Forget radio controlled cars; RC Roaches could soon be all the rage

Next time you are staring blearily at your monitor in the middle of a 12 hour Counter Strike binge, and a cockroach scampers across your empty Chinese takeout containers, pause a second before you reach for the can of Baygon.

Researchers

Next time you are staring blearily at your monitor in the middle of a 12 hour Counter Strike binge, and a cockroach scampers across your empty Chinese takeout containers, pause a second before you reach for the can of Baygon.

Researchers in Japan have come up with a way of creating remote control cockroaches! Created as an easy way of finding and monitoring corrosion in tiny spaces, the cockroaches were 'modded' by a team at Tokyo University.

To create these 'Robo-Roaches' , scientists surgically implanted a micro-robotic 'back pack' that can receive wireless signals. These signals are then transmitted to pulse-emitting electrodes, which replace the normal antennae cockroaches have. Using this system, the scientists are able to send electrical signals to the roach that make it move in a certain direction.

Potential applications for this technology are endless. Robo-roaches with tiny embedded cameras could be used to find disaster victims, or sent on espionage missions to gather information. They could also be used in exploration and mining missions, going down deep into the tiny crevasses that humans cannot reach, looking for whatever the controller on the other end wants.

Of course, for the nefarious among you, the robo-roach offers endless fun. Hacking an embedded camera so that it becomes a streaming web-cam, and then sending it backstage at a Victoria's Secret fashion show? Or perhaps sending it scampering over your poor unsuspecting co-workers lunch, and recording the expression on their face for posting on the company intranet.

Either way, this technology has massive potential, and hopefully the Tokyo Uni research team will be able to perfect it with the $5 million grant they have recently received for further research.