Cyborg Crickets Could Form Mobile Communications Network, Save Human Lives
July 13, 2009 by Lisa Zyga
Hundreds or thousands of cyborg crickets could form a mobile communications network, transmitting signals through their calls. Credit: Wikimedia Commons.
(PhysOrg.com) -- 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.
This kind of living, mobile communication network would include groups of not only crickets, but also cicadas and katydids. Like their natural counterparts, the cyborgs would communicate through wing beats. Containing a package of electronics and sensors, the insects would change their call tone in the presence of various chemical and biological agents on the battlefield, or even the scent of humans trapped in rubble after natural disasters.
The technology's designer, Ben Epstein, came up with the idea during a visit to China, where he heard cicadas changing calls in response to each other. Recently, the Pentagon has awarded Epstein's Point Pleasant Beach, New Jersey-based company, OpCoast, a six-month contract to develop a mobile communications network for insects. The biggest challenge will be to fit all the necessary electronics into a tiny body, and then make hundreds or thousands of them in each network.
The network could potentially extend across large distances, as some katydids can be heard up to a kilometer away. As the cyborg insects transmit the call from neighbor to neighbor, the cascade effect eventually transmits the signal to ground-based transceivers, where humans can respond.
via: New Scientist
© 2009 PhysOrg.com
-
Remembrance of Things Past Influences How Female Field Crickets Select Mates
Apr 22, 2009 |
not rated yet |
0
-
Study: Female crickets steered by sound
Oct 11, 2005 |
not rated yet |
0
-
Male crickets with bigger heads are better fighters, study reveals
Jan 05, 2009 |
not rated yet |
0
-
Briefs: China Mobile in 7-city network expansion
Mar 29, 2006 |
not rated yet |
0
-
Motorola inks $310 mln deal with China Mobile
May 14, 2009 |
not rated yet |
0
-
Engineers build first sub-10-nm carbon nanotube transistor
Feb 01, 2012 |
4.9 / 5 (30) |
30
-
Something old, something new: Evolution and the structural divergence of duplicate genes
Jan 31, 2012 |
4.6 / 5 (7) |
1
-
The hidden nanoworld of ice crystals: Revealing the dynamic behavior of quasi-liquid layers
Jan 30, 2012 |
5 / 5 (3) |
1
-
Stock market network reveals investor clustering
Jan 27, 2012 |
3.9 / 5 (23) |
8
-
Of microchemistry and molecules: Electronic microfluidic device synthesizes biocompatible probes
Jan 26, 2012 |
5 / 5 (1) |
0
-
Empirical data regarding shower heads and water
1 hour ago
-
feed hold button on CNC lathe
21 hours ago
-
Mechanics of Solids ( Final exam question) please help!
23 hours ago
-
RFAC in Fortran
Feb 09, 2012
-
dynamics 2/32
Feb 08, 2012
-
dynamics
Feb 08, 2012
- More from Physics Forums - General Engineering
More news stories
Apple to debut 'iPad 3' in March: report
Apple will unveil a new version of its market-ruling iPad table computer in March, according to a report in Dow Jones-owned technology blog All Things D.
Electronics / Consumer & Gadgets
17 hours ago |
2 / 5 (19) |
0
New Kindle Touch is an impressive e-reader
When it comes to reading digital books, tablets are all the rage. But there's a lot to like about simple e-readers, which over the past year have become both a lot cheaper and a lot less clunky.
Electronics / Consumer & Gadgets
16 hours ago |
5 / 5 (2) |
1
Google to make home entertainment system: report
Google will mirror Apple's winning hardware-software formula with an Android-powered entertainment system that wirelessly streams content through homes, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday.
Electronics / Consumer & Gadgets
10 hours ago |
4.5 / 5 (2) |
0
Barriers fall between TV, Internet
You say TV, I say Internet. Toe-mate-o, toe-mah-to.
Electronics / Consumer & Gadgets
13 hours ago |
not rated yet |
0
Intel packs performance and reliability into its latest SSD 520 series
Intel Corporation announced today its fastest, most robust client/consumer solid-state drive (SSD) to date, the Intel Solid-State Drive 520 Series (Intel SSD 520), a 6 gigabit-per-second (gbps) SATA III SSD ...
Feb 07, 2012 |
5 / 5 (1) |
3
'Dark plasmons' transmit energy
Microscopic channels of gold nanoparticles have the ability to transmit electromagnetic energy that starts as light and propagates via "dark plasmons," according to researchers at Rice University.
FDA-approved drug rapidly clears amyloid from the brain, reverses Alzheimer's symptoms in mice
Neuroscientists at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine have made a dramatic breakthrough in their efforts to find a cure for Alzheimer's disease. The researchers' findings, published in the journal Science, show t ...
Hydrogen from acidic water: Researchers develop potential low cost alternative to platinum for splitting water
A technique for creating a new molecule that structurally and chemically replicates the active part of the widely used industrial catalyst molybdenite has been developed by researchers with the Lawrence Berkeley ...
Ultraviolet protection molecule in plants yields its secrets
Lying around in the sun all day is hazardous not just for humans but also for plants, which have no means of escape. Ultraviolet (UV) radiation from the sun can damage proteins and DNA inside cells, leading ...
Soraa LED light may dim 50-watt halogen rivals
(PhysOrg.com) -- Soraa, a Fremont, California company founded in 2008, this week launched its first product, a light that uses LEDS (light emitting diodes). The "Soraa LED MR16 lamp" is the "perfect" replacement ...
Anyone can learn to be more inventive, cognitive researcher says
There will always be a wild and unpredictable quality to creativity and invention, says Anthony McCaffrey, a cognitive psychology researcher at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, because an "Aha moment" is rare and ...
Jul 13, 2009
Rank: 3.7 / 5 (3)
Is this seriously what our nations leaders are spending money on in these times? We are boned.
Jul 13, 2009
Rank: 1 / 5 (1)
Jul 13, 2009
Rank: 5 / 5 (3)
It is nice to see such an astute summation of the technological challenges of making a network of cyborg crickets.
Jul 13, 2009
Rank: 5 / 5 (2)
Jul 14, 2009
Rank: 1 / 5 (2)
Changing an animal's natural function so that it works into a human system completely changes the role of that animal in nature. If it were done for an entire species, it would have to be called deliberate extermination. Extinction. Intentional extinction. People do not have a right to do this. Or if you will, it would be unwise to change a worldwide system without appreciating the consequences.
I.e., evil. Lol.
Jul 14, 2009
Rank: not rated yet
defunct has a good point though, this could wreak some havoc in bug eating predators...