This work (I think) worked with the mosquitos 30cm away with a servo scanning Pi Camera (1080p) and a 1W laser.
To work in the real world - cover a whole room or terrace - presumably a much higher resolution camera (or much faster scanning system) would be required. Even a 1W laser is dangerous to eyesight, if it was being fired at targets mingling with people.
The system could be mounted on small drones that would patrol larger areas - but the idea of robotic drones armed with lasers roaming around is beginning to sound worse than the mosquitos.
Good luck detecting a mosquito optically from a distance of several meters using a cheap camera and Raspberry Pi. Oh and you want to do from a moving drone. That will certainly make it work!
Just look at the images in the article - the guy's best result was detecting a black speck appearing on a nearby white wall with some 60-70% reliability (based on his own numbers). So you would be missing a lot of mosquitoes - but will be happy firing the laser at random shadows and what not. And that was in a completely stationary setup and controlled lab conditions, i.e. not at all something resembling a typical poorly lit room!
This article is BS. Preprints are not peer reviewed (i.e. nobody has checked anything in it - so could even be a complete hoax), it is a pretty typical gadgetry style paper (we do it because we can, not because it makes sense) you do at when you need to fill up your resume with research papers (e.g. for keeping/obtaining a job reasons).
The "save the world" (mosquito control, diseases, etc.) justification is also par for the course for this type of crappy paper. Anyone who seriously thinks that one could control mosquito problem by shooting them one by one by a laser is delusional.
But neural networks and "AI" are being used, so it has to be cutting edge groundbreaking stuff, right?
BTW, this nonsense idea has been floated as a publicity stunt a few years ago (including a slow motion video of a laser burning off wing of a mosquito in flight) and it seems that some Russian PhD student from a fairly obscure uni either didn't do their research or has reinvented the wheel (or just plain copied the thing without attribution). The list of irrelevant or only very tangentially relevant (it is about mosquitoes, so in scope, right?) references is a dead giveaway there (paper on mosquitoes spreading zika? seriously?).
Oh and that was supposed to be a handheld device to boot. With the same "save the world from malaria" spiel too. I wonder what are the owners of the company that was pushing this concept to investors back then trying to sell today ...
There are actually multiple videos on Youtube showing products from different companies that were attempting to push this as some sort of viable concept.
I can think of an alternative, not sure whether that would be practical, but it's possibly safer than laser: instead of shooting laser, make a turret that shoots (biodegradable, edible) soap water at the mosquitoes, in the smallest dose necessary to make the mosquito's wings stick. It would require some fluid-aerodynamics and projectile motion calculation, however.
I agree, there needs to be multiple orders of magnitude improvements in HW&SW, as well as domain specific dataset development for this to work at all.
I can imagine using a very accurate image segmentation algo to analyze the background and thereby prevent shooting lasers at vulnerable targets, but it's still hard to see how this is a good idea.
A 1W laser is even more dangerous than you say. It is powerful enough to start wood fires.
> the idea of robotic drones armed with lasers roaming around is beginning to sound worse than the mosquitos.
I don't really mind mosquitos outdoors, what I really hate is when I'm trying to sleep and there is a mosquito in the room. This means I have to turn the light bright on and spend time hunting them down or fill the room wit a toxic insecticide gas.
I would rather leave the room (or stay there with my eyes covered - to serve as a bait for the mosquitos), activate the robot and come back when it's done.
Or shoot only horizontally at 1 cm from the ceiling. Sooner or later the mosquito/fly will be there as wellOr shoot only horizontally at 1 cm from the ceiling. Sooner or later the mosquito/fly will be there as well
If you are assuming a drone, I feel like it would be more far, far more effective to just fly the drone into the mosquitoes and chop them up, than to have the drones individually pinpoint 1 mosquito at a time with a laser.
For safety, I think using multiple coordinated laser sources would be better (making them all converge at a single point). That, plus obviously a wavelength not dangerous for our eyesight.
Angular precision is an issue, but one could probably go around it by using a closed-loop control system that targets before increasing the power.
Targeting is hard as well, if you want a reliable system, there's probably no alternative to sensor fusion (sound, active infrared range-meter, maybe radar & ultrasound).
In the end, it's probably overkill compared to a trap, but the challenges are interesting.
I started thinking about something similar last summer to deal with aggressive flies from a nearby farm.
Perhaps it's possible to make something that's kinda safe for eyesight if you make it track and light up the fly/mosquito for e.g. 50 seconds instead of 0.5 seconds.
Is there a wavelength that could blind mosquitos and not humans? Mosquitos aren't party to any blinding laser weapons convention, and while it wouldn't kill them they might not survive too long after being blinded.
I've had this idea many years ago and my solution to that problem was to use two or more lasers of lower power that all shoot at the same point in 3 dimensional space. If you guess wrong then at least you won't set your house on fire (or blind someone).
The FAA might take objection too. Some places won't let you have lasers within a certain range of an airport. Also, what happens if the mosquito turret mistakes a 747 for a mosquito? Sounds like an effective way to blind pilots. Cool idea though, might be fun indoors if your house is fireproofed.
You can do this with sound. A hybrid system even better.
I built tech ~10 years ago to track quiet, sound emitting objects in real time to sub CM resolution using microphone arrays. And in one demo I even had a laser pointer mounted on a 2 axis.... "swinging thingie" (sorry, I'm not a mech-E) which would constantly stay pointed on the loudest object in the room, as it moved. Fun stuff. Creepy even.
Shame I never found a use or a buyer for the tech. :/
EDIT: I bet an improved hybrid one would use sound to get within the right 1-2cm, with a zoom camera mounted on the pan/tilt apparatus to get it even more accurate.
Mosquitoes can’t fly against a slight breeze. Under a ceiling fan is a 2m radius they cannot physically enter because their top speed is below the wind speed.
Not automated but one of my all time favorite methods of taking out flies and wasps was the Bug-a-Salt. Guy had a fun idea, spent a ton to make it a reality and appears to still be making it many years on. Kudos to him.
I have one of these for killing black flies that wander into my house. It's not the most efficient way to kill flies I've found, but it's definitely the most satisfying.
I just moved to a property near a pond that is severely infested with midge flies and mosquitos. The water is supposed to be treated by the HOA but they've neglected it for a while I guess. A solution like this wouldn't work due to the sheer volume of insects in the air at any given time (millions gathering around my block). I rigged up a door reed switch that turns on high power fans for 30 seconds when opened that helps keep them out of my house, but I'm trying to figure out a better solution to actually kill them around the clock. Thinking of controlling an electric pressurized washer with a pi and spraying swarms with a solution of water, soap and neem oil.
A fan that blows them into a metal mesh filter is sufficient. The fan keeps them stuck against the filter until they dehydrate and die. Propane is often used to attract them to the fan but that may not be necessary in your case.
There is a pond in my neighborhood that's not treated. The years I've used Mosquito Bits and Dunks, the mosquito population has crashed to tolerable levels. Bti is proven to work and totally safe for then environment. It's a small price to pay to be able to enjoy my backyard. If I ever move, my neighbors are going to miss my contribution.
This is important work. An effective non-toxic indoor mosquito control device will eliminate much suffering and death. Malaria prevents Africa from developing to middle-class societies with stable populations and functioning governments that are able to control environmental pollution. Therefore malaria indirectly affects all humans.
I think an effective indoor mosquito control system will detect mosquitos with microphones, aim with a zoom camera, and shoot mosquitoes with soapy water droplets.
Soapy water kills bugs. The soap eliminates water's surface tension. Once the bug touches the droplet, it sticks to it. As the bug struggles, it gets pulled inside the droplet. The water blocks respiration, causing the bug to suffocate. For manual insect killing, a spray bottle with soapy water is far better than an aerosol bottle of toxic chemicals or a laser.
> middle-class societies with stable populations and functioning governments that are able to control environmental pollution
I'm not entirely sure if this is sarcastic trolling or an actual belief of a sane individual but this, this is a load of garbage.
So what, if Malaria gets solved the whole continent will suddenly have functioning governments and economies? Do you know how big the continent is? It's history?
I was hiking with a friend in northern europe. It was +25C and we were being harassed by mosquitoes, horseflies and who knows what else. Naturally the same idea occurred to us - to use a head mounted laser to fry the wings of anything that approaches us. We were joking about the bulkiness - that you would have a power hungry i7 on your head, doing live object detection, a heavy power supply for computation and a strong laser, servo motors whirring directing the laser. It sounds unjust - the forest being their home and couple of city-dwellers killing the creatures for a bit of convenience.
There is actually a commercial product for killing lice on farmed salmon with lasers (https://www.stingray.no/delousing-with-laser/?lang=en), but I have to admit that I don't know how well it works.
So at least there are related products. Probably easier to solve the lice on salmon problem though.
As a side note if you would like to dispatch all the mosquito in your area, there are "mosquito donuts" that are safe to put in creeks and ponds that will get rid of them at the source. For the existing mosquito infestations, a large blower flan with a window screen on the intake side will catch tens of thousands of them per day. You can mix their carcasses into your plant fertilizer. You can attract more of the mosquito to your blower by opening 2 litter bottles of carbonated water 20 feet in front of the intake side.
I would gladly don protective eyewear before going to bed if it meant having a mosquito free night. I absolutely hate the little fuckers with a passion.
I've been waiting for a commercial device to come out after hearing about this a decade ago. Some kind of simple blackbox that kills mosquitos in a reasonable vicinity with low power requirements that's also rechargeable via USB. Possibly add a big battery and make it a USB charger.
I don't think 30cm distance is far enough for much usefulness, feels like commercial viability means at least 1m if not 2m. 30cm is 'put object by the food' use case and not much else, and mosquitos aren't really into food. Perhaps it could work by tent openings but not sure.
What about a triple beam setup? The individual beams would be only half or a third as powerful, making them safer to human eyes. Only where they cross they would carry enough power to zap the mosquito...
[+] [-] helsinkiandrew|5 years ago|reply
To work in the real world - cover a whole room or terrace - presumably a much higher resolution camera (or much faster scanning system) would be required. Even a 1W laser is dangerous to eyesight, if it was being fired at targets mingling with people.
The system could be mounted on small drones that would patrol larger areas - but the idea of robotic drones armed with lasers roaming around is beginning to sound worse than the mosquitos.
[+] [-] janoc|5 years ago|reply
Just look at the images in the article - the guy's best result was detecting a black speck appearing on a nearby white wall with some 60-70% reliability (based on his own numbers). So you would be missing a lot of mosquitoes - but will be happy firing the laser at random shadows and what not. And that was in a completely stationary setup and controlled lab conditions, i.e. not at all something resembling a typical poorly lit room!
This article is BS. Preprints are not peer reviewed (i.e. nobody has checked anything in it - so could even be a complete hoax), it is a pretty typical gadgetry style paper (we do it because we can, not because it makes sense) you do at when you need to fill up your resume with research papers (e.g. for keeping/obtaining a job reasons).
The "save the world" (mosquito control, diseases, etc.) justification is also par for the course for this type of crappy paper. Anyone who seriously thinks that one could control mosquito problem by shooting them one by one by a laser is delusional.
But neural networks and "AI" are being used, so it has to be cutting edge groundbreaking stuff, right?
BTW, this nonsense idea has been floated as a publicity stunt a few years ago (including a slow motion video of a laser burning off wing of a mosquito in flight) and it seems that some Russian PhD student from a fairly obscure uni either didn't do their research or has reinvented the wheel (or just plain copied the thing without attribution). The list of irrelevant or only very tangentially relevant (it is about mosquitoes, so in scope, right?) references is a dead giveaway there (paper on mosquitoes spreading zika? seriously?).
Here, it was even on National Geographic in 2010(!): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKm8FolQ7jw
Oh and that was supposed to be a handheld device to boot. With the same "save the world from malaria" spiel too. I wonder what are the owners of the company that was pushing this concept to investors back then trying to sell today ...
There are actually multiple videos on Youtube showing products from different companies that were attempting to push this as some sort of viable concept.
[+] [-] k_sze|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jasonlenik|5 years ago|reply
A 1W laser is even more dangerous than you say. It is powerful enough to start wood fires.
[+] [-] qwerty456127|5 years ago|reply
I don't really mind mosquitos outdoors, what I really hate is when I'm trying to sleep and there is a mosquito in the room. This means I have to turn the light bright on and spend time hunting them down or fill the room wit a toxic insecticide gas.
I would rather leave the room (or stay there with my eyes covered - to serve as a bait for the mosquitos), activate the robot and come back when it's done.
[+] [-] BrandoElFollito|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] dheera|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] MayeulC|5 years ago|reply
For safety, I think using multiple coordinated laser sources would be better (making them all converge at a single point). That, plus obviously a wavelength not dangerous for our eyesight.
Angular precision is an issue, but one could probably go around it by using a closed-loop control system that targets before increasing the power.
Targeting is hard as well, if you want a reliable system, there's probably no alternative to sensor fusion (sound, active infrared range-meter, maybe radar & ultrasound).
In the end, it's probably overkill compared to a trap, but the challenges are interesting.
[+] [-] kumarvvr|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] tartoran|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] tpmx|5 years ago|reply
Perhaps it's possible to make something that's kinda safe for eyesight if you make it track and light up the fly/mosquito for e.g. 50 seconds instead of 0.5 seconds.
[+] [-] cma|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] rossdavidh|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] jonplackett|5 years ago|reply
Or at least that could tell a camera where to look.
[+] [-] Havoc|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] thro23434aasdf|5 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] jacquesm|5 years ago|reply
I've had this idea many years ago and my solution to that problem was to use two or more lasers of lower power that all shoot at the same point in 3 dimensional space. If you guess wrong then at least you won't set your house on fire (or blind someone).
[+] [-] x86ARMsRace|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] beervirus|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] loxias|5 years ago|reply
I built tech ~10 years ago to track quiet, sound emitting objects in real time to sub CM resolution using microphone arrays. And in one demo I even had a laser pointer mounted on a 2 axis.... "swinging thingie" (sorry, I'm not a mech-E) which would constantly stay pointed on the loudest object in the room, as it moved. Fun stuff. Creepy even.
Shame I never found a use or a buyer for the tech. :/
EDIT: I bet an improved hybrid one would use sound to get within the right 1-2cm, with a zoom camera mounted on the pan/tilt apparatus to get it even more accurate.
[+] [-] danielheath|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] aequitas|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] acidburnNSA|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] djmips|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] MobileVet|5 years ago|reply
https://www.bugasalt.com/
[+] [-] jimmar|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] the-dude|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] ziptrees|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Salgat|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] slacka|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] dec0dedab0de|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] freeqaz|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] namdnay|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] oblib|5 years ago|reply
It's a bit of a leap to "You'll shoot your eye out" or "it'll never work in real life" because it was never meant to be anything more than that.
Personally, I think it's awesome!
[+] [-] mleonhard|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mleonhard|5 years ago|reply
I think an effective indoor mosquito control system will detect mosquitos with microphones, aim with a zoom camera, and shoot mosquitoes with soapy water droplets.
Soapy water kills bugs. The soap eliminates water's surface tension. Once the bug touches the droplet, it sticks to it. As the bug struggles, it gets pulled inside the droplet. The water blocks respiration, causing the bug to suffocate. For manual insect killing, a spray bottle with soapy water is far better than an aerosol bottle of toxic chemicals or a laser.
[+] [-] vagrantJin|5 years ago|reply
I'm not entirely sure if this is sarcastic trolling or an actual belief of a sane individual but this, this is a load of garbage.
So what, if Malaria gets solved the whole continent will suddenly have functioning governments and economies? Do you know how big the continent is? It's history?
I hope you were trolling.
[+] [-] karlerss|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] simonebrunozzi|5 years ago|reply
It seems that the project eventually failed to achieve anything of sufficient value. [1]
[0]: https://www.ted.com/talks/nathan_myhrvold_could_this_laser_z...
[1]: https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2017/07/laser-shooting-mosqu...
[+] [-] tyingq|5 years ago|reply
https://entomologytoday.org/2020/03/19/when-a-mosquito-cant-...
[+] [-] einarfd|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] mvanaltvorst|5 years ago|reply
[1]: Bui, S., Geitung, L., Oppedal, F., & Barrett, L. T. (2020). Salmon lice survive the straight shooter: A commercial scale sea cage trial of laser delousing. Preventive Veterinary Medicine, 181, 105063. doi:https://doi.org/10.1016/j.prevetmed.2020.105063
[+] [-] LinuxBender|5 years ago|reply
As a side note if you would like to dispatch all the mosquito in your area, there are "mosquito donuts" that are safe to put in creeks and ponds that will get rid of them at the source. For the existing mosquito infestations, a large blower flan with a window screen on the intake side will catch tens of thousands of them per day. You can mix their carcasses into your plant fertilizer. You can attract more of the mosquito to your blower by opening 2 litter bottles of carbonated water 20 feet in front of the intake side.
[+] [-] njacobs5074|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] maxmcd|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] npunt|5 years ago|reply
I don't think 30cm distance is far enough for much usefulness, feels like commercial viability means at least 1m if not 2m. 30cm is 'put object by the food' use case and not much else, and mosquitos aren't really into food. Perhaps it could work by tent openings but not sure.
[+] [-] markvdb|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] the-dude|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] momirlan|5 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Moeg|5 years ago|reply