Tiny Flyer Navigates Like Fly

Assassin bug writes to tell us the Discovery Channel is reporting on a new ultralight autonomous aircraft that could be the next 'fly on the wall'. From the article: "The 10-gram microflyer, being developed by a team of researchers lead by Dario Floreano at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Lausanne, has a 36-centimeter (14-inch) wingspan. But it could one day be shrunk to insect size and used for search and rescue."

Other use...

[grumpyman]

... used for search and rescue.

Like gun power, people will find ways to use them for devious acts.

Re:Search and rescue?

[dteichman2]

Are you stupid?

Finding anything by using a computer-controlled army of fast, insect-sized flyers would be a cinch.

It would also make it somewhat easier to locate individuals trapped in say... rubble...

oh, the glorious misleading headlines

[Horatio_Hellpop]

"Tiny" Flyer ?? // 36-centimeter (14-inch) wingspan//

Sorry, but even most drunken sots would notice a fly with a *14-inch* wingspan.

Post this when the wingspan is 1/16th inch.

Why not just use insects

[Oldsmobile]

To continue the "why not just use a real mule" line from the "Robotic Pack Mule" -story:

Why not use href="http://blogs.zdnet.com/BTL/?p=2858">real insects like DARPA is trying to do. Makes more sense to me.

Future worries

[boomgopher]

I wonder if our generation will be the last to enjoy physical privacy. With all the tiny nanotech, internet, webcams, etc coming - will our kids be numb to the fact that some pervert is probably spying on them from a ant-bot, etc.? Even in the shower, hiking, etc? Frankly, this bothers me as much as the thought of government spying.

Re:Search and rescue?

[Daniel_Staal]

Actually, for flyers, try 'large area search'. They could blanket a forest fairly quickly for instance, and stay under the trees while doing so.

As for 'search and destroy': All they need is a targeting beacon. Then you send the homing missle right to them...

One itty bitty problem...

[qazwart]

It isn't hard to make things smaller. It's the power supply that's the problem. No good shrinking something like this down to the size of an eyeglass screw if you've got to strap a AAA battery to make it fly.

We've got to create new nanoscopic power sources before this type of technology can really take off.

Re:Search and rescue?

[computational super]

Who are they planning on rescuing?

I think their first target will be the Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders. They got an anonymous tip that one or more of them would be harmed in the changing room.

Re:They'll Just Accept It

[aminorex]

That seems a fair description of the future, as far as it goes. But you left out Orwells "boot stamping on a human face".

Through the 20th century, power tended to centralize, inevitably. Technology is changing that. Now there is one fundamental struggle that underlies all human activity. It is not the struggle between Islam and Materialism, or the struggle between Marxism and Captialism, or the struggle between Rich and Poor, or the struggle between Democracy and Fascism. It is the technological race to develop effective weapons to support or to destroy the continuing centralization of power and control over the population. Obviously the vested interests of centralization are largely in control of the means of discovery and production, but the numbers of those devoted to opposing them are vast, and the need for organization is minimal. As long as the advocates of personal freedom are able to promulgate their ideas, their eventual success is therefore assured. Insuring that capability is therefore critical to the survival of value itself.