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bill-swift - September 12, 2012
I hate cockroaches. You probably hate them, too. I mean, who doesn't? They're annoyingly creepy insects who sometimes have a few tricks up their sleeves (read: some of them can fly) and if you piss them off, they actually bite. So again, I ask: what's not to hate?
Apparently, a team from the IBionicS laboratory at North Carolina State University found a couple of reasons because they've actually managed come up with a wireless control circuit of some kind that allowed them to take control of the roach! By mounting the circuit on the back of the roaches and hooking their antenna up with wires that fed low-level impulses based on their commands, the researchers were able to make the roaches do their every bidding.
Check out the video to see the researchers make the roaches walk in a straight line. It's impressive but utterly creepy at the same time.
There's probably not much they can do with cyborg roaches--aside from being able to scare the bajeezus out of people who see them, that is. Kidding aside, these cyborg bugs actually have a lot of potential. For example, they can be deployed in search and rescue operations to help locate buried people.
Although you can just imagine fear (and not relief) on the faces of the buried people as the cyborgs approach.. "Help, Ma! This giant robot cockroach is headed straight toward me! Heeeeelp!"
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