Cyborg

The dream of melding biological and man-made machinery is now a little more real with the announcement that Columbia Engineering researchers have successfully harnessed a chemical energy-producing biological process to power a solid state CMOS integrated circuit.

Researchers from North Carolina State University have succeeded in getting cyborg-like "biobot" cockroaches to move towards sounds. Down the road, such insects may be used to locate victims at disaster sites.

Why go to the trouble of designing tiny flying robots from scratch, when there are already ready-made insects that are about the right size? That's the thinking behind research being conducted at North Carolina State University, which is aimed at converting moths into "biobots."

MIT's "supernumerary robotic fingers" extend from either side of the user's dominant hand, and are attached to a device that's worn around the wrist. The idea behind them is that (among other things) they could allow users to perform tasks that usually require two hands, using only one.

Face computers like Google Glass have their advantages. But when you start talking about the disadvantages of Glass, one of the big topics that keeps coming up is a general disconnection from your surroundings. We share some thoughts on whether Google Glass makes you more or less connected.

A team led by North Carolina State University's Dr. Edgar Lobaton is developing software that would allow "swarms" of living remote-control cockroaches to map hazardous environments such as collapsed buildings.

Researchers at North Carolina State University have used the Xbox Kinect to put cyborg cockroaches on autopilot.

For the first time, neuromuscular electrodes that enable a prosthetic arm and hand to be controlled by thought have been permanently implanted into the nerves and muscles of an amputee.

Scientists have created a system for steering live cockroaches by remote control.

Researchers at Harvard, MIT and Boston Children's Hospital are perfecting a breakthrough technique that could lead to better diagnostic devices, better drug delivery systems, and perhaps ... better cyborgs.

A team from Clarkson University has implanted a living snail with a biofuel cell that generates electrical power from glucose and oxygen in the snail's blood.

A group of researchers at Case Western Reserve University have created a power supply that relies just on the insect's normal feeding to power electronics attached to the insect.