Domestic robots with a taste for flesh
Believing that they need to fit unobtrusively into the home, he has built robotic furniture.
need to be useful and entertaining, he has given the furniture an appetite for vermin, like mice and flies
Each can sense its environment, has mechanical moving parts, and can perform basic services for its human hosts, such as telling the time or lighting a room.
They can gain energy by chomping on flies and mice
The pests are lured in and digested by an internal microbial fuel cell. This exploits the way microbes generate free electrons and hydrogen ions when oxidising chemicals for energy. Electronics can be powered by directing the electrons around an external circuit before reuniting them with the ions.
Although, for now, the robots rely on mains power, Auger believes they could become truly self-sufficient
This is a coffee table that doubles as a mouse trap.
Crumbs are placed on the table to encourage mice to climb up
clipped from: www.newscientist.com 
