Cyborg

[ImaCannin]

[ ??? ??? ??? ???

[goldmonkey]

Hybrid Insect MEMS (HI-MEMS)
http://www.darpa.mil/mto/programs/himems/

Animal world has provided mankind with locomotion over millennia. For example we have used horses and elephants for locomotion in wars and conducting commerce. Birds have been used for sending covert messages, and to detect gases in coal mines, a life-saving technique for coal miners. More recently, olfactory training of bees has been used to locate mines and weapons of mass destruction. The HI-MEMS program is aimed to develop technology that provides more control over insect locomotion, just as saddles and horseshoes are needed for horse locomotion control.

The HI-MEMS program is aimed at developing tightly coupled machine-insect interfaces by placing micro-mechanical systems inside the insects during the early stages of metamorphosis. These early stages include the caterpillar and the pupae stages. Since a majority of the tissue development in insects occurs in the later stages of metamorphosis, the renewed tissue growth around the MEMS will tend to heal, and form a reliable and stable tissue-machine interface. The goal of the MEMS, inside the insects, will be to control the locomotion by obtaining motion trajectories either from GPS coordinates, or using RF, optical, ultrasonic signals based remote control. The control of locomotion will be investigated using several approaches. These include direct electrical muscle excitation, electrical stimulation of neurons, projection of ultrasonic pulses simulating bats, projection of pheromones, electromechanical stimulation of insect sensory cells, and presentation of optical cues with micro-optical visual presentation. The intimate control of insects with embedded microsystems will enable insect cyborgs, which could carry one or more sensors, such as a microphone or a gas sensor, to relay back information gathered from the target destination.

HI-MEMS derived technologies will enable many robotic capabilities at low cost, impacting the development of future autonomous defense systems. The realization of cyborgs with most of the machine component inside the insect body will provide stealthy robots that use muscle actuators which have been developed over millions of years of evolution. The basic technology developed in this program could also be used as a biological tool to understand and control insect development opening vistas in our understanding of tissue development, and provide new technological pathways to harness the natural sensors and power generation from insects.


http://i49.tinypic.com/20r9pwy.gif

[Buddha]

Wow.... This is horrible

[osoab]

http://sandalsandsocks.typepad.com/photos/uncategorized/2008/04/28/borg.jpg

This coming in a decade or two?

[Heimdhal]

better start adding raid to the ammo pile

[Dave Thomas]

Eventually, the mind-controlled insects could be used to “serve as couriers to locations not easily accessible to humans or terrestrial robots,” they note.


Holy exploding martini olive Batman!

Oh sure, lets just ignore the past 100+ years of innovation in radio / sattelite communications, and experiment with cybernetic insects to deliver slips of paper to our troops! (SLAP FOREHEAD)

I love how they add this piece at the end of the article, to sort of comfort the reader and frame the cyborg bug story of that of some cute pastoral passenger pigeon.

We all know they want to put micro explosives, or some kind of poison in this thing and fly it through the window of Castro's bedroom.

Couriers. Please.

[Grand Master Melon]

Disturbing, disgusting, wrong, horrible and a whole list of other words come to mind when I read about crap like this!

[rurounikitsune]

We all know they want to put micro explosives, or some kind of poison in this thing and fly it through the window of Castro's bedroom.


If we wanted to be rid of Castro, we would have been rid of him long ago.

To discover the intended target of such a weapon, one might look closer to home.

[Cebu_4_2]

This is wrong on so many levels.

[Twisted Titan]

,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,