PickVidsNew Laser Zaps Mosquitoes in SlowMotion | National Geographic
Why it was recommended
I want a mosquito-killing turret [1] that you could put in your bedroom and sleep in peace. Turns out one exists [2] (in theory—no commercial product a decade later), but the one I was thinking of would use microphones rather than cameras [3] to detect the bloody suckers. Thing is, I can't find any prior research or even hints that people have considered this approach. (The closest I can find is an app [4] that detects a mosquito from ≤10cm away.) Here are some of my guesses for why it's not been done: A. Maybe it's too difficult to distinguish mosquito buzz/whine from background noise, even when filtering in only known mosquito frequencies (~400Hz [5]). B. Maybe it's too slow to sweep a room with a directional mic that's focused enough to detect mosquito sounds? (Say the turret in one ceiling corner of a 12x12x8ft room.) C. Maybe directional mics don't work well for all sound in their cone and so need to be able to "focus" at different distances (by dynamically changing the parabolic dish's shape), thereby increasing the room sweep time? D. Maybe the parabolic dish needs to be so big that it just looks ridiculous? E. Maybe all of this is possible but the type of microphone is so expensive that it's worth pursuing commercially? I'm curious what you all think about this. It'd be an interesting thing to try making—who hasn't wanted to make a death ray while simultaneously furthering the fight against humanity's deadliest enemy? [6] See also this research paper: Detecting Insect
ReferencemLuby · Original
What it covers
A short National Geographic piece showing a laser system that tracks and kills mosquitoes, filmed in slow motion, as part of anti-malaria efforts. It comes from Intellectual. It is for a general viewer who does not plan to take a prerequisite first.
Video details
- Channel
- National Geographic
- Length
- 2 min 22 sec
- Year
- 2010
More in this topic
- Sugar: THE BITTER TRUTH
- We Were Taught to Call Death a Blessing
- Dr. Michael Greger | How Not To Die | Talks at Google
- Why Some Diseases Only Traveled One Direction
- Sunlight: Optimize Health and Immunity (Light Therapy and Melatonin)
- Dr. Jason Fung - 'Therapeutic Fasting - Solving the Two-Compartment Problem'