Pentagon plans cyber-insect army
The Pentagon’s defence scientists want to create an army of cyber-insects that can be remotely controlled to check out explosives and send transmissions.
The idea is to insert micro-systems at the pupa stage, when the insects can integrate them into their body, so they can be remotely controlled later.
Experts told the BBC some ideas were feasible but others seemed “ludicrous”.
A similar scheme aimed at manipulating wasps failed when they flew off to feed and mate.
The new scheme is a brainwave of the Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa), which is tasked with maintaining the technological superiority of the US military.
bbc.co.uk
Darpa’s Far-Out Dreams on Display
…Mighty Isis: Darpa wants to start planning for a blimp, three times the size of Goodyear’s, that would keep watch over an entire city.
Hovering 70,000 feet above ground, the ISIS (PDF) airship (short for Integrated Sensor Is Structure) would use a giant, flexible radar antenna to give, in the words of Darpa program manager Larry Correy, a “dynamic, detailed, real-time picture of all movement on or above the battlefield: friendly, neutral or enemy.”
“We will apply this technology to track people emerging from buildings of interest and follow them as they move to new locations,” said Darpa’s Paul Benda. “Imagine the impact it will have if ISIS tracks the movement of individuals for months. Hidden webs of connections between people and facilities will be revealed.”
Such a system is meant to keep tabs on urban combat zones — abroad, of course. But there’s no reason ISIS couldn’t float over New York or Chicago or Kalamazoo.