Beetles carry tiny camera backpacks to stream their lives

Researchers from the University of Washington have developed tiny backpacks for beetles so they can film their surroundings. Miniature cameras, which stream to a linked smartphone, gives researchers insights into the lives of the creatures. It has a range of 120 meters, a little longer than a football pitch. "We have created a low-power, low-weight, wireless camera system that can capture a first-person view of what's happening from an actual live insect or create vision for small robots," said Shyam Gollakota, UW associate professor of Computer Science & Engineering and senior author of the study published based on these results. "Vision is so important for communication and for navigation, but it's extremely challenging to do it at such a small scale. As a result, prior to our work, wireless vision has not been possible for small robots or insects."