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ShareLondon: Two artists in London have come up with a bizarre invention in the form of a 'carnivorous digital clock', which catches bugs, then dissolves their bodies to create electrolytes to power itself.
A strip of sticky flypaper moves in a loop over the surface of the unit, much like a treadmill or moving sidewalk.
When an insect lands on the paper, it's trapped and slowly moves toward its final destination, a drop-off into a bath full of carnivorous microbes that break down its body.
"As soon as there is a predatory robot in the room the scene becomes loaded with potential," artist James Auger told New Scientist magazine.
"A fly buzzing around the window suddenly becomes an actor in a live game of life, as the viewer half wills it towards the robot and half hopes for it to escape," he added.
Auger and his collaborative partner Jimmy Loizeau have also built a coffee table that catches and kills mice, and a light that lures buzzing moths to their doom.
