Remotely controlling an insect's flight plan is now possible with electronic gadget modification implants on the subjects. The electronically modified insects' implants could be spycams, mapping transmitters, bomb sniffing sensors among all other gadgets for human guided activities.
One of the electronically modified insects is the Dragonfly packing a solar generated camera that controls its flight path. The scientists made the modification without altering the dragonfly's natural instinct of flying. The dragonfly project's name is "Dragonfleye" and senior researcher Joe Register heads the project. The dragonfly has presently modified optogenetics that researchers monitor in a closed room capturing the data in its navigational cruising.
What started off to the possibility of equipping a dragonfly with a solar generated backpack to allow navigational control became a practical project that is useful to human-guided activity like spy cameras for data capture. The electronically modified dragonfly can transmit data to monitors for evaluation of the situation and make decisions that matter, reports Techcrunch.
The feat ushers in so many similar activities for several insects that have the potential for different applications. A bee, for example, is modifiable with a sensor that gives it instructions for guided pollination and disease tracking missions. Bees packing transmitters gives scientists new outlooks on how diseases develop in bees and their colonies. It is helpful to modify the bees for guided pollination as low pollination equates to lower crop yield, reports Physics.Org.
Another potential insect for modification is the cockroach. The purpose of the electronically modified cockroach is to set mapping outlines. Cockroaches could creep into places where human or equipment can't penetrate like under an earthquake rubble for tracking survivors and remotely mapping places for any danger signs. The cockroach could be remotely controllled guiding them into these deep holes or dangerous heights.
An electronically modified beetle is now working for military applications with the U.S. Armed Forces. Future applications for other insects have huge potential to help humans through guided activities by these cyborg life forms.
