Remote Radio Control of Insect Flight

[szappan]

Excerpt:
In the open access journal Frontiers in Integrative Neuroscience, a team of electrical engineers led by Hirotaka Sato of the University of California, Berkeley, report the development of an implantable radio-controlled neural stimulating device, with which they demonstrate, for the very first time, the accurate control of flight in freely flying insects.

The rest of the article (with video) here.

Original research paper, (with PDF download option) here.

 

[wraith]

Amazingly cool. It's the lazy mans robot.

 

[Vulgaris]

Thats disturbing!!!! I wonder if it is true?

 

[samatwwe]

werid..... lol

 

[Elytra and Antenna]

It's true. It just seems strange with all the money spent on research it would be posted up on the internet.

 

[BiologicalJewels]

DARPA has been doing this for a while, the research I mean. The internet as a means of propagating or dispelling certain fears might come in handy for a project under DARPA jurisdiction. People are now "aware" of the existence.
Either way, the project has a loooooooooooooooooooooooong way to go.
I think they insert it at the larval stage and let the beetle develop with it inside.
This is just way too cool imo.