Carnivorous Clock Eats Bugs

Designers James Auger and Jimmy Loizeau have created a clock that is powered by "eating" bugs. The clock traps insects on flypaper stretched across a roller system and then drops them into a vat of bacteria. The insects are then "digested" and the ensuing chemical reaction is transformed into power that keeps the rollers moving and the LCD clock working. The two offer another version that is powered by mice and an even cooler machine that picks insect fuel from spiderwebs with the help of a robotic arm and a video camera.

Re:Applications

[Bryan Gividen]

I think the practical application is that it gets rid of bugs and it tells the time.

Re:Ethical Treatment of Flies

[ChienAndalu]

fuck it. [peta.org.uk]

Wow.

[FlyingSquidStudios]

Talk about a nested series of links. I had to go through 3 separate sites- Slashdot, Endgadget, and Hack-a-Day, one linked to the other, until I got to the original New Scientist gallery photos which had many more interesting robot pictures. Oh, and the end link wasn't to page 1 of the photo gallery and the links weren't obvious each time either. For those who don't want to go the long way around, here is the original link. [newscientist.com]

How about linking to the actual source

[weave]

Instead of linking to a blog that talks about another blog that refers to and links to the original story, why not just link to the original source to save us from 5 click throughs and give the original authors credit as well?

Original story: Domestic robots with a taste for flesh [newscientist.com]

more direct link

[hohokus]

More direct link, more details, related contraptions (eats mice!): http://www.newscientist.com/gallery/dn17367-carnivorous-domestic-entertainment-robots/1 [newscientist.com]

always a catch

[iroll]

I figured it was too good to be true:

Although, for now, the robots rely on mains power [newscientist.com], Auger believes they could become truly self-sufficient.

I like technology-as-art projects, but it'd be much cooler if these things actually *were* powered by bug juice--that is, more like bug powered 75% of the time, with a battery backup or a solar panel (or both) for those days when all the flies have already been eaten--rather than just being combination clock-and-bug-zappers. I'd be interested to see their average power production vs. power consumption.

Needs mobility

[Spy Handler]

This is nothing new, in fact there was an even better robot 5 or 6 years ago in Popular Mechanics that did the same biological digestion-to-electricity conversion, but that one was MOBILE. So theoretically it could walk around catching and eating insects and deriving its power needs from that. Don't know what became of it though, I suppose there were no commercial applications.

Now if the digestion can be made efficient enough, and if it can catch enough food to store enough surplus energy, maybe it could be made to breed!

Re:Bugs?

[Brandee07]

It has a scraper to scrape the bugs off of the paper and into the bug-digesting compartment. I guess that would be the stomach?

Re:Bugs?

[Attack DAWWG]

The bugs are removed with a scraper. Here [newscientist.com] is a pic.

Re:umm...why???

[JWSmythe]

    Won't work.

    Well, it would work, but you'd always lose in the overall equation. By putting something in line to capture the "speed energy", you are forced to put more power out to make the speed.

    blah, blah, blah, energy cannot be created nor destroyed, it can only change states, blah, blah, blah.

    To expand on the idea, you could put a giant windmill on top of a car that could produce enough electricity to drive with. Unfortunately, it would take more electricity than you produce to make it move, because of the added resistance of the windmill.

    Now, having a deployable windmill that could charge the battery while you're parked is a completely different idea, and almost practical. :) Just like solar, it depends on where you are, and what the environment dictates. Alaska in mid winter isn't exactly good for solar. Most cities don't have a good sustained wind at ground level. Florida along the coast should be great for either, but you'll run out of sun and get extra wind when a hurricane blows through. :)

   

Re:Bugs?

[Shadow of Eternity]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W8ip_aEku38 [youtube.com]

Isn't it WONDERFUL...