Dragonfly or Insect Spy? Scientists at Work on Robobugs

[Andre II]

"No agency admits to having deployed insect-size spy drones. But a number of U.S. government and private entities acknowledge they are trying. Some federally funded teams are even growing live insects with computer chips in them, with the goal of mounting spyware on their bodies and controlling their flight muscles remotely. The robobugs could follow suspects, guide missiles to targets or navigate the crannies of collapsed buildings to find survivors.
But the CIA secretly developed a simple dragonfly snooper as long ago as the 1970s. And given recent advances, even skeptics say there is always a chance that some agency has quietly managed to make something operational.
"America can be pretty sneaky," said Tom Ehrhard, a retired Air Force colonel and expert in unmanned aerial vehicles who is now at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, a nonprofit Washington-based research institute.
Robotic fliers have been used by the military since World War II, but in the past decade their numbers and level of sophistication have increased enormously. Defense Department documents describe nearly 100 different models in use today, some as tiny as birds, and some the size of small planes."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/08/AR2007100801434.html

Now, one step further to Orwell?
Keep in mind that over London spy drones only a few feet long are already flying to surveille the city for "anti-social behaviour" according to BBC.

[orleans]

1. can you say "creepy?" i knew that you could. n/t

[silverojo]

2. Good Lord, this is straight out of "Get Smart"

Remember the episode where a fly was a surveillance device, and Max swatted it? :eyes:

Who'd believe governments would actually start making stuff like this to spy on citizens? :scared:

[Mythsaje]

3. Pretty expensive toys to accidentally lose to a rolled up newspaper, eh?

:evilgrin:

[HysteryDiagnosis]

4. Too bad this wouldn't take care of business, we would need to

make a small directional emp device. I'm sure some savvy physics student will come up with sumpin.

[Cobalt-60]

5. We can hunt them with trained bats

Or maybe purple martins.

[annabanana]

6. When my dog was young... he used to catch flying things

in his mouth.. shake them rapidly back and forth and then drop them, stunned, onto the sidewalk where they would lie for a minute or so then stagger up and try to fly away.... at which point he would repeat his game..

I wonder how these multi-million dollar toys would stand up to that?

[Andre II]

7. I love your dog

:rofl: :rofl: :rofl: