You didn’t think 2020 couldn’t be weirder, did you? If the idea of tiny, insect-mounted steerable cameras sounds like something out of a dystopian nightmare, it’s because, well, it probably is.
A team of researchers from the University of Washington (UW) has developed lightweight, low-resolution cameras that can be mounted and controlled on flying beetles.
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Although scientists acknowledge the “privacy risk” of their own work, they also claim that it can benefit humanity by allowing us to explore and monitor new environments like never before.
Insect first-person view
Shyam Gollakota, an associate professor at the UW at the Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science and Engineering, and colleagues at the University of Washington have developed a small GoPro camera that can be attached to beetles to transmit live images of the beetle’s surroundings while it is flying.
“We have created a low-power, low-weight wireless camera system that can capture a first-person view of what is happening from a real live insect or create vision for small robots.” Gollakota, who is also the lead author of the study, said in a press release..
“Vision is very important for communication and navigation, but it is extremely difficult to do it on such a small scale. As a result, prior to our work, wireless vision was not possible for small robots or insects, “he continued.
The camera uses Bluetooth to stream footage to a smartphone at a rate of between one and five frames per second and a resolution of 160 by 120 pixels. While this is undoubtedly a very low resolution, it is worth remembering that these scientists have, for all intents and purposes, a small GoPro to a flying insect.
A fleet of camera-mounted beetles
With the current system, which is detailed in the team’s paper in Science Robotics, the team has no control over where the beetles choose to fly, fortunately many will argue. However, the use of dozens or even hundreds of beetles with mounted cameras would allow a complete monitoring or mapping system of a large area.
“How [the beetles] scattered you can collect enough information that you don’t need to control insects, ”Gollakota explained.
The idea of an army of beetles with mounted cameras is pretty scary, we have to say. However, it is a sentiment that researchers fully understand.
While the team is excited about the potential of extremely lightweight, low-power cameras, they acknowledge that developing their technology carries a substantial privacy risk.
“As researchers, we firmly believe that it is really important to put things in the public domain so that people are aware of the risks and so that they can begin to find solutions to address them,” Gollakota said.
An energy saving advantage over robots and drones.
Located on a mechanical arm that can be remotely controlled to move the camera left and right, the camera is powered by a lithium polymer battery. When broadcast continuously, it can run for more than an hour, explains collaborator Vikram Iyer of the University of Washington.
The device, which weighs just over half a gram and is removable, also includes an accelerometer. This allows the the camera can be programmed to capture only images when the beetle is moving. This system allows the battery to last up to six hours.
Why not just build a small flying robot that can be controlled? Capturing images while the beetles are flying offers an energy-saving advantage compared to the mobility of robots, Gollakota explains. “That mobility really drains the battery a lot,” he says.
“By combining these two different things, live animals with sensors, you’re basically getting the best of both worlds,” says Gollakota.
The researchers connected their device to two different species of beetles, the death-feigned beetle (Asbolus laevis) and the Pinacate beetle (Eleodes nigrina) They both lived more than a year after the experiment ended, the researchers say.
Ultimately, the uses of this technology could range from biological observation to exploration of novel environments, the researchers explain, and future versions could run on solar power and without a battery. Hopefully they don’t use it to start teasing our homes.
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