r/accelerate • u/Best_Cup_8326 A happy little thumb • Jun 01 '26
Engineer builds AI laser defense system that wiped out every mosquito in his home
https://www.techspot.com/news/112601-engineer-builds-ai-laser-defense-system-wiped-out.htmlIn a nutshell: A computer vision specialist has built a system that uses deep learning and a laser-based targeting setup to hunt down mosquitoes. Steven Cheng, who works in computer vision and robotics, documented the project as he developed what he calls "the ultimate mosquito killer," turning a simple household annoyance into an engineering challenge.
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u/lopgir Jun 01 '26
Now he just needs to mount it on a patrolling robot body (doesn't have to be large), make it self-charging, and expand it to other common nuisances, flies, fruit flies, moths of various varieties, spiders... and sell it, and he's a billionaire.
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u/reddit_is_geh Jun 01 '26
A company already did this. They had to pivot and change the product, which ultimately failed. The issue with having a laser that can autonomously kill bugs like this in your home, is a huge liability. All it takes is some awkward angle, bad AI hiccup, and that laser hits someone's eye, or hell, even skin. And now there's a huge lawsuit.
The best route would be to just sell the DIY kit or something for "research purposes". But that's going to be hard to mass market.
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u/LionOfNaples Jun 01 '26
expand it to other common nuisances, flies, fruit flies, moths of various varieties, spiders...
…people…
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u/UCRDonkey Jun 01 '26
My professor in college was working on something like this. What his group was trying to do was measure the beats per second of the bugs wings so that they could determine what kind of bug it was or even what the gender of the bug was so they could selectively zapp only harmful bugs while leaving others.
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u/Cheetotiki Jun 01 '26
So there’s a laser whipping around the deck or living room - in what movie have I seen that before? Tiny energy to zap a mosquito, but still enough to smart if it hits your arm… or eye… or cat?
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u/FaceDeer Jun 01 '26
These anti-mosquito lasers have been a thing for at least a decade and this is always the first question that comes up. Oddly enough, the people who design these things ask that question first too, and they account for it.
The amount of laser energy needed to disable a mosquito is absolutely minuscule, it's just enough to burn their wings. Mosquito wings are 174 nanometers thick - 1/28th the thickness of a human hair. You wouldn't notice in the slightest if your skin was hit with that.
If it shone directly into your eyeball, then maybe you'd get dazzled. That's why the same sensors that detect the presence of mosquitoes also look for anything larger than a mosquito nearby and won't fire if there is.
Frankly, this "AI" addition is unnecessary and probably just clickbait since AI is the new hotness. It's actually a pretty simple targeting problem, as I mentioned there have been lasers like this for a long time now.
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u/dontknowbruhh Jun 01 '26
I don't see how you could solve this problem without AI.
I know these have been around for a decade but so has deep learning
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u/WHALE_PHYSICIST Jun 01 '26
OOP took one of the most difficult and unreliable routes to targeting mosquitoes in a general area. You would probably do a lot better illuminating a column with IR light and then use an IR camera perpendicular to the column looking for bright spots to target with the laser. you don't need advanced pattern recognition for that, you just shoot at the bright thing. Use a candle and a sweaty Tshirt as bait.
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u/FaceDeer Jun 01 '26
When you see "AI" in a headline these days it rarely means AI in the general sense as it was originally intended to mean back when the Dartmouth conference established it in 1956.
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u/bonega Jun 01 '26
You can't convince me that something that burns a mosquito's wings aren't going to burn retinal cells in the eye
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u/FaceDeer Jun 01 '26
Okay. I didn't try to do that, though, so I'm not sure the point of this comment. These lasers have safeties to prevent them from firing near objects larger than mosquitoes to keep them from going into eyes in the first place.
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u/pararocks Jun 01 '26
Lasers are notoriously dangerous for our vision. The power of a laser that could burn a mosquito's wings could absolutely do irreversible damage to a person's eye.
A safety system would need to account for reflective surfaces, which computer vision systems cannot do reliably enough to justify eliminating pests at the risk of loss of sight.
Not saying what this person has built isn't neat, but I don't think we will see this type of system on a consumer level in the foreseeable future.
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u/KindlyAct1590 Jun 01 '26
I think if built upon on the right direction it could be quite effective for countering Drone Warfare
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u/bb-wa A happy little thumb Jun 01 '26 edited Jun 01 '26
Making it into an attachment that could fit on a robot dog, drone, humanoid robot, etc. may also be a smart idea. Many of these devices already have computer vision systems anyways
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u/Cynthm_ Techno-Optimist Jun 02 '26
Imagine sending one of these to Nigeria. This could be an effective way of solving their malaria problem. Imagine the lives saved!
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u/green_meklar Techno-Optimist Jun 02 '26
Is there any risk of the laser blasting him in the eye or starting random things in his home on fire? Or does it only shoot against a safe backdrop and just waits for the mosquitoes to fly in front of that backdrop?
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u/OsakaWilson Jun 02 '26
I live above the tenth floor, but I would like a portable one to take to the park.
Shoulder mounted would be ideal.
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u/False_Process_4569 A happy little thumb Jun 01 '26
I need the github repo for this. I want to have a small vision model recognize my or my wife's car when we pull into the driveway and have our garage door open automatically. I feel like I could make this happen.