Tag Archives: cockroach

A Pest in the Water: Giant Cockroach Float

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Giant Cockroach Float

 

When you tell people that there’s a giant cockroach in the water, then you can expect a few of them to freak out and jump out of the pool because, well, there’s a roach. But put this particular giant roach into the pool, and you’ll get a few disgusted side glances at most along with a couple of double-takes.

The Giant Cockroach float is exactly what its name says it is, and while it may not feel as scratchy as an actual roach (“scratchy” being my choice of adjective, after several encounters with roaches that seemed to think that it was a good idea to hide in my shoe, of all places), it’s still very much capable of raising the hairs of those who are katsaridaphobic.

The float is available online for $29.95.

[ Product Page ] VIA [ SUATMM ]

The post A Pest in the Water: Giant Cockroach Float appeared first on OhGizmo!.

Cockroach iPhone Case

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cockroach iphone case Cockroach iPhone Case
They say that cockroaches will outlive us all when the nuclear winter comes to destroy the planet. Or something like that. While these little bugs might be impressive with their survival abilities, you still probably don’t want to see one in your home. Unless it’s your phone’s case. In which case, bring on the case, witch.
cockroach case in hand Cockroach iPhone Case
This iPhone Cockroach Case is made of silicone so it’s tough like real cockroaches. It doesn’t have that satisfying crunch when you step on it though. I guess that’s a good thing when you’ve got an expensive iDevice in it’s soft shell. No need to call an exterminator, there’s an app for that. Still not as gross as the dead marine animal iPhone case though.

Cockroach iPhone Case
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Chicken Plant Cockroaches Lead to Temporary Shutdown

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Foster Farms and its management are in hot water. They are in deep trouble because food inspectors from the USDA found the premises riddled with cockroaches. These dirty insects carry salmonella...
    






New Cockroach Invades New York in Winter

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The High Line in New York has essentially been a tourist spot. But now the area is being ransacked by a new species of cockroach hailing from Asia. While the Periplaneta japonica was never seen...
    






Cockroach Backpack App Controls Insects via iPhone

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The Backyard Brains Company is in deep trouble. After it came up with its $99 cockroach app, charges of animal cruelty were leveled at it from various quarters. The device which attaches a circuit on...

RoboRoach Kit Lets You Control a Living Roach With Your Smartphone

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I’m not particularly fond of roaches, but I don’t exactly hate them either. I’d just rather not come face to face with any one of these insects because creepy crawly insects just give me the heebie jeebies. That said, I’m still on the fence when it comes to the RoboRoach project by Backyard Brains.

RoboRoach1

The RoboRoach kit, which is currently up for funding on Kickstarter, includes the “backpack”, a helmet, a battery, and recording electrodes. You’ll have to be comfortable with handling roaches, because you’ll have to anesthetize them before performing surgery on them to place wires into their antennae.

Once everything’s all set up, then you can begin to control the cyborg roach using your smartphone.

In a nutshell, here’s how the RoboRoach works: When you send a command from your mobile phone, the backpack sends pulses to the antenna, which causes its neurons to fire, such that the roach to think there is a wall on one side. The result? The roach turns!

Attempting to control something alive might have ethical implications, and Backyard Brains has got that covered in their ethical statement. They also explain that the roach doesn’t get shocked or hurt when the RoboRoach is on in their FAQs, so you might want to check that section out if you’re concerned about the well-being of these insects.

A minimum pledge of $100(USD) will get you one of your very own RoboRoach kits. Though you’ll have to spend at least $150 if you want them to include some live cockroaches for you to play with.

[via C|NET]

RoboRoach surgery kit comes to Kickstarter: a remote control for real cockroaches

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RoboRoach surgery kit comes to Kickstarter: a DIY remote control for real cockroaches

What DARPA does with animal test subjects behind closed doors is one thing, but here we have something else entirely: mad-scientist kits that allow anyone at home to control the movement of a real-life cockroach. Backyard Brains, the crew behind Twitter Roach, have been selling RoboRoach sets for creating cyborg insects for some time. But today, after getting as far as they can on their own, they're seeking Kickstarter funding to improve their design and develop "educational materials" to go with it. The project will go live in the next 30 minutes or so, and pledges of $100 or more will get you a surgery kit consisting of a PCB "backpack," battery and three sets of electrodes. The PCB pairs with mobile devices via the Bluetooth LE profile and a companion app delivers commands to the 'roach, allowing you to steer the creature by swiping across your screen. Cough up $150 or more and they'll send you a dozen 'roaches to get you started.

The electrodes we mention need to be implanted into the cockroach's antennae so directional triggers can be sent to the nerves within -- effectively fooling the creature into thinking it's hit an obstacle and needs to change course. This is where it starts to get uncomfortable. Backyard Brains are touting the RoboRoach as an educational tool, specifically stating that "this product is not a toy." Something that's glossed over on the Kickstarter page, however, is the allegedly painless surgery step: how you attach the electrodes to the insect. People can make their own minds up regarding the ethics of the campaign, and can start by heading to the Kickstarter source link once it goes live at 9am ET. We've also embedded an old tutorial video below we found on the company's site, which demonstrates the surgery process. Be warned: there's antenna-clipping and other mutilations involved, which make our skin crawl even more than the thought of handling the cockroaches in the first place.

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Source: Kickstarter, Backyard Brains (1), (2)

RoboRoach surgery kit comes to Kickstarter: a DIY remote control for real cockroaches

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RoboRoach surgery kit comes to Kickstarter: a DIY remote control for real cockroaches

What DARPA does with animal test subjects behind closed doors is one thing, but here we have something very different: mad-scientist kits that allow anyone at home to control the movement of a real-life cockroach. Backyard Brains, the crew behind Twitter Roach, have been selling RoboRoach sets for creating cyborg insects for some time. But today, after getting as far as they can on their own, they're seeking Kickstarter funding to improve their design and develop "educational materials" to go with it. Pledges of $100 or more will get you a surgery kit consisting of a PCB "backpack," battery and three sets of electrodes. The PCB pairs with mobile devices via the Bluetooth LE profile and a companion app delivers commands to the 'roach, allowing you to steer the creature by swiping across your screen. Cough up $150 or more and they'll send you a dozen 'roaches to get you started.

The electrodes we mention need to be implanted into the cockroach's antennae so directional triggers can be sent to the nerves within -- effectively fooling the creature into thinking it's hit an obstacle and needs to change course. This is where it starts to get uncomfortable. Backyard Brains are touting the RoboRoach as an educational tool, specifically stating that "this product is not a toy." Something that's glossed over on the Kickstarter page, however, is the allegedly painless surgery step: how you attach the electrodes to the insect. People can make their own minds up regarding the ethics of the campaign, and can start by heading to the Kickstarter source link. We've also embedded an old tutorial video below we found on the company's site, which demonstrates the surgery process. Be warned: there's antenna-clipping and other mutilations involved, which make our skin crawl even more than the thought of handling the cockroaches in the first place.

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Source: Kickstarter, Backyard Brains (1), (2)

Cockroach Looks Like a Jawa: Lives in a Skincrawler

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Anyone on Tatooine can tell you that Jawas are annoying pests. They wander around collecting scraps and selling droids and are just generally everywhere. Meanwhile, on Earth, it turns out that we have our own Jawa pests.

jawa cockroach
This species of cockroach – called the lucihormetica luckae - looks just like a tiny Jawa, but there’s no droid selling here. I wonder if George Lucas was a bug collector and this was his inspiration.

Sadly, the bugs might be extinct now. They were only recently discovered, living inside a volcano in Ecuador. The problem is that the volcano erupted back in 2010, and they haven’t been seen since. They just need tiny blasters.

These cockroaches look adorable – especially when they glow in the dark. Bet you never saw a Jawa do this…

glowing jawa cockroach

Wait, doesn’t that look like EVE from WALL-E?

[via Motherboard via Kotaku]

Twitter Roach takes guidance from tweets, ushers in a terrifying 2013 (video)

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Twitter Roach takes guidance from tweets, ushers in a terrifying 2013 video

We've already seen cockroaches turned into unwitting puppets for human overlords, but never have we seen dominance quite so casual as with Brittany Ransom's recent Twitter Roach art project. While part of the exhibition, one of the insects wore a modified RoboRoach backpack with an Arduino add-on that took commands from Twitter: mentions including specific hashtags steered the roach left or right by stimulating its nerves. Yes, that meant the poor roach rarely had the dignity of seeing its master face to face, although there's some consolation in knowing that it wore the backpack for limited periods and had a required 30-second pause between instructions.

As to why Twitter Roach came to be? Ransom tells CNET she imagined the currently dormant project as a reflection of the "overstimulation" us humans encounter in a digital world. We can certainly sympathize given our livelihoods, although its existence makes us nervous about 2013. If we're fighting off remote-controlled insect armies a year from now, we'll have to admit we had fair warning.

Continue reading Twitter Roach takes guidance from tweets, ushers in a terrifying 2013 (video)

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Via: CNET

Source: Chicago Artists' Coalition