Bugs are mobile little creatures, able to get into the darndest places, gingerly and often unnoticed. Replicating these characteristics for human ends is the aim of research under way at Vanderbilt University, where a US$904,000 contract awarded by the Pentagon's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is funding development of a sophisticated robotic bug.
The micro-robots, each about two inches long, might be used in minefield exploration, military maneuvers, and video-spying in hostage situations.
The units will likely crawl with the help of "actuators," similar to the those that vibrate a pager.
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Digital dog tags: The Pentagon is taking bids for a digital remake of the ubiquitous "dog tag," the small identifying plates worn around soldiers' necks to provide information they hope no one will ever need: name, religion and blood type. By 1999, the Pentagon hopes to have replaced the tags with an electronic version, whose chip could contain medical histories, cardiograms, X-rays, and more.
Medics on the battlefield would make use of the more sophisticated data, read via handheld devices or laptops, to improve treatment of wounded soldiers. But a new concern arises: encryption. Defense Department spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Tom Begines says that to keep the chip-board information confidential and out of enemy hands, reading devices must be equipped with a second chip to decipher the soldier's stats. Early estimates on potential chip costs is about US$10 per 20 megabytes, CNN reports. (29.Dec.97)
