I don’t know about you, but I absolutely loathe cockroaches. These sleazy insects that are masters at scurrying away from a fly swatter or a rolled up newspaper also carry with them plenty of bacteria and possibly, pathogens that are potentially harmful, and are just so difficult to kill. To see researchers work with them is unnerving, as researchers from North Carolina State University are making use of Kinect technology to steer cockroaches on autopilot, as a computer will help move the cockroach along via a controlled environment as you can see in the video demonstration above.
Talk about video game technology bringing about new breakthroughs when it comes to controlling the way an animal or insect is able to move. The ultimate goal of this particular research? To be able to come up with different ways for cockroaches to be on autopilot, while using them to map dynamic environments such as collapsed structures right after a natural disaster such as an earthquake or tornado. Something tells me that the military, too, would have more than just a passing interest in taking hold of these enhanced cockroaches.
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