was Asimov but I could just be remembering some actual Asimov that we read another time (one of his essays). I know that's all incredibly vague...I just wish I could remember what story it was. Does this ring a bell with anyone?

Re:Old story I read...

[atraintocry]

Yes! Got it. It's called "Hallucination", and it was (re?)published in Gold. Thanks so much for your help.

Gas sensors?

[adamaix]

gas sensors for natural-disaster reconnaissance

What would be the point if the moth dies?

DARPA Creates Army of Remote Controlled Insects

[Phoenix666]

Dear god, I fear history is repeating itself. Didn't we learn this lesson the last time?:

"After millennia of battle the surviving G'Gugvuntt and Vl'hurg realised what had actually happened, and joined forces to attack the Milky Way in retaliation. They crossed vast reaches of space in a journey lasting thousands of years before reaching their target where they attacked the first planet they encountered, Earth. Due to a terrible miscalculation of scale the entire battle fleet was swallowed by a small dog."

Early beta tests

[Mathness]

There were an early beta test of these this year, luckyly the mind controlling ray the bugs were carrying didn't work.

On science fiction cinema...

[JoCat]

Why are electronic insects all the buzz?

Was a manager reading buzzwords off an in-flight magazine?

I hear the engineers are pretty fly.

In Soviet Russia, electricity makes flies run.

*ducks*

oops

[revxul]

These will be great once Cybot (aka SkyNet, aka The Matrix) takes them over.

http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=09/02/21/0057204

I. Am. Dissappointed!.

[ashitaka]

All the way down and no reference to remote-control cockroaches being whacked by a Black president's shoe long before there were Black presidents and shoes being thrown at presidents, Black or White.

They seem to be...

[mebrahim]

more of features than bugs!

Not interesting

[Master of Transhuman]

Well, not as interesting as THIS cyborg:

http://www.summer-glau.net/gallery/albums/s2_promo/s2_wallpaper_7.jpg
http://www.summer-glau.net/gallery/albums/s2_promo/2x02_001.jpg
http://www.summer-glau.net/gallery/albums/s2_promo/2x07_001.jpg
http://www.summer-glau.net/gallery/albums/s2_promo/2x11_001.jpg

Re:Bugs? The way SOMe programmers "think", count-

[davidsyes]

downs would be based on a reverse sort of a list of possible seconds:

20
201
202
203...
19
198
197
196...
13..
12..
11
102
103
104...
  and if the Enterprise computer did this shit, the Self-Destruct Sequence would never finish in time...

As for the bugs, i say set up a bug detector, and then spray the room. They may be cybernetic, but unless their lungs and blood are synthetic and don't react with/to aerosols...

Even better, put soap and water in a bottle... Then, when the fucking bugs/flies fly around, nail them in the wings. No need for a perfect bullseye. Just goop up their wings and they go... "Won't fly no mo". then step on their asses, or even better, mail them to electronics labs, or overseas to other governments... wait, might neet ITARS letters and other export/agent/proxy signatures...

Local Bonus: No toxins in the air.

Alternatively, periodically laquer the space suspected of these buggers. Preserve them...