
The CIA’s amazing bots - phsr
http://hackaday.com/2011/02/10/the-cias-amazing-bots/
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ohashi
From the 70's... your imagination can just run wild with what they might be
using today. It's both very cool and somewhat scary.

~~~
lwat
I'm highly skeptical about that dragonfly from the 70s. I think it's a mock-up
at best, there's no way they made something useful for surveillance etc the
size of a large dragonfly. Not in the 70s. Researchers working on this for
decades can barely do this today!

~~~
grandalf
I'm guessing all it did was fly around loosely controlled if at all. The
miniaturization is impressive, but they were not likely able to do much more
than a small internal combustion engine in the 70s.

Today however I would not be surprised if such devices exist and are in
practical use.

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tintin
For those interested:
[http://www.delfly.nl/?site=DIII&menu=home&lang=en](http://www.delfly.nl/?site=DIII&menu=home&lang=en)
the smallest I've seen with camera!

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philthy
The CIA can't even sniff out a double agent who kills a station chief and a
hand full of others in AFG...doubtful they have robots smaller then this :
[http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/42/Raven_UAV...](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/42/Raven_UAV.jpg)

full article here: <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miniature_UAV>

you guys watch too much movies

~~~
woodall
>Miniature auto differential created for tiny flying robots

<http://www.gizmag.com/differential-micro-air-vehicles/16250/>

>Harvard University's Micro-robotics Laboratory claims to have created the
first tiny micro-robotic fly able to generate enough thrust to take off. It
has a wingspan of 3 cm and only weighs 0.06 grams.

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ATZzzeipags>

~~~
philthy
Neither of which are in use with the US gov't! If you fools haven't figured it
out, the US gov't is not a futuristic entity with all gadgets 10 years before
they come out. Leading up to and shortly after 9/11 you couldn't search for
multi word strings on FBI computers, and you think they have nano bots? HAH!

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yogiprerna
What's disturbing to me about this is not the technology (which is awesome),
but the fact that it's been buried in the government trenches for 40 years.
That kind of knowledge hoarding seems highly antithetical to the "American
spirit".

~~~
danielsoneg
The CIA's always been antithetical to the "American spirit" - an intelligence
organization is, by definition.

Agreed, though - it would be nice if this had seen the light of day before
now, moreso given the fact that we still can't figure out how the damn thing
works.

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rcavezza
Wow, I wonder how many tiny spy cameras they have flying around disguised as
insects right now...

~~~
jjwiseman
From a 2007 story in the Washington Post, "Dragonfly or Insect Spy? Scientists
at Work on Robobugs" [http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-
dyn/content/article/2007/10...](http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-
dyn/content/article/2007/10/08/AR2007100801434.html) :

    
    
       Vanessa Alarcon saw them while working at an antiwar rally in
       Lafayette Square last month.
    
      "I heard someone say, 'Oh my god, look at those,' " the college
      senior from New York recalled. "I look up and I'm like, 'What the
      hell is that?' They looked kind of like dragonflies or little
      helicopters. But I mean, those are not insects."
    
      Out in the crowd, Bernard Crane saw them, too.
    
      "I'd never seen anything like it in my life," the Washington lawyer
      said. "They were large for dragonflies. I thought, 'Is that
      mechanical, or is that alive?' "
    
      That is just one of the questions hovering over a handful of similar
      sightings at political events in Washington and New York. Some
      suspect the insectlike drones are high-tech surveillance tools,
      perhaps deployed by the Department of Homeland Security.

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borism
is this a joke? seriously, who are these guys (either CIA, or this post's
authors) kidding?

it all reminded me of all those Castro assassination attempts, each more
perverse than previous, and of course all a complete failure:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/638_Ways_to_Kill_Castro>

