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Raspberry Pi for Kill Mosquitoes by Laser

preprints.org

161–170 of 262 posts

Re: Raspberry Pi for Kill Mosquitoes by Laser

#161
post #67

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 p…

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 - bu…

I think you basically described my feelings when reading the paper. Thanks for this comment!

Re: Raspberry Pi for Kill Mosquitoes by Laser

#162
post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

They don't use their eyes to hunt, just to detect potential attackers.

Ah yeah, they aren't really swayed from finding meals by pitch black dark. It might make them more susceptible to predation but wouldn't be a solution for targeted small areas.

Other than just sensing CO2 and other chemicals they have some kind of way of sensing heat, but maybe that's separate from their eyes. If that is sensed radiatively that might be a good target for some kind of eye safe laser (if it is following thermal gradients in the air near the skin or something, not so much).

Re: Raspberry Pi for Kill Mosquitoes by Laser

#163

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. https://www.bugasalt.com/

Website redirects me to Google.

Not here. Try it without JS.

Re: Raspberry Pi for Kill Mosquitoes by Laser

#165
Of course there are simpler ways of dealing with insect pests, but I love the hacker kookieness of it.

But, an even crazier idea, get a magnetron from a microwave oven connect it to a phased array antenna (PAA), that way you can scan much faster. Also, use a reduced power and radar returns to detect any insect then activate the PAA to to focus the power of the beam to kill the insect.

Much more impractical and dangerous.

Re: Raspberry Pi for Kill Mosquitoes by Laser

#166
post #40

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...

This laser is 200 times too powerful to be considered "mostly safe" for human ayes (cat 3R) and 1000 times too powerful to be considered safe (cat 2).

I toyed with the idea but it's hazardous in any usable setup.

If you'd like to do it moderately safe I'd stay away from lasers. Use a power LED and parabolic reflector to make the beam as incoherent as possible and then focus it with optics to create very narrow focal depth. Then it will still be able to burn the mosquito but won't be a blinding hazard as little as 20 centimetres from the focal point.

Re: Raspberry Pi for Kill Mosquitoes by Laser

#167
These kinds of things are really just intended to be a fun proof of concept or a demo of something off the wall for shits and giggles.

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!

Re: Raspberry Pi for Kill Mosquitoes by Laser

#168

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 p…

Within a room I could see it being used in say only the top half a meter of the room. Bugs fly to the ceiling, eyeballs generally not

Re: Raspberry Pi for Kill Mosquitoes by Laser

#169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Depends on the mosquito I would say. I used to train martial art skills by catching mosquitos midflight. Most are indeed very lethargic, but there are some much more agile variants out there.

I assume you used sticks, karate kid style? :)

Sometimes.(but I actually did not watch karate kid) But mostly just with hands. I still do it as a habit ..

Re: Raspberry Pi for Kill Mosquitoes by Laser

#170
post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 - bu…

Yes, at 300mm range, it's just a toy, and mounting a 1W laser with a targeting system on a drone is a terrible idea. I can see ways to make this work, though. You need a good way to tell that you're on target. The way to do that is to use the vision system only as a search radar, to find that there's something to shoot at and approximately where it is. Then point the laser near the target, at low power, and start sca…

> You need a good way to tell that you're on target. The way to do that is to use the vision system only as a search radar, to find that there's something to shoot at and approximately where it is. Then point the laser near the target, at low power, and start scanning around the target. Modulate the outgoing beam, so you can see when it's illuminating something. Get range from time of flight. When you find something worth shooting, go to high power and take it out.

Not only more effective, but i imagine it would be easy to misdetect someone's iris as a fly D:

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