Scientists develop remote-controlled pigeon


location based services

The implications of this story are amazing - e.g. cyberbirds filling the sky -- get them to poop on your pals for a joke?

Hitchcock's "Birds" revisited?


"Chinese scientists may have found a solution to the problem of pigeons in Trafalgar Square: the first remotely controlled bird.

The new development could help London's Mayor wage a war on pigeons in Trafalgar Square

They have successfully implanted electrodes in the brain of a pigeon to control its movements via a computer.
Scientists at the Robot Engineering Technology Research Center at Shandong University of Science and Technology in eastern China said the electrodes could make the pigeon fly right or left or up or down.
'The implants stimulate different areas of the pigeon's brain according to signals sent by the scientists via computer, and force the bird to comply with their commands,' said Xinhua news agency.
'It’s the first such successful experiment on a pigeon in the world,' the centre’s chief scientist, Su Xuecheng, added.
advertisementThe development could help Ken Livingstone, the London Mayor, with his war on pigeons in Trafalgar Square.
He has repeatedly been criticised by animal rights activists who claim that he has indirectly caused the deaths of thousands of birds through starvation and by deploying Harris hawks to scare the pigeons away.
The Save the Trafalgar Square Pigeons group say that Mr Livingstone broke a 2002 contract, under which the pigeons would continue to be fed but in reduced quantities.

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