'Brain Control Cockroach' Realized in China's University

By virtue of the Bluetooth communication technology, controller could form a wireless communication between the computer and the electronic backpack through intrusive electrical nerve stimulation technique to control a cockroach by human beings. [Photo/en.stju.edu.cn]

A postgraduate student in China's Shanghai Jiaotong University (SJTU) has successfully made a cockroach move using the human mind.

According to an article published on the official website of SJTU, Li Guangye, a postgraduate student of the university, successfully implanted live cockroaches with microelectrodes that stimulate certain nerves in the insects' antennae, allowing him to control the insect using a remote.

To make it, the controller needs to wear a portable wireless brain wave collecting device to ensure his/her directional intention be recognized by a computer.

Then the computer will transfer the directional intention into controlling signal and send it to the electronic backpack receiver on the back of the cockroach; then according to the commanding signal of the controller, the electronic backpack will send specific pulse to the nerve of the cockroach's antennae which has been implanted with a microelectrode.

By virtue of the Bluetooth communication technology, the controller can form a wireless communication between the computer and the electronic backpack through intrusive electrical nerve stimulation techniques. This enables the controlling of the cockroach by human beings.

The research has won the second prize in 2015 IEEE RAS students' video contest and would be exhibited in the top-level meeting ICRA2015.