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This picture showed up in my Facebook feed.

![mosquito drone](http://imgur.com/APA6LnQ)

Is this a mosquito?

No. It's an insect spy drone for urban areas, already in production, funded by the US Government. It can be remotely controlled and is equipped with a camera and microphone. It can land on you and it may have the potential to take a DNA sample or leave RFID nanotechnology on your skin. It can fly through an open window, or it can attach to your clothing until you take it in your home.

Is this drone real/viable given current technology?

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Wayne Werner
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  • [Snopes claims](http://www.snopes.com/photos/technology/insectdrone.asp) (without evidence) that the image is a mockup and that it is not a real drone. – March Ho Jul 08 '15 at 03:08
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    @MarchHo - in this case, I think snopes is jumping to conclusions. The fact that the picture is a mock-up is in no way relevant to whether the drone is real; and Snopes isn't **in a position to be privy to classified technology** to know whether it's real or not. – user5341 Jul 08 '15 at 13:51
  • Not conclusive, but the earliest post I can find containing this image is from June of 2012: http://rt.com/news/us-drones-swarms-274/ It attributes the photo to NetworkWorld.com but the article it appears to be citing does not use that photo: http://www.networkworld.com/article/2222611/microsoft-subnet/the-future-of-drone-surveillance--swarms-of-cyborg-insect-drones.html Still, based on many other links, it seems the RT article greatly popularized this image. A great deal of examples appear after that article, in late June 2012. – recognizer Jul 10 '15 at 19:00
  • In any case, the provenance of this image seems to be thoroughly unknown. As far as I can tell, it is not attributed to any of the specific projects that are described in articles citing this image. – recognizer Jul 10 '15 at 19:01

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