| Clipped from: Cyborg Crickets Could Form Mobile Communications Network, Save Human Lives |
Cyborg Crickets Could Form Mobile Communications Network, Save Human Lives
By taking advantage of the way crickets communicate, researchers are building "cyborg crickets" that could form a mobile communications network for emergency situations, such as detecting chemical attacks on the battlefield, locating disaster victims, monitoring gas leaks, and acting as smoke detectors.
Hundreds or thousands of cyborg crickets could form a mobile communications network, transmitting signals through their calls.
| Clipped from: Cyborg crickets could chirp at the smell of survivors - tech - 11 July 2009 - New Scientist |
Cyborg crickets could chirp at the smell of survivors
Modified insects could soon be joining rescue workers in the search for survivors
Pentagon-backed researchers have already created insect cyborgs by implanting them with electrodes to control their wing muscles. The latest plan is to create living communication networks by implanting a package of electronics in crickets, cicadas or katydids - all of which communicate via wing-beats. The implants will cause the insects in these OrthopterNets to modulate their calls in the presence of certain chemicals.
"We could do this by adjusting the muscle tension or some other parameter that affects the sound-producing movements. The insect itself might not even notice the modulation," says Ben Epstein of OpCoast, who came up with the idea during a visit to China, where he heard cicadas changing calls in response to each other. The firm, which is based in Point Pleasant Beach, New Jersey, has been awarded a six-month contract to develop a mobile communications network for insects.
| Clipped from: YouTube - Cyborg insects |
Cyborg insects
Watch some cyborg insects that are being developed and see a robot controlled by a moth.| Clipped from: OpCoast [Software and Networking] |
OpCoast Awarded Army SBIR Phase I program
April 24, 2009 — OpCoast was awarded a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) effort by the US Army Edgewood Chemical Biological Defense (CBD) organization under topic C091-105-0118, entitled "Bio-MEMs Agile Sensor Platforms and Communication Networks." Our effort, called "OrthopterNets – Using Insects to Sense and Communicate," will leverage the world-class MEMS and bio-system interfaces technology of Texas A&M University. We will develop technology to enable acoustic and RF based networking of sensor and other data on 'insect nodes'.
Sources
- Cyborg Crickets Could Form Mobile Communications Network, Save Human Lives
- Cyborg crickets could chirp at the smell of survivors - tech - 11 July 2009 - New Scientist
- YouTube - Cyborg insects
- OpCoast [Software and Networking]
- Robotic-Lab.COM » Researchers create robo-moth, dream of a cyborg cricket-filled future
- Pentagon Making Cyborg Crickets
- Researchers create robo-moth, dream of a cyborg cricket-filled future | www.onu.ro
- Researchers create robo-moth, dream of a cyborg cricket-filled future
- Pentagon Cyborg-insect Program Could Save Quake Victims | CafeSentido.com
- OpCoast [Software and Networking]AFP: Japanese scientists aim to create robot-insects
