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A series of robot butterflies have been constructed from bits of old mobile phones, in a bid to promote recycling — and to remind puny humans never to build a race of deadly mechanical insects.
Robot butterflies are built from bits of old phones (pictures)
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The robot beasts, which were unveiled at the Natural History Museum in London, each have their own mobile number which, when dialled, will trigger a burst of activity, including “extendable antennae, a head which moves on more than one axis of freedom and laser eyes.” Here’s sincerely hoping they don’t become sentient any time soon.
The mechanical bugs were assembled by artist collective “is this good?“, and feature wings built out of phone screens that display constantly changing patterns. The project was commissioned by UK phone network O2, which will be moving the butterflies to its The O2 arena venue later this year, where they’ll be on public display.
In terms of the robot uprising, sentient butterfly-bots may not be as obviously terrifying as, say, a Terminator army, but as someone who’s creeped out by even regular, biological moths, I still wouldn’t want to get one of these mechanical beasts tangled in my hair. Click through the photo gallery above to examine the butterflies in more detail, and see how many different mobiles you can identify.
