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ICYMI: Another thing likely to survive with the cockroaches
try{document.getElementById("aol-cms-player-1").style.display="none";}catch(e){}Today on In Case You Missed It: Scientists just mapped the DNA of a microscopic organism that can survive both oxygenless places and the Antarctic. Researchers believe they might help humans survive too much radiation, which is a thing we'll probably need soon enough so get hyped, people. Meanwhile a Danish car company is showing off its prototype of a tiny carpooling electric vehicle that will one day be modified for autonomous rides. In case you're interested, you can see the Japanese Pokemon Go video here. As always, please share any interesting tech or science videos you find by using the #ICYMI hashtag on Twitter for @mskerryd.
Mind-controlled nanobots release drugs inside cockroaches
Stay with me here -- scientists from Bar-Ilan University and the Interdisciplinary Center in Israel created nanobots, injected them into cockroaches, and released fluorescent drugs into the insects using mind power. While that sounds insanely convoluted, the aim is to actually help humans. If a schizophrenia patient is about to have a violent episode, for instance, an EEG could trigger the release of powerful drugs. That way, they'd only get them when needed, minimizing harmful side effects.
ICYMI: Cockroach torture, an app for Parkinson's and more
#fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-567613{display:none;} .cke_show_borders #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-567613, #postcontentcontainer #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-567613{width:570px;display:block;} try{document.getElementById("fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-567613").style.display="none";}catch(e){} Today on In Case You Missed It: A cybernetic cockroach how-to describes how to use an Arduino to control where a cockroach goes, which makes all of us uncomfortable.
Cockroach-inspired robot can squeeze through tight spaces
Researchers at UC Berkeley have developed a robotic cockroach that can crawl through the tightest of gaps. The team began by studying actual cockroaches, observing how they moved through the densely packed rainforest floor. While some obstacles are pushed past or climbed over, the cockroaches frequently rolled their body at an almost-90-degree angle to scamper through openings. The next step was to fit these real-world 'roaches with artificial shells and see how this aided or hampered their mobility. The result was perhaps obvious: the less cylindrical the shell, the less effective the insects were at performing the roll manoeuvre.
Cyborg cockroaches can help find survivors through their voices
Someday, those vile, slimy cockroaches that make you shriek like a five-year-old girl might look more like little superheroes in some people's eyes. Researchers from the North Carolina State University have developed a way for roaches to detect and locate sources of sounds (say, a person's voice), so they can be used in search-and-rescue missions. In addition, they've developed an "invisible fence" technology to keep the bugs within an enclosed area. Just like the robo-roaches in a number of previous studies, NC State's bugs also have backpacks strapped to their bodies, allowing the scientists to control the direction they go to.
Step into The Dream Machine episode 5 on November 14
The Dream Machine's penultimate episode is due out on Friday, November 14, featuring scenery hand-crafted from moss, coffee grounds and ... are those broccoli trees? Finally, we can pretend to be vegetarian giants during our adult lives. The Dream Machine is a whimsical, eerie point-and-click adventure created with real-life materials and filmed in stop-motion. There will be six episodes total, after developers at Cockroach Inc. decided to split episode four into two pieces because it was bigger than they anticipated. "It took a while, but it's crazy big, featuring strange forests made out of moss, lichen and coffee grounds," Cockroach Inc. founder Anders Gustafsson says about episode five. "We really went balls-out on this one." On YouTube, Cockroach Inc. adds, "In order to differentiate it from most other games out there, we decided to steer as far away from all things polygonal as possible, and are actually building all the environments, props and characters out of clay and cardboard." See a few pretty images from episode five in the gallery, and below check out the release date trailer featuring a behind-the-scenes look at the painstaking creation of these environments. The Dream Machine is available for PC and Mac via Steam and the game's official site.
Self-powered cyborg cockroaches are coming
Soon you might start wishing there were more cockroaches in your neighborhood. Osaka University and the Tokyo University of Agriculture and Technology have co-developed a fuel cell that could be used to create a wireless sensor network comprised of a league of self-powered, high-tech insects. Researchers have already been successful in controlling battery-operated roaches and using them as sensors. With the new fuel cell, sensors are instead powered by the insect's body fluid (trehalose) through a small needle inserted in its torso. The technology, which has been in the works for a while, lets the battery-free bugs work without needing anything but a nibble of leftover pizza. A 3D-printed prototype of the cell produced 50.2 microwatts of power from a single cockroach, an impressive feat for a bug most of us would squash on sight.
RoboRoach surgery kit comes to Kickstarter: a remote control for real cockroaches
What DARPA does with animal test subjects behind closed doors is one thing, but here we have something else entirely: mad-scientist kits that allow anyone at home to control the movement of a real-life cockroach. Backyard Brains, the crew behind Twitter Roach, have been selling RoboRoach sets for creating cyborg insects for some time. But today, after getting as far as they can on their own, they're seeking Kickstarter funding to improve their design and develop "educational materials" to go with it. The project will go live in the next 30 minutes or so, and pledges of $100 or more will get you a surgery kit consisting of a PCB "backpack," battery and three sets of electrodes. The PCB pairs with mobile devices via the Bluetooth LE profile and a companion app delivers commands to the 'roach, allowing you to steer the creature by swiping across your screen. Cough up $150 or more and they'll send you a dozen 'roaches to get you started. The electrodes we mention need to be implanted into the cockroach's antennae so directional triggers can be sent to the nerves within -- effectively fooling the creature into thinking it's hit an obstacle and needs to change course. This is where it starts to get uncomfortable. Backyard Brains are touting the RoboRoach as an educational tool, specifically stating that "this product is not a toy." Something that's glossed over on the Kickstarter page, however, is the allegedly painless surgery step: how you attach the electrodes to the insect. People can make their own minds up regarding the ethics of the campaign, and can start by heading to the Kickstarter source link once it goes live at 9am ET. We've also embedded an old tutorial video below we found on the company's site, which demonstrates the surgery process. Be warned: there's antenna-clipping and other mutilations involved, which make our skin crawl even more than the thought of handling the cockroaches in the first place.
Twitter Roach takes guidance from tweets, ushers in a terrifying 2013 (video)
We've already seen cockroaches turned into unwitting puppets for human overlords, but never have we seen dominance quite so casual as with Brittany Ransom's recent Twitter Roach art project. While part of the exhibition, one of the insects wore a modified RoboRoach backpack with an Arduino add-on that took commands from Twitter: mentions including specific hashtags steered the roach left or right by stimulating its nerves. Yes, that meant the poor roach rarely had the dignity of seeing its master face to face, although there's some consolation in knowing that it wore the backpack for limited periods and had a required 30-second pause between instructions. As to why Twitter Roach came to be? Ransom tells CNET she imagined the currently dormant project as a reflection of the "overstimulation" us humans encounter in a digital world. We can certainly sympathize given our livelihoods, although its existence makes us nervous about 2013. If we're fighting off remote-controlled insect armies a year from now, we'll have to admit we had fair warning.
Researchers take full control of cockroach's movement, turn it into a wireless sensor
Built-in power supply? Check. Ability to survive anything? Check. Easy to control? Okay, anyone who's had a cockroach as an uninvited houseguest knows that's not the case. So, rather than re-inventing the biological wheel with a robotic version, North Carolina State university researchers have figured out a way to remotely control a real Madagascar hissing cockroach. They used an off-the-shelf microcontroller to tap in to the roach's antennae and abdomen, then sent commands that fooled the insect into thinking danger was near, or that an object was blocking it. That let the scientists wirelessly prod the insect into action, then guide it precisely along a curved path, as shown in the video below the break. The addition of a sensor could allow the insects to one day perform tasks, liking searching for trapped disaster victims -- something to think about the next time you put a shoe to one.
Cyborg cockroaches inch closer to reality, blame science
Few things on this planet are more indestructible than the lowly cockroach -- except, of course, a cyborg cockroach. That's what researchers at Case Western Reserve University are looking to create, and they're a lot closer than you may think. In fact, chemistry professor Daniel Scherson has found a way to harvest energy from the chemicals swimming within these insidious insects, meaning that they may soon be able to create robot cockroaches with a more reliable power source. To do this, Scherson and his team incorporated enzymes capable of converting a cockroach's food intake into electrons, which can then be funneled through a fuel cell to generate electricity. Unlike similar developments, Scherson's technique doesn't rely on an external source like light, movement or batteries. All you need is a cockroach and a steady food supply -- basically, a college dorm room. [Image courtesy of The Life Files]
CLASH is an adorable, cloth-climbing roach-bot (video)
Generally the words "roach" and "adorable" don't get thrown together. But, one look at the video after the break and you'll understand. This six-legged successor to UC Berkeley's DASH scampers not just horizontally, but vertically -- so long as the material it's climbing is cloth. All motion is handled by the bot's front four legs, while the rear two provide stabilization. The CLASH is able to adhere to cloth because its feet have small claws that allow it to grip the fabric, while its appendages scurry about at up to 34 strides per second. Its top speed of 24 centimeters a second may not sound like much, but considering the pest-inspired design is only 10 centimeters long, it's actually quite a brisk pace. Trust us, you don't want to miss watching it in action after the break.
15 Minutes of Fame: A man and his (80+) pets
15 Minutes of Fame is our look at World of Warcraft players of all shapes and sizes – from the renowned to the relatively anonymous, the remarkable to the player next door. Tip us off to players you'd like to hear more about.A couple of months ago, WoW Insider reported on the immortalization of WarcraftPets.com founder/owner Breanni with an NPC in Wrath of the Lich King. In the expansion, Breanni of US Scarlet Crusade-A appears as a NPC selling pet supplies in Dalaran. Curious about the growing public enthusiasm ("Obsession"? We think Breanni might agree ...) with non-combat pets, we contacted Breanni for more perspectives into the vanity pet craze -- as well as what it's like to run into yourself in the game as an NPC. 15 Minutes of Fame: Vanity pets – who knew? How many vanity pets are out there now, and how can players get them?Breanni: Vanity pets (also known as companions, small pets, non-combat pets and mini-pets) are those adorable little critters that follow your character around the game world, catching the eye and imagination of others. Currently, there are 98 vanity pets, and new ones are added to the game nearly every major content patch. However, not all of these pets are available in the United States - a few are region-specific.There are six ways to obtain vanity pets. Vendors, drops and quests offer players some of the most familiar pets. Additionally, there are a handful of pets crafted by engineers. Some of the rarest pets are obtained through real-world promotions, such as loot cards from the WoW trading card game and trade show giveaways. Finally, a new source has emerged for collecting certain pets: they can be earned through various feats, such as battleground victories or collecting a certain number of pets with a single character.
The Halluc II: a robotic flashback of your creepy cockroach hallucinations
When the robots rise, they'll likely come in the form of giant, goose-stepping cockroaches. Don't believe us? Just check the 32-inch, 44-pound Halluc II which features the ability to walk or roll via a simple rotation of its jointed appendages. This 8-legged vermin is powered by the screams of children and the Linux-beast within. When things get out of hand, you'll want to aim your slingshot at its 800MHz AMD Geode central processing unit and hope for the best. Now go ahead and click through for some video of it bewildered by the flashing camera lights in some makeshift, Japanese LSD lab. It's always a good idea to study your enemy before the big fight.
