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  • From: Michael S Czeiszperger <czei AT webperformanceinc.com>
  • To: "InterNetWorkers" <internetworkers AT franklin.metalab.unc.edu>
  • Subject: Ratbots
  • Date: Thu, 2 May 2002 13:05:46 -0400


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http://www.nature.com/nsu/020429/020429-9.html

I sincerely hope that IT managers don't read this :-)

- -------------------
Bioengineers at the State University of New York have transformed a common
lab
rat into a radio-controlled automaton with little more than a few electrodes.
By stimulating the part of the rat's brain that normally receives sensations
from the animal's whiskers via a radio receiver plugged into an interface in
its skull, researchers were able to navigate the animal through an obstacle
course, making it twist, turn and even leap on demand. When it responded
properly, the rat was rewarded with a signal that stimulated its medial
forebrain bundle, the "feelgood" center of the mammalian brain."It's really
just conditioning behavior," said physiologist John K. Chapin of the
university's Downstate Medical Center, noting that training an animal to do
human bidding is as old as teaching dogs to fetch. "But it's different in
that you can do it all with remote control. In theory, you could guide the
animal anywhere." Researchers believe these remote-controlled rats could be
used to detect land mines and find people trapped in collapsed buildings.

- --
Michael Czeiszperger
Web Performance Inc.
Raleigh, NC
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  • Ratbots, Michael S Czeiszperger, 05/02/2002
    • <Possible follow-up(s)>
    • RE: Ratbots, Bill Geschwind, 05/02/2002

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