Here’s an idea for a Baltimore City nonprofit org for you to start: Write a proposal get some grants and donations, rent a decent space, set up a room full of computers running some simple web based software. Organize some 1st – 6th grade teachers to volunteer. Open to the public. Pay people by check to solve simple math and reading problems. $0.25 for a correct answer, $0.10 for an incorrect answer, up to $15 a day. Each person will set up a unique login to track progress. Volunteers will tutor people as they go. Offer free wifi and sell healthy snacks.

http://www.technologyreview.com/computing/22039/

Be sure to click the video link to see actual video footage!

The Army’s Remote-Controlled Beetle

The insect’s flight path can be wirelessly controlled via a neural implant.

By Emily Singer

Cyborg beetle: Shown here is a giant flower beetle carrying a microprocessor, radio receiver, and microbattery and implanted with several electrodes. To control the insect’s flight, scientists wirelessly deliver signals to the payload, which sends electrical signals through the electrode to the brain and flight muscles. Credit: Michel Maharbiz

Multimedia Watch controlled flights of the beetle.

A giant flower beetle with implanted electrodes and a radio receiver on its back can be wirelessly controlled, according to research presented this week. Scientists at the University of California developed a tiny rig that receives control signals from a nearby computer. Electrical signals delivered via the electrodes command the insect to take off, turn left or right, or hover in midflight. The research, funded by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), could one day be used for surveillance purposes or for search-and-rescue missions.

Beetles and other flying insects are masters of flight control, integrating sensory feedback from the visual system and other senses to navigate and maintain stable flight, all the while using little energy. Rather than trying to re-create these systems from scratch, Michel Maharbiz and his colleagues aim to take advantage of the beetle’s natural abilities by melding insect and machine. His group has previously created cyborg beetles, including ones that have been implanted with electronic components as pupae. But the current research, presented at the IEEE MEMS in Italy, is the first demonstration of a wireless beetle system.

The beetle’s payload consists of an off-the-shelf microprocessor, a radio receiver, and a battery attached to a custom-printed circuit board, along with six electrodes implanted into the animals’ optic lobes and flight muscles. Flight commands are wirelessly sent to the beetle via a radio-frequency transmitter that’s controlled by a nearby laptop. Oscillating electrical pulses delivered to the beetle’s optic lobes trigger takeoff, while a single short pulse ceases flight. Signals sent to the left or right basilar flight muscles make the animal turn right or left, respectively.

Most previous research in controlling insect flight has focused on moths. But beetles have certain advantages. The giant flower beetle’s size–it ranges in weight from four to ten grams and is four to eight centimeters long–means that it can carry relatively heavy payloads. To be used for search-and-rescue missions, for example, the insect would need to carry a small camera and heat sensor.

In addition, the beetle’s flight can be controlled relatively simply. A single signal sent to the wing muscles triggers the action, and the beetle takes care of the rest. “That allows the normal function to control the flapping of the wings,” says Jay Keasling, who was not involved in the beetle research but who collaborates with Maharbiz. Minimal signaling conserves the battery, extending the life of the implant. Moths, on the other hand, require a stream of electrical signals in order to keep flying.

The research has been driven in large part by advances in the microelectronics industry, with miniaturization of microprocessors and batteries.

We are in an age of humans determined to create a society of sustainability. Can this be achieved? Of course it can. However, the human animal will only be able to thrive indefinitely if it returns to a tolerable place in nature. There will always be death and entropy, but there will also always be life and growth.

Why is there so often a mental separation between nature and technology? Technology is simply a humanization of nature in a sense. We humanize nature to work for our needs and wants. We manipulate existing natural technology. There seems to be a tendency to separate the human from his environment. To be “protected from the elements.” We are part of a system and to separate ourselves from that system is to cut off essential life giving elements. Nature is harsh and unforgiving, but we are adaptive and rugged.

It is my dream that human architecture will begin a movement towards organic structural development. This following simple example may illustrate my underlying idea:

A man has a mouse problem in his house. The mice are coming in through small fissures in the architecture of his house. He traps numerous mice with mouse trapping devices. The mice are leaving their feces and urine in the walls, in clothing, in food products. The situation is detrimental to the man’s health and lifestyle. After killing over a dozen of mice in traps, the man still has not solved his mouse problem, the mice are breeding in the walls.

The man adopts a cat. After finding the cat playfully and proudly killing a mouse one night, he cleans the remaining debris left by the mice. After several days the man notices no more evidence of mice sharing his living space. The man receives endless joy from the cute behavior of his intriguing feline house companion. The cat also appears healthy and happy to be sharing the space with the man, being well fed and well treated. Psychologically, as well as physically, the man has been bettered by bringing into his home this separate entity. Equally, the cat, who had previously been living in hospital-like conditions, is now able to enjoy a rewarding, safe hunting and living situation.

The mice, which are serving their function outside the human domicile are thriving as well. They are not being killed every night, as they have learned that this location is no longer safe. They couldn’t be taught that they would be killed by traps so easily, but they knew they had to leave to avoid their natural predator.

These basic principles should designed into the very architecture of the man’s home.

Why is there not a place designed for birds to perch on the exterior of his house?
Why was there not previously space designated for the habitat of his feline?
Why is the sunlight blocked by a flat roof? Could it not be reflected and harnessed as lighting and energy sources?
Why is his water source sent only to his toilet, sink and shower? Could it not be used to heat and cool the insides of his walls, even as an energy source itself?

Stretch farther. Why does he need to go to a market to buy his vegetables? Couldn’t this man have a small designated hydroponic situation built into his house? He has a large electronic refrigeration unit, just like all his neighbors. Could that space not be used to grow his own food, using reflected and stored sunlight?

Why has he flushed whole trees worth of paper down his toilet? Why doesn’t he have a fast growing plant in his bathroom? A leafy aloe-like plant would do the trick, it would be so soothing.

Humans are complicated mammals.
We are not insects.
We should not live in inorganic hives.
These things should be common sense. You should not work all day to pay someone else for your right to live. You should work all day to create an amazing existence. Living like insects should not be tolerated, it should not even be an option. Not to say that there isn’t a lot to learn from the lives of insects.

The bees are dying, or so they say. They plants need to be pollinated, we need the plants. Nanotechnology is reaching the point where insectile robots are certainly feasible. Could robotic bees be produced to safely pollinate genetically engineered plants? They would need an optical device to function. Their visual information could feed directly into a digital recording mainframe. Using visual algorithms, their view could be extrapolated into three dimensional interpretations. Once recorded, these landscapes could be used to view specific multidimensional spaces at specific times. Can you be sure that this sort of idea is not already the case and that the observers are simply unknown to you?