Pentagon-paid researchers in California, frustrated in their efforts to build a robot beetle, have wired a live one instead.
According to the MIT Technology Review, the University of California team fitted a four-inch flower beetle with electrodes and a tiny receiver. By sending pulses to the insect's muscles or brain, the scientists could remotely command the beetle to take off, turn and hover.
The beetles could be fitted with teeny cameras for search and rescue or surveillance operations, the team believes.
No word on an availability date for the Nintendo Wii version.
