Canon PowerShot SD4000 IS
ƒ/2.8
5.929 mm
1/13
400

Stroking the leg, and watching the electrical spikes in the nervous system.

As I rubbed the pinned cockroach leg hairs, the neuron spikes were visible on the iPad. They have a simple single neuron per hair system to jack into.

We then ran it backward, and got the leg to dance to a hip hop tun. I wanted to teach it jiu-jitsu. =)

8 responses to “Bugs in the Matrix”

  1. I recall a recurring theme here, with the leggy bugs… this one from TED 2005:

    Polypedal Grasp

    Each leg is bristling with hinge spines, forming a distributed foot. And it lets the cockroach scurry with remarkable speed over hidden obstacles. Intelligent feedback is distributed out through the peripheral nervous system.

    Close up of the rig:

  2. Yeah PETA would get themselves in a tizzy for something like this, but this sort of research is what will allow people with missing limbs to control there robotic prosthetic arm or leg with there own brain power and not just physical switches. I have a hard time feeling sorry for a critter that would be happy to lay its eggs inside of you….just sayin.

  3. Interesting. Remind me of a cool experiment they did with the kids at TEDx Youth last year.

    Just came across a cool photo of you with Peter.

    TED2012_017148_IMG_0007_1920

  4. Don’t mean to spam your photostream, but here’s some video I shot of a dancing cockroach leg:
    http://www.flickr.com/photos/83025347@N00/5797580484/

  5. Thanks for sharing. You draw a great crowd around you, Peter Norvig, Carl Page.
    From the Backyard Brains website, they offer gadgets for school kids. They are an interesting team. Hope they offer something based on butterfly, grasshopper, etc., other than the cockroach to attract school girls’ interests in neuroscience.
    http://www.backyardbrains.com/home.aspx

  6. As I rubbed the pinned cockroach leg hairs, the neuron spikes were visible on the iPad.

    Steve, that has got to be one the most sinister sentences that I have ever read. Ezra Pound would have loved it!

  7. Very cool and great portrait with Peter – he always hits the target in everything he does.

  8. P.S. His TED Ed talk just went online today.

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