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"Robo-Moth" Gives Hope to Amputees

by Ryan Rayhill on November 8, 2007 at 04:54 PM



Further hope that victims of paralysis or amputation could one day reclaim some form of motion came this week in the form of a robotically-enhanced, tobacco-chewing moth.

The Society for Neuroscience's yearly gathering in San Diego saw a presentation on research in which a tobacco hornworm moth's brain was connected to electrodes and amplifiers at the base of a fairly common kit of robotic parts. When the insect's highly developed eyes, evolved for evading predators and mating, would shift left or right, the attached robotic parts would react accordingly.

In order to get the "robo-moth" to shift it's eyes, the scientists placed it in tube with a 14-ich tall revolving wall covered in vertical stripes. The moths, which only live about a week, would then track the stripes resulting in motion with the longest tracking time lasting nearly a minute and a half.

While limited at the moment, the device's use in harnessing electric impulses in such a small brain gives way to added possibilities from using insects as bomb-detectors to the aforementioned ambitions for practical human applications.

From LA Times

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Tags: amputee, disabled, impared, insect, moth, neuroscience, paralysis, robo-moth, robotics, robots, vision, Weird, Weird Science, WeirdScience

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