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Backyard Brains has created the RoboRoach, a backpack that fits onto the back of the insect that allows it to be controlled via app.
An American company is facing claims of animal cruelty after it invented a $ 99 “electronic backpack” for cockroaches.
The backpack allows the insect’s movements to be controlled by a mobile phone app. It was launched on Saturday.
It is the brainchild of a Michigan-based company called Backyard Brains, reports the BBC.
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They say the device, formally known as RoboRoach, is intended to get more people, especially children, interested in neuroscience.
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The smartphone app allows users to control the insects movements, such as making it move left and right.
Critics claim it is harmful and teaches children to be “psychopaths”.
It works by first placing the famously resilient cockroach into icy water in order to subdue them.
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Then, sandpaper is used to remove waxy coating on the insect’s head.
Then an electric connector and electrodes are glued to the body and a needle used to make a hole close to the insect’s thorax in order to insert a wire.
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The process of attacking the backpack to the cockroach has been called cruel, as it involves cutting antennae, using sandpapger on its back and putting it in icy water.
The animal’s antennae are cut, electrodes nested and the 4.5g backpack is fitted.
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Once in use, it means those with app can control the insect’s movements, making the animal turn left or right.
Animal behavior scientist Jonathan Balcombe said on U.S. scientific websites that the insects are harmed in the process.
“If it was discovered that a teacher was having students use magnifying glasses to burn ants and then look at their tissue, how would people react?” he said.
http://newyork.greatlocalnews.info/?p=17088
via Great Local News: New York http://newyork.greatlocalnews.info
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