It's not enough that humans gave robots a
place to congregate to plan our demise, now we've adapted them with the ability to extract fuel from the very nectar of life. All that innocent experimentation with
fuel cells that run on blood has led to this, a flesh-eating clock. This prototype time-piece from UK-based designers James Auger and Jimmy Loizeau traps insects on flypaper stretched across its roller system before depositing them into a vat of bacteria. The ensuing chemical reaction, or "digestion," is transformed into power that keeps the rollers rollin' and the LCD clock ablaze. The pair offers an alternative design fueled by mice, another contraption whose robotic arm plucks insect-fuel from spider webs with the help of a video camera, and a lamp powered by insects lured to their deaths with ultraviolet LEDs. Man, this is so wrong it
has to be right.
[Via
Hack a Day, thanks Isaac]
posted Jun 29th 2009 4:33AM
Get Obama one of these.
He doesn't need one, he has his ninja skills for that.
except instead of counting time, it counts his budget deficit. Damn, you'd need alot of flies for that.
except instead of counting time, it counts his budget deficit. Damn, you'd need alot of flies for that.
(Muahahahahahaha - ahem)
doh :S
So the flies would be republicans? (At least they are good for something other than bitching)
Maybe setting these things up in landfills across the country would be a great idea. New Jersey would double its power generation!
if jon and tristan aren't part of the same blog spamming group i'll be surprised... exactly the same sentiments guys... take your political agenda elsewhere.
I loved this article read it a couple of days ago and think the lamp would be great for developing countries / rural locations.
I could power my house on something like this.
I'll wait for the roach version.
Then maybe Obama would be drawn to the scent and get stuck to the paper. At least he'd be useful then.
Now we just wait for the "ah hah" moment when the machine realizes how much more power it can generate when it consumes it's first human...
second!
all we need is a reply to the first post and your brilliant plan is ruined.
If HE had only replied to the first post he would still be second and what he wrote might almost make sense within the context of the conversation. So close. So so close.
we invent all the best stuff.
no this is worse it eats you ,the matrix just sucks you dry so you get a few years of life first,this just goobles you up!
And all these years I've been worried about zombies, and about the robot uprising, and here these assholes are making zombots.
I'm moving to the woods.
@ NoAndThen - Best. Reply. Ever.
soo what your saying is we need a system that wires into the flies and mice, keeps them alive in purified mouse and "uses" them over a longer term. i see....
Here comes The Matrix.
All we need now is a larger one, then we will finally have a place to keep the detainees from Guantanamo Bay
Except instead of a clock, it should power a webcam feed [ing]
Poor fly...
inb4 PETA starts screaming about murder
It's OK, once they build a bigger one they can show PETA just how quick and painless it is....
yes, there's nothing like getting devoured alive by flesh eating bacteria. quick and painless indeed. My karate chop obama doll does the job quite well thank you very much.
They have started screaming bloody murder --
http://blog.peta.org.uk/2009/carnivorous-robot-pleased-to-eat-you/comment-page-1#comment-8821
I think everyone here owes them a comment or two ;-).
An official Dethklok?
Brutal.
+1 for the laugh. :)
I for one welcome our new blood-hungry overlords.
we could feed it deathrow inmates...
Wow that's awesome!
Soylent Power
Matrix real life
cannot the robot be vegetarian?
What happens if you get your tongue stuck to one of those?
Assuming you like to lick fly paper, you'd just have to wait for the scraper to remove your tongue from it.
Yeaaaahhhh... HOW often exactly is that going to be an issue for you?
YOU become part of the machine.
PETA isn't gonna like this
it reminds me the beginning of Terry Gillian's BRAZIL!
that will start burocracy breakdown...
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0088846/synopsis
Now we taking life for our power consumption?
Damn, didn't know "The Matrix" rendition ll be making it to the real world so soon
next time you have termites in your house, remember how wrong it is to 'take life'.
"Now we taking life for our power consumption?"
What else is new? Strip mining. Hydro dams. Smog.
Cripes...we now have all the components for a robotic take over of earth...Magnus , we will soon need you!
More Carnivorous Domestic Entertainment Robots here:
http://www.materialbeliefs.com/prototypes/cder.php
The Mousetrap coffee table robot uses the same microbial fuel cell technology to digest mice.
damn, this is really scary and disgusting at the same time.
i want one
The LEXX is feeding now...
Can these really get enough energy from "eating"?
Or is it more of a concept?
hi Jack, these initial versions work mechanically, but use battery or mains for power. Elsewhere, microbial fuel cells have been used to charge a bank of capacitors to power robots, check out the Ecobot project:
http://www.brl.uwe.ac.uk/projects/ecobot/index.html
A next step would be to bring the product design and the cybernetics research together.
Slow news day engadget?
I am thinking, how abt a car that runs on roadkill
Suddenly I have a picture.. car chasing deers because its "hungry" gosh that'd be scary
That'd be awesome >.
I need one of these
*Time* to die, fly.
WTF
Use it to power a bug zapper.
They actually made an insect powered bug zapper if you check out the read link
Time flies (yeah, I said it 'cuz someone had to)...when you're motivated by hatred of vermin! This is awesome...now, we can expand this to all God's little creatures that suck.
This reminds me a bit of venus flytraps or pitcher plants, carnivorous plants that eat small animals and insects. Pretty interesting stuff, if not a little morbid.
Great idea.......
You won't think it's 'right' when in 1000 years they evolve and catch humans in, um...humanpaper.
sos when i use this to power my home from left over food,etc
It's a sad state when humanity reduces killing to something done for trivial amusement. Will version 2.0 grind up puppies instead? Uncool and unnecessary.
Ok there, Mother Theresa. Clearly you've never had a pest problem.
It's been said but I gotta say it;
Don't let peta see this!
wow, how long has this technology been around that we can get energy from living things? also is it only small things?
Most animals and what not have already discovered that by eating they can "power up" by digesting other animals and what not, we humans have also discovered this unique ability long before this... clock.. ever did.. And we don't need flypaper to eat either..
And thus, the Matrix begins...
If the robot can digest, it means it needs to go to the bathroom too.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/55061772@N00/3675507659/
Cool.
It eats. It digests.
Does it crap too?
Wow. Please do not upgrade that machine so it could walk or something. Or the future is going to be war between human and machines that's hungry for blood. Right now, the clock is not alive and can't walk, even if it starves itself of food (blood), it will just turn itself off because there's nothing it can do about it.
But if we give that clock some legs, and maybe a brain and an pair of eyes, it WILL go out and try to find it's own food.
That would be the start of deadly artificial intelligence that doesn't need humans to work it. It would find it's own blood and kill whatever it sees.
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Couldn't this technology make prisons a great candidate for power plants?
Given the fuel cell can only generate 0.2 milliwatts of electricity
there's not much hope that the technology can run your home.
we need one for middle east, eat israelis and eat me if you want as well
DONT LEAVE ANYBODY
and only then, middle east would turn into a productive area producing energy for the rest of the world, instead of being the gold diggers and beggars that consume the whole world's money