Military Builds Robotic Insects

[soothsayer]

snip

If you feel something crawling on your neck, it might be a wasp or a bee. Or it might be something much more dangerous.

Israel is developing a robot the size of a hornet to attack terrorists. And although the prototype will not fly for three years, killer Micro Air Vehicles, or MAVs, are much closer than that.

British Special Forces already use 6-inch MAV aircraft called WASPs for reconnaissance in Afghanistan. The $3,000 WASP is operated with a Gameboy-style controller and is nearly silent, so it can get very close without being detected. A new development will reportedly see the WASP fitted with a C4 explosive warhead for kamikaze attacks on snipers. One newspaper dubbed it "The Talibanator."

snip

much more here
http://www.wired.com/news/technology/0,72543-0.html?tw=wn_index_1

[C_U_L8R]

1. Isn't this how the Terminator started?

[GreenZoneLT]

3. No, that was a global satellite network

Wired into a global computer network....Hey, wait a minute! I think you're on to something.

[GreenZoneLT]

2. Kewwwlllllll

Technically, I don't think a machine blowing itself up is a kamikaze. That's a missile.

Sounds like a really, REALLY expensive substitute for a bullet. I mean, what's the range on these little boogers? A half-mile? Quarter-mile?

[Javaman]

4. I'm Bee, James Bee, with a license to annoy. nt

[mikehiggins]

5. In the book I wrote

Origami Rose (http://tinyurl.com/nb253) I referenced these things in passing, talking about AV snoops the size of carpenter ants that could crawl inside a facility, following sewer pipes, and transmit real-time audio and video of whatever was taking place.

Writing any sort of science fiction gets harder all the time. You literally cannot keep up with what is actually happening in the "real" world around you.

Thank heavens the rising waters will put an end to all this stuff.