Remote Controlled Pigeons

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Looks a bit nasty but this is a fantastic demonstration of electronics and computers interacting directly with an animal. Will this put an end to designing tiny drone spy planes?

“Scientists with the Robot Engineering Technology Research Center of east China’s Shandong University of Science and Technology say they implanted micro electrodes in the brain of a pigeon so they can command it to fly right or left or up or down.

The implants stimulated different areas of the pigeon’s brain according to signals sent by the scientists via computer, and forced the bird to comply with their commands.

It’s the first such successful experiment on a pigeon in the world, said the lead researcher, who hopes the work will have “practical use” in the future.

In the United States, similar work on animals has been of interest to the military. For example, the pigeon news follows the equally amusing animal tale about the Pentagon’s attempts at creating remote controlled shark spies. Like the Chinese pigeon experiment, the sharks had brain implants used to control their movements.”

Via: Wired and Robot Gossip

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45 Comments


  1. That is rather disturbing. If they succeed in making this technology viable, then they could easily control humans.

    It just seems like we are going _too_ far.

    Reminds me of Alice at the end of Resident Evil 2.


  2. omg… what is that??? they really left the head open??? what if they try that with humans???


  4. I thought the same thing about the open head… At least place a cover over the brain before snapping pictures!


  5. I, for one, welcome our mushy-headed electropigeon overlords.


  6. Please, post two or three news soon, every time I enter in hackedgadgets I have to see that disgusting picture of the pigeon with it’s brains coming out

    besides we haver trained carrier pigeons for centuries, this technology does not contribute anything new and it raises serious moral doubts


  7. Creepy.
    also, i acknowledge the Vice City reference made by cb.


  8. Maybe these will replace remote controlled airplanes as a hobby


  9. Strap on a couple of fricken lazers and that’d be a sweet toy!


  10. It would be far more complicated to do this toa human. We have far more complicated brains. The intriguing part to me is that it could be done in reverse. Think about controlling something with just a thought. Anyone ever read the Reality Dysfunction series by Peter Hamilton? Would be neat.


  11. Hey L0rd_D4rk, just squint your eyes as the page loads, it just looks like a funny cap then… It will be off the front page in no time. Until then some readers may need some of those airline bags close at hand. 🙂


  12. Really, please remove that picture. That is the most disturbing thing I’ve seen on the net for years. And yes I have seen allot!!! Makes me want to puke and cry at the same time…


  13. This is terrible. Those things are alive. We have enough technology to emulate life and given time, better AI. I see no reason to take the will out of an animal. I also agree that using this t control humans is quite possible.


  16. Wow, that really is a bit disturbing. Sure, I’m all for a brain-to-computer interface for things like memory enhancement (store off your images as photos or whatever), but I don’t imagine something as grotesque as this — both in visuals and what it does to the unfortunate bird. This was innevitable, though, after the remote control cockroaches frm a while back.

    I’m not even sure what we’re looking at here, either. Just what is sticking out of the poor birds head? Not sure I really want to know….


  17. I found the fact that someone could think this up and consider it acceptable more repulsive than the actual physical truth. It just shows that there are no boundaries to what people will do in the interest of ‘science’. The act of hacking electrodes into the mind of a creature, however small, is not progress it’s Victorian quack science.


  19. Umm, this is somewhat sadistic, but cool none the less.



  21. I wrote some interesting info about “mind control” harassment by neighborhood activists back in 2001. It is in some archives. To find it Google: “Von Kidd” + “mind control”. In the results the one at buffalo.edu is heavily edited, the one at Topica directory is not.
    The info about how the perps hide their signal is incorrect. Not all the links work anymore, use the link’s topic as a search term. All the info from the links and more -including reliable, verifiable documentation from the media- is at: WantToKnow.Info. On their topic bar click mind control.

    In Freedom and Liberty,

    Von Kidd



  26. THIS IS WRONG


  27. If the animals are used in the proper way like searching and rescue people, I will agree. For example, it is very common to use dogs to find the victims trapped in the collapsed building. Why not we also remote control rats to look for victims underground? – http://www.private-aircraft.biz


  28. Dear Sir,

    i need a remote cntrol flying gadget with mini camera and mic.
    please send me the details of the available products.

    regards,

    Fasih


  29. This is sick. The people who do this are sick. I agree that animals should be used in scientific experiments sometimes, such as for medicinal purposes (e.g. drugs testing), however in these cases, it does seem neccessary. I see absolutely no reason for this, it is pointless, and the scientists did it out of interest, nothing more. THIS IS WRONG, and i am proud to say that this would never happen in Britain!


  30. No surprise this is by Chinese scientists. Gotta love a country where you can buy 4 year old prostitutes and butcher dogs and cats for restaurant use. Up with animal rights…


  31. I think you need to do a pigeon like the dead-mouse/computer-mouse but with a hobby helicopter. then you can race the pigeon like in the redbull air races.




  34. Now if they can only implant an electrode to make it crap.


  35. you piece of shit


  36. Ok I’m not really for them not closing the bird’s head and all but other then that(and the fact
    that there is a remote control thingy in its head) it wouldn’t act any differently from a pigeon
    that didn’t have the implant unless they are actively controling it. Because of this I think that
    it would be a safe and effective way way to, for example, keep pitbulls from biting people. Maybe
    when the pitbull was going to bite someone the owner could just press a button and it would make
    the pitbull’s jaw open and make it sortof just sit there untill the person left the area. That way
    people could still have pitbulls, the putbulls’ mouths wouldn’t have to be kept in weird cagey
    things as though they are criminals and they would be perfectly safe for everyone. And as a bonus
    they could add in a GPS tracker so if the dog ran away you could just hold down the “sit” button
    and use the GPS tracker to find it. (and hopefuly you won’t accidentally press the sit button
    while it is crossing a highway. LOL


  37. This is just one step closer to the zombie apocalypse!





  41. Commenting usually is not my thing, but ive surfed an hour on the website, so thanks for the great information Greetings.

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