Radio-Controlled Cyborg Beetles Become Reality

holy_calamity writes "DARPA's plans to create brain chips for insects so they can be steered like an RC plane are bearing fruit. Videos show that a team at Berkeley can use radio signals to tell palm-sized African beetles to take off and land, and to lose altitude and steer left or right when in flight. They had to use the less-than-inconspicuous giant beetles because other species are too weak to take off with the weight of the necessary antenna and brain and muscle electrodes."

Comments

Smaller, smaller, smaller...

[Alwin Henseler]

FTS:

"They had to use the less-than-inconspicuous giant beetles because other species are too weak to take off with the weight of the necessary antenna and brain and muscle electrodes."

So, as technology advances: smaller electronics, radio parts, electromechanical components, power source -> smaller state-of-the-art RC toy. How long until you can have your own, remote-controlled army of fruit flies? 5 years? 10? 20?

Re:Sweet, but needs a lot of work still

[JimboFBX]

What is amazing if you think about it is how far and fast insects can go with so little energy consumption. In contrast, a simple little radio...

Prior Art

[DreamsAreOkToo]

This was first done in the 5th Element when Zorg's assistant spies on the president. Obviously, according to IP law, DARPA owes the creators of the 5th Element $500 Trillion (in standard RIAA dollars).

Re:Sweet, but needs a lot of work still

[drinkypoo]

If you can't monitor what they're doing without being in the same room, then the range is very small.

I can't find a cite right now (too much bogus news clogging google) but I believe the American embassy in Russia was spied upon (audio) by bouncing a directed radio wave off of a strip of metal embedded in a piece of artwork hung in one of the offices.