How to quickly make a cyborg cockroach

Since yesterday Kickstarter has opened a fundraiser for the curious RoboRoach project from a small startup Backyard Brains: everyone who would like to use domestic cockroaches with benefit can get an electronics kit from the authors, which can be glued onto the back of an insect and controlled from its smartphone.

Cyborg-cockroach looks like this:


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As can be understood from the explanation, the “navigational” abilities of cockroaches depend on their long antennae-antennas, which are similar to physical obstacle locators — in other words, the cockroach stumbles upon an obstacle by antennae, decides that the obstacle and its natural instinct dictates that it must turn. to go around her.

Schematically, the physiology of this process is presented in the diagram below:



The creators of the project offer everyone a package weighing 4.5 grams from a control board, three electrodes and a lithium battery. Having a cockroach, electrodes should be strengthened on his antennae, the board should be glued to the back of the insect; The battery provides energy for wireless communication and electrical impulses to the antennae for 12 hours. After that, for some time (adaptation will occur) the cockroach can be controlled from the phone running Android or iOS

The kit itself looks like this:



And the process of operation on a cockroach is shown in the video below:



It is emphasized, however, that RoboRoach is not a toy, but a serious tool for studying the work of the brain. For those who donate $ 150 to the project, the authors, in addition to the electronics kit themselves, promise to send more packaging of ready-made cyborgs cockroaches; however, only within the United States - insects do not tolerate flights.

[ Kickstarter ]