Terrifying news

[j-man]

Meet the robo-bug

An odd-looking three-wheeled robot pivots on the spot, seemingly with a purpose, but there's no human directing it. Instead, it is under the control of a rather large moth.

This curious creation is the brainchild of Charles Higgins and his team at the University of Arizona in Tucson. They have found a way to intercept signals from the moth's visual system to guide the robot. They connected an electrode to a single, micrometre-wide nerve fibre on one side of the moth's brain, tapping into the electrical pulses it normally uses to keep itself flying straight.

The moth is held horizontally inside the robot and surrounded by a vertical cylinder with vertical lines drawn on the inside. When the cylinder is rotated, the moving lines trick the moth into thinking it is turning left or right. This triggers a response in the moth's brain, which the system detects and translates into motion in the robot. The team presented their results late last year at the Society for Neuroscience meeting in San Diego, California.

Higgins sees such hybrid machines as the next step in the evolution of robotic systems. "This is where I see computing going. We'll have some living components and some non-living components. They'll all be mixed together in the way that works best."

Looks like Eggman's up to his old tricks again. Better use the power of teamwork!

[Zeta]

Yeah, because I want a computer that I have to feed. As if they didn't give people enough problems.

[Green Gibbon!]

Wasn't there some guy who did this with cockroaches?

[j-man]

I guess nobody's as terrified by this as I am, then.

[Wooduck51]

When they announce one that is driven by a Rabbit, I will have to start preparing for war. Anyone know how to spindash?

[Yami CJMErl]

Dunno--something about pressing Z or R twice, maybe?

[Isuka]

You mean, hugging my crotch and pressing my right nipple two times in rapid succession?

... Wow, it works!!

On a kinda related note, Sonic 2K6 got Platinum Hits status.
There's something fishy about that.

[Locit]

This is way creepier: http://blog.wired.com/underwire/2008/03 ... eates.html

[G.Silver]

I'm not so creeped out by the machine itself. It's either the fact that it constantly emits the sound of bees, or the fact that those man-hunting killbot tripods from HL2 Ep2 can't be much further down the line.

[P.P.A.]

The first thing that came into my mind were those Metal Gears from MGS4. *shudders*

Also replying to the first post, the moth controlling the robot is actually a little cool, although I doubt the moth has fun being trapped in a tiny little metal container forever. However those insects being remotely controlled by the scientists is just fucking awful. Imagine you suddenly had no control over your body anymore and it would be controlled by someone else! Animals are not robots, they have a free will and just because they're too weak to resist, taking over their bodies for shits and giggles is just awful. Also what creeps me out a little here is that they might develop such devices for humans as well, to create nice, will-less terorists/soldiers.

[Isuka]

Now that's old news. They tried it with drugs.

And BigDog somehow reminded me of The Second Renaissance, Part I. 0:40 is scary.
And those mechs from Star Wars.

[G.Silver]

More of Bigdog. :D

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VXJZVZFRFJc

[gr4yJ4Y]

More of Bigdog. :D

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VXJZVZFRFJc

The first few seconds, I thought this was real.

[j-man]

Same here. Was that another one of those cunting April Fool's things?

[gr4yJ4Y]

No, it was added March 25th according to YouTube.

[j-man]

We all know the internet likes to get started early.