Connecting Microsoft's Kinect system to an electronic cockroach interface could create insects capable of mapping out collapsed buildings and other dangerous areas.
Remote controlled cockroaches can be created relatively simply by attaching circuitry to the creatures' antennae. Microstimulation of the antennae trick the roach into thinking it has bumped into a surface and can be used to change its direction.
Combining a Kinect motion-sensing system with a version of this control technology created by North Carolina State University, researchers were able to program a path for the roaches to follow. As the cockroach moves the system tracks it and makes adjustments using the electrical interface.
"Our goal is to be able to guide these roaches as efficiently as possible, and our work with Kinect is helping us do that," said Alper Bozkurt, assistant professor of electrical and computer engineering at NC State.
"We want to build on this program, incorporating mapping and radio frequency techniques that will allow us to use a small group of cockroaches to explore and map disaster sites," said Bozkurt. "The autopilot program would control the roaches, sending them on the most efficient routes to provide rescuers with a comprehensive view of the situation."
The program also uses Kinect to collect data on how the roaches respond to the electrical impulses from the remote-control interface. This data will help the researchers fine-tune the steering parameters needed to control the roaches more precisely.
"We want to build on this program, incorporating mapping and radio frequency techniques that will allow us to use a small group of cockroaches to explore and map disaster sites," Bozkurt says. "The autopilot program would control the roaches, sending them on the most efficient routes to provide rescuers with a comprehensive view of the situation."
If the system works the researchers eventually hope to be able to equip the roaches with communication devices which would also allow rescue services to communicate with trapped or injured people.
Thursday 27 June 2013
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2013-06/26/kinect-cockroaches
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