Microbat

redGiraffe writes: "Engineers have test flown a prototype of the world's first robotic insect. Well, OK, not exactly an insect, but pretty small. Imagine future flight symms wired to fly size craft, you could have dog fights in a corner of your room, just keep your mouth shut."

Maybe we'll have to change the phrase...

[taliver]

from "I'd like to be a fly on the wall in that room"
to "I'd like to have a fly on the wall in that room"

Re:Drat - those budget cuts to NASA has really hur

[eXtro]

I'd think some would get eaten, assuming they were flown outdoors. A lot of the things that predators eat are based mostly on motion and a tiny bit on shape or colour. Take a look at fishing lures some time, they're not terribly fish or bug looking to most of us.

Trademark infringement

[Macrobat]

Hey!

Their name for their product is too similar to my nick. Lawsuit!

Drat - those budget cuts to NASA has really hurt..

[glebite]

These "insects" could be much smaller if the US government hadn't cut budgets at NASA, providing for the ISS which in turn would have housed ants, trained to sort very tiny screws... Tiny screws for very tiny machines.

One thing that I did wonder is if they ever acheive an insect-sized flying camera, would birds, insects, frogs, or other wildlife try eating them? I could just imagine the NSA folks watching the "fly on the wall" view of the interior of a frog's stomach...

Increase in market seqment

[codeButcher]

From the article:

It is hoped that future generations of this curious craft could carry tiny spy cameras into buildings.

It is also hoped that the makers of fly swatting equipment increase their production in time...

Heck with the dog fights

[ruck]

Imagine a very, very fuel efficient version of one of these (with solar panels?) that one could pilot by satellite to far-off regions of the globe. If you get bored one night, throw your flying bug out the window. Watch the water rush beneath it for a while on your computer monitor. When you wake up in the morning, tune in for it's arrival in London or Paris or the African savannah. Travel vicariously like you never have before.

Now that's a geek toy.