Raspberry Pi for Kill Mosquitoes by Laser • Hacker News Board

Re: Raspberry Pi for Kill Mosquitoes by Laser

#181

Post by xbar » Mon, Mar 08, 2021, 1:06 AM UTC

ColinWright wrote: post #22

sokoloff wrote: post #3

> More than 700 thousand human deaths I don’t think I’ve ever in my 40 and nine years on the planet seen numbers of this scale written in mixed numeric and textual form. It’s not like 700 kilometers, where you could at least argue this is the case vs the SI unit, but where a kilometer is a useful unit for communication anyway. The natural unit here is a human life, not a thousand human lives. There are a several othe…

>> More than 700 thousand human deaths > I don’t think I’ve ever in my 40 and nine years on the planet seen numbers of this scale written in mixed numeric and textual form. In my 50 and nine years on this planet, I have. > There are a several other quality issues in the abstract ... It's a pre-print, and the author's first language is not English. Some people struggle with a second language, and I think it's commenda…

I like the author, the idea and the article. It will not stop me from highlighting one of my favorite clauses:

"there are hundreds of different creams, devices, and other devices. "

Re: Raspberry Pi for Kill Mosquitoes by Laser

#182

Post by BurningFrog » Mon, Mar 08, 2021, 1:10 AM UTC

x86ARMsRace wrote: post #68

jacquesm wrote: post #54

This is a nice little firestarter. 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.

The FAA has no power in Africa.

Re: Raspberry Pi for Kill Mosquitoes by Laser

#183

Post by kaszanka » Mon, Mar 08, 2021, 1:13 AM UTC

the-dude wrote: post #111

MobileVet wrote: post #62

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.

Viewers from 84 different countries are blocked from viewing the site because of reasons.

https://country-blocker.zend-apps.com/scripts/4982/205c3608e...

Re: Raspberry Pi for Kill Mosquitoes by Laser

#184

Post by samatman » Mon, Mar 08, 2021, 1:14 AM UTC

walrus01 wrote: post #145

janoc wrote: 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…

> using a cheap camera even if you had a RED Komodo feeding uncompressed 4K DCI 60fps video to a pci-express bus capture card, the sensor resolution and tiny size of mosquitoes means that unless the lighting conditions are just right, and the mosquito is somehow highlighted against a background, it's going to be very hard to pick them out at distances of 2 or more meters. and that's before you get into the software p…

Mosquitos, as we all know, have a highly distinctive auditory signature.

A phased microphone array is the only sensible approach to localized mosquito detection. It would probably work reasonably well.

The problem is that the entire field is patent encumbered, because Myhrvold's company Intellectual Ventures has done some research on it, and no on in their right mind would go up against those guys.

Re: Raspberry Pi for Kill Mosquitoes by Laser

#185

Post by walrus01 » Mon, Mar 08, 2021, 1:17 AM UTC

samatman wrote: post #184

walrus01 wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> using a cheap camera even if you had a RED Komodo feeding uncompressed 4K DCI 60fps video to a pci-express bus capture card, the sensor resolution and tiny size of mosquitoes means that unless the lighting conditions are just right, and the mosquito is somehow highlighted against a background, it's going to be very hard to pick them out at distances of 2 or more meters. and that's before you get into the software p…

Mosquitos, as we all know, have a highly distinctive auditory signature. A phased microphone array is the only sensible approach to localized mosquito detection. It would probably work reasonably well. The problem is that the entire field is patent encumbered, because Myhrvold's company Intellectual Ventures has done some research on it, and no on in their right mind would go up against those guys.

Why am I absolutely not surprised that somebody with a background at Microsoft is an intellectual property patent squatter?

Re: Raspberry Pi for Kill Mosquitoes by Laser

#186

Post by hello_there » Mon, Mar 08, 2021, 1:18 AM UTC

I wonder if something like this could be effective against grey silverfish? They move slowly, usually on the floor at night and they're big and nice for the camera to see.

Re: Raspberry Pi for Kill Mosquitoes by Laser

#187

Post by crb3 » Mon, Mar 08, 2021, 1:27 AM UTC

michaelbuckbee wrote: post #81

maxerickson wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did you try a fly trap jar yet? You hang it out behind a shed or garage, the lid has a little maze that they crawl into and then they can't find their way out. My parents always used https://www.bigstinkyflytrap.com/ . It definitely caught a lot of flies, which can be different than catching enough flies of course.

We had a small but persistent issue with flies hanging out by our garbage cans so I purchased one of these fly traps with bait. It worked far too well. Within a day it had attracted flies from a large surrounding area. The nearly filled jar of flies had a presence I can only describe as "Stephen King-esque" just buzzing with raw malevolence. If you think one large black fly can make quite the noise I invite you to li…

That's when you go out there with a shopvac with a long extension tube; they're already gathered for you. Maybe finish with a long shot of insecticide, then just plug the intake hose into the exhaust port and let it sit for a few days.

Re: Raspberry Pi for Kill Mosquitoes by Laser

#188

Post by danielheath » Mon, Mar 08, 2021, 1:30 AM UTC

swayvil wrote: post #158

walrus01 wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> using a cheap camera even if you had a RED Komodo feeding uncompressed 4K DCI 60fps video to a pci-express bus capture card, the sensor resolution and tiny size of mosquitoes means that unless the lighting conditions are just right, and the mosquito is somehow highlighted against a background, it's going to be very hard to pick them out at distances of 2 or more meters. and that's before you get into the software p…

Would targeting the distinctive mosquito whine be feasible? You could have several bluetooth mikes scattered around the room for good triangulation

There’s a reason bats hunt by sonar instead of vision.

Re: Raspberry Pi for Kill Mosquitoes by Laser

#189

Post by loxias » Mon, Mar 08, 2021, 1:32 AM UTC

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.

Re: Raspberry Pi for Kill Mosquitoes by Laser

#190

Post by danielheath » Mon, Mar 08, 2021, 1:33 AM UTC

rowanG077 wrote: post #176

iudqnolq wrote: post #174

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> But then using a laser just insane ... I'd go with power LED and some focusing with very narrow focal depth. maybe a lens moved like in optical drives, maybe a MEMS reflector like are used in projectors (but instead of spreading all pixels to cast a projection focusing it in a single point? haven't you just described how to make a laser?

No a laser is coherent. It has almost the same intensity in it's entire path. If you know the approximate distance you can accurately focus a normal beam of Light into that area. Killing the bug but much safer.

This would protect people standing behind the bug, but if the system mistakenly identified an eye as a bug you would still be delivering a burning quantity of energy focussed on the eye.