We’ve seen robotic roaches and tweet-controlled critters before, but nothing quite like this. RoboRoach, currently funding on Kickstarter, is a $99 kit that would allow users to turn a cockroach–yes, an actual, living cockroach–into their own personal cyborg. See the thing in action above.
Getting the bug under your command is just as gruesome as you might imagine. First, the roach’s head must be sanded down (if it was any other animal, my cruelty senses would be tingling, but it’s a cockroach, so fuck it), then, a computerized “backpack” is attached to the bug’s back and plugged in. To control the creature, users send messages to its antennae via an iPhone.
My plan: get one of these things, have it go undercover and garner support among the cockroach community in my apartment, and when it appears my RoboRoach has a devoted group of friends and followers, have him jump out the window with the hopes that his new buddies will follow.
