Viral video shows 'radar air defense system' claimed to shoot mosquitos with lasers
nextshark.com
The video gives the impression that the mosquitoes can be tracked with the ultrasonic sensor used and killed with the laser, but this is not the case
      • Maalus@lemmy.world
        32·
        2 days ago

        Pulled it out of their ass. There aren’t patents for mosquito lasers or what have you. The idea is just moronic. It is a fun engineering challenge but ultimately doesn’t transfer to the real world. You cannot scale it. It is dangerous. It is expensive to keep running / maintained. It has a direct competitor that works 100x better in the form of pesticide / poisons. Also a mosquito net works wonders, is scalable, cheap and efficient.

          • AwesomeLowlander@sh.itjust.works
            5·
            2 days ago

            @Maalus@lemmy.world:

            You cannot scale it. It is dangerous. It is expensive to keep running / maintained.

            Your source:

            for the demonstration, I had to wear protective goggles since that type of laser is not safe for your eyes; And no one has yet worked out how to make the device cheap enough to be useful in the places it is most needed, places where most people’s mosquito-defense system consists of sleeping under nets every night.

            You were saying?

        • AwesomeLowlander@sh.itjust.works
          7·
          2 days ago

          But despite Myhrvold’s enthusiasm, the Photonic Fence hasn’t been all that easy to actually build. It’s taken years of development to figure out how to continuously track and identify a specific type of insect and then dispatch it safely and efficiently. For instance, for the demonstration, I had to wear protective goggles since that type of laser is not safe for your eyes; I was assured that when it’s market-ready, the laser they deploy will not potentially blind human passersby. And no one has yet worked out how to make the device cheap enough to be useful in the places it is most needed, places where most people’s mosquito-defense system consists of sleeping under nets every night.

          You mean the patent on an item where they haven’t figured out how to make it work yet without blinding its users? Yeah, it’s definitely patent trolls and not user safety /s