Insects become fly-on-the-wall spies with tiny cameras, radio controls and microphones

The Daily Mail (U.K.) ^ | March 5, 2008 | FIONA MACRAE

[Stoat]

Insects become fly-on-the-wall spies with tiny cameras, radio controls and microphones

By FIONA MACRAE - More by this author » Last updated at 01:06am on 6th March 2008

 

  It sounds like the stuff of science fiction - beetles, rats and sharks turned into cunning spies courtesy of a brain implant or two.

 

But such scenarios are fast moving from fantasy to fact, with laboratories around the world hatching a new breed of spy.

Moths, beetles, rats, pigeons and sharks have been installed with electrodes, batteries and even video cameras in an attempt to create the ultimate spook.

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This week's New Scientist reports: "The next time a moth lands on your window sill, watch what you say.

"It may look like an innocent visitor, irresistibly drawn to the light in your room, but it could actually be a spy - one of a new generation of cyborg insects with implants wired into their nerves to allow remote control of their movement.

"Be warned, flesh-and-blood bugs may soon live up to their name."

 

Such mechanised animals, or cyborgs, have many advantages over robots. Sharks, moths and rats, for example, have an amazing sense of smell that allows them to detect the faintest traces of chemicals.

And if you can hide the controls within the creature's body, it would be virtually indistinguishable from any other animal - and so the perfect spy.

Chief among the cyborg inventors is the U.S. military, with its research bureau ploughing money into projects from remote-controlled rats to battery-operated beetles.

Trained to sniff out particular scents, such as human bodies or explosives, the rats' movements are controlled by electrodes implanted in their brains.

Video camera backpacks transmit images of their mission back to the spymaster. Although the U.S. has stopped funding the rat research, the Israeli government is keen to use the creatures to search for survivors of explosions.

While rats might be big enough to carry video cameras and other paraphernalia, their size makes it difficult for them to blend into the background.

With this in mind, the U.S. Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has switched its focus to insects such as moths and beetles.

In an attempt to make the insects as inconspicuous as possible, miniaturised brain probes are inserted during the pupa stage.

The idea is the ultra-light implants will naturally integrate into the body of the developing insect.

DARPA's ultimate aim is to create cyborg insects that can fly more than 300 feet to their target and then stay put until commanded to buzz off again.

Researchers have also succeeded in creating remote-controlled pigeons and sharks.

New Scientist concludes: "If the groups keep making strides, the proverbial fly on the wall may literally become a spy."

[Stoat]

An article from 2001:

 

CIA recruited cat to bug Russians - Telegraph

CIA recruited cat to bug Russians

By Charlotte Edwardes
 

Last Updated: 8:34pm GMT 03/11/2001

 

 

THE CIA tried to uncover the Kremlin's deepest secrets during the 1960s by turning cats into walking bugging devices, recently declassified documents show.

In one experiment during the Cold War a cat, dubbed Acoustic Kitty, was wired up for use as an eavesdropping platform. It was hoped that the animal - which was surgically altered to accommodate transmitting and control devices - could listen to secret conversations from window sills, park benches or dustbins.

Victor Marchetti, a former CIA officer, told The Telegraph that Project Acoustic Kitty was a gruesome creation. He said: "They slit the cat open, put batteries in him, wired him up. The tail was used as an antenna. They made a monstrosity. They tested him and tested him. They found he would walk off the job when he got hungry, so they put another wire in to override that."

Mr Marchetti said that the first live trial was an expensive disaster. The technology is thought to have cost more than £10 million. He said: "They took it out to a park and put him out of the van, and a taxi comes and runs him over. There they were, sitting in the van with all those dials, and the cat was dead."

The document, which was one of 40 to be declassified from the CIA's closely guarded Science and Technology Directorate - where spying techniques are refined - is still partly censored. This implies that the CIA was embarrassed about disclosing all the details of Acoustic Kitty, which took five years to design.

Dr Richelson, who is the a senior fellow at the National Security Archive in Washington, said of the document: "I'm not sure for how long after the operation the cat would have survived even if it hadn't been run over."

The memo ends by congratulating the team who worked on the Acoustic Kitty project for its hard work. It says: "The work done on this problem over the years reflects great credit on the personnel who guided it . . . whose energy and imagination could be models for scientific pioneers."

By coincidence, in 1966, a British film called Spy With a Cold Nose featured a dog wired up to eavesdrop on the Russians. It was the same year as the Acoustic Kitty was tested.

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[rlmorel]

“Sharks with frikking laser beams...”

:)

[Army Air Corps]

Send this to Ahmadhinijad, it’ll drive him bonkers!

[gorush]

[LucyJo]

~~~ “The next time a moth lands on your window sill, watch what you say. ~~~

Wonder if this equipment is less expensive than a can of bug spray?

[Stoat]

FYI :-)

[Blue State Insurgent]

“Scotty’s on fire!”

[MHGinTN]

And fly the details in to him personally by pigeon! That should make his islamtenna quiver.

[CindyDawg]

They probably cost millions too huh? Too bsd that a 50 cent fly swatter will kill them.

[RichInOC]

Yeah? Just wait ‘til they weaponize the little suckers.

[Oztrich Boy]

"I, for one, welcome our new insect overlords"

[rlmorel]

LOL!

[Stoat]

CindyDawg said:

They probably cost millions too huh? Too bsd that a 50 cent fly swatter will kill them.

RichinOC said:

Yeah? Just wait ‘til they weaponize the little suckers.

(minor language warning)

Cows With Guns Flash Movie

[grjr21]

They may have a problem with predators

 

 45 people have reported that their Dragonfly RC plane has been attacked by hawks

[ryan71]

This will drive the muzzies crazy. Ooops, too late.

[Titan Magroyne]

A pile of um manure has oh about a thousand eyes.

Imagine jihadi paranoia to every pile.

Batsh*t crazy, y’might say.

[Westlander]

My favorite is Their Brains Were Small And They’re Dead.

[boocoowell]

“Finally that shiftless Beetle Bailey will be good for something.”

-—Sarge

[Carry_Okie]

Rev 9:3 And there came out of the smoke locusts upon the earth: and unto them was given power, as the scorpions of the earth have power. 4 And it was commanded them that they should not hurt the grass of the earth, neither any green thing, neither any tree; but only those men which have not the seal of God in their foreheads. 5 And to them it was given that they should not kill them, but that they should be tormented five months: and their torment was as the torment of a scorpion, when he striketh a man. 6 And in those days shall men seek death, and shall not find it; and shall desire to die, and death shall flee from them. 7 And the shapes of the locusts were like unto horses prepared unto battle; and on their heads were as it were crowns like gold, and their faces were as the faces of men. 8 And they had hair as the hair of women, and their teeth were as the teeth of lions. 9 And they had breastplates, as it were breastplates of iron; and the sound of their wings was as the sound of chariots of many horses running to battle. 10 And they had tails like unto scorpions, and there were stings in their tails: and their power was to hurt men five months.

Yeah, but who did the software?

[Rennes Templar]

lol love those kids and the boat pic!