Cell Phone Controlled Cockroaches – Yep, There’s An App For That!

Other than for a prank to pull on your friends, I can think of no real usefulness for a cell phone controlled roach, can you?  That’s right, I said roach, as in the six-legged, nuclear war surviving, germ spreading, night scattering, little menaces.

Well guess what?  There is an app for that.  At the Technology, Entertainment, and Design Conference in Edinburgh International Conference Centre in Scotland showed off the modified insects last week.

News reports say that the roaches, strapped with a backpack that receives Bluetooth signals from a mobile phone.  The signals are then transmitted into the roaches’ antennae, which guides their movements.  Fun, huh?  Ultimately, though, the technology has been described as a tool that can help us learn about how our brain works.

The Royal Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals isn't impressed, explaining through a spokesman, "...it is inappropriate to encourage children to dismantle insects."

My question is this…do kids need encouragement