Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), United States Department of Defense, Thintkank, or the new Military Technology Development Organization.
Recently, the company said in a declaration that they are working on a new project that can change how relevant information is collected on the battlefield.
This project, called Advanced Plant Technologies (APT), is working to verify the possibility of making the plant the next generation of spy surveillance.
The company said the project will lead the armed forces to sustainable technology, in the environment, plant-based sensors and remote hardware can be monitored using existing hardware.
The aim of the APT is to develop the natural stimuli-reaction process of plants, in order to 'identify specific chemicals, diseases, radiation and even electro-magnetic signals.'
Using the gene editing technique, it has been possible to successfully use the trees in spying. Darpa hopes that these plant-based sensors will not be harmful for the normal growth and expansion of the plant.
Apart from current research, the company is planning to produce genetically engineered plants after the process of correction of many complex processes and use it as an intelligent stimulating agent.
Where most of the military technologies currently working in the mechanical development, Darpa has focused on nature in the use of military technology. Genetically modified plants are considered perfect for collecting such information and will limit the risk of sending troops to potentially harmful environments. It's like the convenience of collecting information through drone instead of a lot of people.
APT Project Manager Blake Baxtin said, "Plants are fairly transparent and naturally in their environment, expressing naturally obvious physiological reactions for light and temperature, but in some cases it is useful to use touch, chemical, disease, germs."
Bexton said, "Emerging molecular and modeling strategies can be possible to reprogrammatize this reporting and reporting ability, which will not only open the new intelligence stream, but also reduce the risks and costs of the person involved in the current sensors."
Darpa is working to utilize genetically modified trees as a self-reliant sensor for collecting intelligence information. Chemical, micro organisms, radiation and electro magnetic signals are possible to be identified through the tree. Editing the gene will enable the US military to control the trees in such a task and monitor the use of hardware remotely for specific responses. Plant surveillance technology already exists from land, air, and even space.
References: Futurism