NSA - Update on power problems

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Date: Fri, 25 Jan 2008 09:45:01 -0800 (PST)

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Subject: Nanotechnology and spying - Part 3
From: reginal..._at_hotmail.com
To: TSCM-L Professionals List <TSCM-..._at_googlegroups.com>
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Continuation of New Scientist article.

Part 3

"Meanwhile, another DARPA-funded group, led by Michel Maharbiz at the
University of California, Berkeley, implanted electrodes into the
brains of adult June beetles, near neurons that control flight (see
illustration). When the team delivered pulses of negative voltage to
the brain, the beetles' wing muscles began beating and the bugs took
off. A pulse of positive voltage shut the wings down, stopping flight
short, and by rapidly swithching between these signals, they
controlled the insects' thrust and lift. Maharbiz's team found two
ways to make thethered beetles turn. In one, they mounted a LED
display in front of a beetle's eyes. Lighting up the left or right
portion turned the beetle in the opposite direction. In a second, more
successful, approach they directly stimulated the flight muscles one
one side, causing the insect to turn to the other.

Intriguing as these first steps are, these programmes are a long way
from providing the ultimate in stealthy spies. Maharbiz's system uses
a battery glued to the outside of the beetle for power, while Stern's
moth-control system relies on power provided througth wires plugged
into the implant. Both would stick out like sore thumbs, and that's
before adding the microphones, environmental sensors and transmitters
that they would need to be of any use as spies. The challenge now is
to shrink the components to hide as many of them as possible inside
the insect. They are also looking to harness power from the insects
themselves.

DARPA's goal is to create cyborg insects that can fly at least 100
metres from their controller and land within 5 metres of a target,
then stay put until commanded to buzz off again. How the insect will
be guided to a target is yet another unsolved problem. 'There were a
bunch of ideas,' says Charles Higgins at the University of Arizona,
who was involved in DARPA's original brainstorming session for the HI-
MEMS project. One was to use radio control to guide the moth, though
that would mean emitting radio signals, which could be detected by the
enemy. A second was to use GPS signals to guide the insect to its
goal, and a third was to point the moth in the right direction and
send it off with a pre-programmed series of instructions - for
example, fly straight for 50 metres, then circle.

Maharbiz's flight controller works on the latter principle, storing
sequences of flight commands which would direct the insect through a
preset series of moves. 'What you want to avoid is some way of
detecting that it's not a plain old insect, or some situations where
its signals could be jammed,' Higgins notes. The pre-programmed method
has its shortcommings, though: a strong wind could easily blow the bug
off course.

Another variable is deciding at what level to engage the spy-in-the-
sky's nervous system. Stern's probes stimulate the moth's flight
muscles directly, while Maharbiz targets the neurons associated with
flight in the beetle brain as well as its muscles. A major advantage
of using an insect is the ability to tap into its own control system -
its ability to steer a straight course, or level itself, for instance
- so stimulating each wingbeat manually would defeat the object.

While other teams are trying to stuff insects full of technology,
Higgins has gone in the opposite direction by trying to stuff
technology full of insects: he wants to recruit insects as high-level
sensory controllers for robots. Plugging robots into live insects
seemed like a no-brainer once the idea struck him. 'I was in the
process of designing a new vision chip that would cost $60,000 to
mimic a tiny portion of the fly's brain, when I could get better
capabilities in a moth for $4.'

Artificial vision can't beat living systems, which are honed to
recognise objects or detect motion, Higgins says. So far, he has begun
experimenting with insects as living sensory-systems whithin a three-
wheeled table-top robot (see 'Meet the robo-bug').

Research into cyborg animals has delivered results that have intrigued
researchers in other fields. The fact that Maharbiz's group can turn
insect flight on and off by stimulating the brain with voltage pulses
of opposite polarity is surprising, says Michael Dickinson at the
California Institute of Technology in Pasadena. 'I have no sensible
neurobiological explanation for why that's the case,' he says.

If the groups keep making strides, the proverbial fly on the wall may
literally become a spy. So, the paranoid out there, beware. It may be
time to arm ourselves with a can of bug spray and a good old-fashioned
swatter - just to be on the safe side.

Jessica Marshall is a science writer based in Saint Paul, Minnesota."
.......................................

The End.

Reg Curtis


Received on Sat Mar 02 2024 - 00:57:21 CST