Hybrid Insect Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems

Hybrid Insect Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems is a project of DARPA, a unit of the United States Department of Defense, with the goal of developing tightly coupled machine

Machine

A machine manages power to accomplish a task, examples include, a mechanical system, a computing system, an electronic system, and a molecular machine. In common usage, the meaning is that of a device having parts that perform or assist in performing any type of work...

-insect

Insect

Insects are a class of living creatures within the arthropods that have a chitinous exoskeleton, a three-part body , three pairs of jointed legs, compound eyes, and two antennae...

interfaces by placing micro-mechanical systems inside the insects during the early stages of metamorphosis

Metamorphosis

Metamorphosis is a biological process by which an animal physically develops after birth or hatching, involving a conspicuous and relatively abrupt change in the animal's body structure through cell growth and differentiation...

. The primary application is surveillance

Surveillance

Surveillance is the monitoring of the behavior, activities, or other changing information, usually of people. It is sometimes done in a surreptitious manner...

Sources

http://www.darpa.gov/mto/programs/himems/index.html
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/10/08/AR2007100801434_2.html?sid=ST2007100801459
http://patentvector.com/?p=23

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