Mosquito death ray - Page 1
Forum section: electronics / general

author: Marco
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 08, 2025, 04:26:00 am
content: Really interesting take on the mosquito laser exterminator being crowdfunded right now :https://www.tomshardware.com/peripherals/this-invention-can-use-lidar-to-shoot-down-30-mosquitoes-per-second-with-a-laser-photonmatrix-range-has-up-to-6-meter-kill-zone-can-gauge-distance-orientation-and-body-size-in-3-millisecondsUsing LIDAR is really smart, it avoids so much complexity. There is no need for any fancy video processing. You just detect a thin object relative to the "static" background in one pass and then on the second pass you zap it (it scans a 2D plane). Either with two separate passes of the rotating beam, or by splitting a single beam with a diffractive beam splitter so the leading beam can detect and the lagging beam can zap.Ignoring malfunction, the only way to get your eye in the beam when it zaps would be to line your eye up with the device and then stay still for long enough for it to treat you as background.PS. I don't think it even uses LIDAR, I think it just detects new thin objects relative to the background (measured during previous scans, across a 2D plane, very very very simple).

author: booscrawl
author_rank: Contributor
timestamp: July 08, 2025, 04:58:17 am
content: Zombie-like AI narration?AI fake reviewer character wearing an actual person's skin like a costume?Incomprehensible numbers like 3 millisecond acquisition and shootdown time?https://youtu.be/Ta0f0oB4I-QMy baseline expectation is that this thing will set my house on fire while I sleep and then blast out my retinas while I try to put out the fire.

author: Smokey
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 08, 2025, 05:03:46 am
content: Wasn't this the idea from a scam TED talk like 10 years ago where they faked the "demo" then never actually made it work?

author: Simmed
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: July 08, 2025, 05:05:10 am
content: i am skepticalrange of 6m they say?at 5m, what is the "arc second" resolution needed to detect a mosquito ?anybody know some quick "napkin math" about this ?

author: Marco
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 08, 2025, 06:45:46 am
content: Quote from: Simmed on July 08, 2025, 05:05:10 amEasier to just go straight to Hz. Lets say it has to scan 10m at the end of range at 1mm resolution and lets say 3ms is the scan time, so the LIDAR then needs to work at 333*10000 Hz, little over 3 MHz.

author: RoGeorge
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 08, 2025, 07:12:45 am
content: Quote from: Marco on July 08, 2025, 04:26:00 amWhat if the mosquito arms itself with a mirror, to reflect the laser beam back into your eye!

author: BadeBhaiya
author_rank: Regular Contributor
timestamp: July 08, 2025, 08:40:16 am
content: Don't mind the idea at all, I would pay for something like this to kill the flying monsters in a room.But I am worried about the laser power output. If its powerful enough to kill mosquitos at 6m in a room, I doubt its safe to operate while being present in the room.I hate mosquitos but not enough to blind/burn myself

author: Marco
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 08, 2025, 01:53:00 pm
content: Quote from: Smokey on July 08, 2025, 05:03:46 amIt's still going, but the desire to be 100% certain of not harming pollinators and the use of retroreflectors makes it useless for a home system.https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-024-57804-6The only big advantage is the use of retina safe lasers. I think the LIDAR approach with 1470 nm is commercially viable for consumer use. Getting someone to sell you a high update rate lidar for cheap might be a problem, but it's not a lot of mm2.

author: 5U4GB
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 09, 2025, 09:05:25 am
content: It's another geeky overengineered solution to a problem effectively solved with a $20 UV mozzie trap off Aliexpress.For a tiny bit more you can get a mains-powered one that you hang under the eaves of your house and that vacuums the area clear of mosquitos:

author: Marco
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 09, 2025, 10:45:40 am
content: UV doesn't attract them, mainly CO2.

author: 5U4GB
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 09, 2025, 02:04:01 pm
content: It was doing a pretty good job of attracting them here, as the photo shows. With that outside on the deck running every night it was possible to leave the windows open and get zero mosquitos inside.Oh, when I say UV I mean some cheap LEDs so at most 395nm, possibly just purple iight. But whatever it is it draws them in like a magnet.

author: Marco
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 09, 2025, 06:05:31 pm
content: Is it one of those newfangled ones with a TiO2 coating near the UV light? They claim they can convert VOCs to CO2 by photocatalytic conversion.

author: Stray Electron
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 10, 2025, 12:34:46 am
content: Quote from: Simmed on July 08, 2025, 05:05:10 am360 / (2 * pi * 6 meters / .005 meters) = ? should give you the answer in degrees. Multiply by 60 to get arc minutes and multiply 60 again to get arc seconds. But note that's only for one axis and it would need to have that accuracy in both X and Y axis. I assumed 5 mm (.005 meters) as the size of the mozzie.And it's not just the resolution and accuracy of the detection system that you have to worry about but also the ability to some how point the laser in the right direction and elevation!Also they never talk about false triggering on other insects or random bits of dust that are floating around or on stray light reflections, etc.Also how much laser energy would it take to kill a mozzie and how long would you have to keep the beam directly on them until it does? Would that amount of power be eye safe? Not only for people but also for your pets?This sounds good in theory but full of real world practical problems.

author: wraper
author_rank: Unknown
timestamp: July 10, 2025, 12:49:16 am
content: Quote from: Marco on July 09, 2025, 10:45:40 amDunno about UV, but IME white light certainly attracts them.

author: 5U4GB
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 10, 2025, 02:28:49 am
content: Quote from: Marco on July 09, 2025, 06:05:31 pmNah, it's just the cheapest thing I found on Ali. The TiO2 coating ones typically need higher-power UV from flourescent tubes to work, I had one of those once but noticed no difference between that and the Ali special.Even if it claimed to have a TiO2 coating, the use of 22AWG CCA mains cable indicates it'll be imaginary TiO2.

author: Marco
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: July 10, 2025, 07:45:58 am
content: Quote from: Stray Electron on July 10, 2025, 12:34:46 amThere's likely only one prism scanner rotating on one axis and one laser diode, the elevation is set by where you point it.Probably doesnt even use a LIDAR now that I think of it, a thin change of brightness relative to the background determined over multiple passes is probably good enough for detection.

author: LaserSteve
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 08, 2025, 06:24:53 pm
content: 21 CFR 1040.1 says "NO"* in the US. Not with the regulatory laser safety consultants (3) I personally know, who would not want to take on the liability. Eye safety matters.One axis Galvo scanner for deflection, so ~300 uS settling time for a small jump plus the jump time which is highly angle dependent. I don' know where they are getting the 50K scans per second number with a galvo.Galvo response is highly dependent on scan angle width, so call it 30-40 degrees optical field of view, maybe a max of 60 if it has a very, very good position sensor in the galvo. Only one galvo, so 2-3 mm beam thickness. That is the classic limitation on Galvo based bug killers, you need a lot of them to secure a space.*That doesn't mean illegal or unapproved laser devices don't make it past customs, but that is declining under the new 100% inspection rules.Steve

author: Marco
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 25, 2025, 01:07:11 pm
content: Pretty sure it's a prism scanner, not a galvo and they zap on the subsequent scan after detection.Detect a new thin object relative to background, next scan zap there, extremely simple and cheap.If you wanted to get fancy and have a better shot at shooting flies, mechanically adjust two laser diodes to scan on the same plane (going to need to be a pretty good/rigid optical assembly) and detect with the leading and zap with the lagging diode.

author: jh15
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: August 25, 2025, 03:13:14 pm
content: Through Darwin process, surviving offspring will learn to hover in front of your eyes.

author: Marco
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 25, 2025, 03:17:33 pm
content: If you put your eyes on the scan path and look into laser and then sit absolutely still for long enough for the system to treat you as background, then it might zap you (ignoring malfunctions).For professional use where the scan path is kept away from eye height this is exceedingly safe. Far safer than entertainment laser systems. For a consumer product, likely never ever going to get certified. Though I would personally not have a problem with the concept in principle.

author: Bud
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 25, 2025, 04:16:44 pm
content: Car lidars burn smartphone cameras. There are videos out there showing that.

author: Traceless
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: August 30, 2025, 08:35:35 am
content: Quote from: 5U4GB on July 09, 2025, 09:05:25 amBugzappers seem to bepretty terribleat killing mosquitos, they do kill a lot of other insects though.https://youtu.be/atbZ77V22sk?feature=shared&t=40The laser zapper idea also is not new, though so far nobody was able to make a production ready system. So it'd be pretty cool and useful if they'd be able to finish it this time but I'm not gonna believe it until it this the shelves.https://www.researchgate.net/publication/261338767_Laser-based_mosquito_repelling_modulehttps://arxiv.org/abs/2105.14190

author: rthorntn
author_rank: Frequent Contributor
timestamp: August 31, 2025, 03:23:31 am
content: Imho this is a scam, some nobody Jim Wong from Changzhou, first campaign, aye right, pull the other one, it's got bells on.This is quite good:"A fool and his money are soon parted"

author: PlainName
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: August 31, 2025, 04:26:43 pm
content: This product is unlikely to work, but the busting video is just like many: it takes the extreme and shows how the product will fail there, whilst not recognising that it doesn't have to work 100% all the time.For mosquitos and the like, he shows how it takes around 3ms to cross the plane of danger. Actually he say 4ms but realistically it looks to me like 3ms. But that assumes the thing is crossing the plane perpendicularly and at max speed. It can surely fail to zap that bug that time, but it will be back and next time it may well be crossing the plane obliquely.Similarly, where he shows the gaps between sensing points in the scan, where a gap is big enough to let the bug through, it's unrealistic. Imagine those points as posts, and you have a ball you're going throw at the row of them. The ball is smaller than the gaps, so what are the chances that you will completely miss a post? I wouldn't put money on it. And if you did manage that trick how about next time. And next time.Next, the speed of the bug has to be below some figure, and the graph shows that many are but there is a long tail. So what? Even the super fast ones are going to slow at some point, and the max speed it relative to the zapper's view. The bug would have to be travelling perpendicularly to the view, but most will be towards or away from the zapper, so the relative speed is less that the air speed. Even where the worst case applies (max speed across the view), that bug will be back on a different track and different speed and (hopefully) get zapped then.So, if this thing could actually zap a bug, and actually scan and detect them as it's meant to, I would see this as useful even if it took several attempts to zap the same mosquito. The bug has to dodge fate ALL the time, but the zapper only has to get lucky once.Won't be looking to get one though. I am just busting the busting video.

author: Doctorandus_P
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 07, 2025, 11:04:55 pm
content: Quote from: Marco on July 08, 2025, 04:26:00 amI guess that would be quite common in a lot of circumstances, such as sitting in a chair and watching TV.And I would not disregard "malfunction" too quickly, considering the harm it can do.But also, I don't know how much power is needed. You don't have to kill the mosquito, as long as you just nick one wing so it can't fly straight anymore, it's good enough. If you combine that with a wavelength that does not get focused by your eye, then that also lessens the malfunction concerns.

author: Analog Kid
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 07, 2025, 11:50:15 pm
content: Don't you mean thebusKingvideo?As in standing out on the street corner performing for money?

author: Marco
author_rank: Super Contributor
timestamp: September 07, 2025, 11:59:30 pm
content: Quote from: Doctorandus_P on September 07, 2025, 11:04:55 pmYou'll be blinking. Also it's scanning at low power continuously on the plane it zaps ... kinda hard not to notice, since it seems to be a blue laser diode.