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DragonflEye consists of a living, slightly modified dragonfly that carries a small backpack of electronics. The backpack interfaces directly with the dragonfly's nervous system to control it, and uses tiny solar panels to harvest enough energy to power itself without the need for batteries. Draper showed us a nifty looking mock-up of what the system might look like a few months ago, but today, they've posted the first video of DragonflEye taking to the air.
The unique thing about DragonflEye (relative to other cyborg insects) is that it doesn't rely on spoofing the insect's sensors or controlling its muscles, but instead uses optical electrodes to inject steering commands directly into the insect's nervous system, which has been genetically tweaked to accept them. This means that the dragonfly can be controlled to fly where you want, without sacrificing the built-in flight skills that make insects the envy of all other robotic micro air vehicles.
[Video]: https://vimeo.com/219709402
[Additional Info and Interview]: For lots more on DragonflEye
(Score: 2) by frojack on Friday June 02 2017, @01:54AM
I do. Sounds like a typical government misdirection project.
I can't imagine any place where such a thing would have a range and battery longevity to be of any actual use.
Just don't see Osama carrying on talking as a motorized dragon fly landed on his tent in the middle of Tora Bora.
Loud, bigger than normal, never able to fly like a real dragon fly, range limited, and easily spotted as a fake.
But while you were on the look out for one, you would probably miss the actual bugs planted by other means.
No, you are mistaken. I've always had this sig.