What could possibly go wrong? (Via Steve Jackson Games)
The Army’s Remote-Controlled Beetle
The insect’s flight path can be wirelessly controlled via a neural implant.A giant flower beetle with implanted electrodes and a radio receiver on its back can be wirelessly controlled, according to research presented this week. Scientists at the University of California developed a tiny rig that receives control signals from a nearby computer. Electrical signals delivered via the electrodes command the insect to take off, turn left or right, or hover in midflight. The research, funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), could one day be used for surveillance purposes or for search-and-rescue missions.
Ah, DARPA: Eager to have you show them; to show them ALL!!!!! since 1972. Not that I mind… just so long as they avoid putting the X-Ray lasers or psionic hallucination projectors that DARPA-of-course-doesn’t-have on these suckers. Mad science is all very well, but WiFi isn’t what you’d call secure, you know what I mean?
My evil army of bugs is almost ready.
AH HA HA HA HA HAA!
Wait, that’s not one of my soldiers, that’s Hillary Clinton!
Zounds, thwarted again.
Beetle Bailey?
Agree. In fact I think we should all go back to wearing skins and living in caves. You never know what bad stuff might come if we start investigating the uses of that Satan’s spawn, the wheel.
“Mad science is all very well, but WiFi isn’t what you’d call secure, you know what I mean?”
Jesus man, this is just a proof of concept. No doubt, the final product would be encrypted and hardened. The electronics would become much smaller with time.
I would much rather these things take a miniature camera inside a terrorists hangout than sending a dog, for instance. It probably cost less to modify these bugs than to build miniature surveillance helicopters, which they have already.
Surveillance purposes… haha. We “torture” terrorists by putting them in a box with a caterpillar. I think a giant beetle on their shoulders would be a showstopper.
Darpa can fly these but please no operating system by Microsoft.
I was actually at a conference last October where DARPA discussed this. There are a LOT of folks who are going the bird/insect mimicry route as a way to get autonomous sensors viable.
(Lieutenant): MEN! Prepare to deploy Bug-B-Gone!
(Platoon): SIR YES SIR!
Those DARPA guys! They must have a perpetually-refilling keg they drink from (plus a bong) to come up with this stuff.
Imagine what’s going through the poor bug’s head:
I’M TELLING YOU, IM NOT CRAZY! SOMETHING OR SOMEONE IS CONTROLLING ME! SOMETHING BIG AND POWERFUL!
No one will listen to him until he blows up a federal building in Oklahoma City or something.