News 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 distan...

[Sippincider]

This thing had better be subjected to rigorous safety testing, regulatory oversight, before being allowed near any market.

Testing and oversight never stopped certain online outlets. The ones we've seen here selling USB drives that don't store anything or boxes of trash as GPU cards.

Eyesight is worth a bit more than $500, so needless to say I'll stay well away from these.

 

[Geef]

No need for safety. Tell people to put it in areas where people aren't located so they don't look at it. Like on the roof of the back yard. It will still clear out the mosquitos and nobody will notice it.

 

[JRStern]

Is lidar really now available off the shelf at that size and price?
I've wanted to build something like this for many years. Just like with EVs, the question is whether it can find targets just with passive optical - because effective lidar itself seemed to be neither safe nor cheap. Much less the zapper laser.
I'd just assume the video is entirely fake.
Tiny bugs can be incredibly tough, for their size.
Show me this thing zapping a cloud of gnats, should be easier individual targets.

 

[Tbonius]

"My eyes! The googles do nothing!"

 

[Co BIY]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mosquito_laser
This was first imagined in 2007 and implemented in 2017 as the "photonic fence" but it was never brought to market due to the pandemic. It was funded by private equity sponsored by the BMG foundation and Intellectual Ventures in a partnership known as the Global Good which disbanded in 2020. I wouldn't count on $260,000 let alone $20,000 being enough to manufacture a new prototype but perhaps MEMS LiDAR/projector technology has advanced sufficiently to make it work.

I've been imagining this since I first learned about lasers.

 

[VizzieTheViz]

This is a fun way for the guy trying to build this to tinker a bit while being paid by other people, but it’s a really stupid idea.

Just use nets or screens and make sure there no standing water in your garden.

Lidars and lasers? Really? I mean it’s cool that he managed to build this but we shouldn’t want these things everywhere just to kill a couple of bugs.

 

[brian532]

As they say on shark tank, any device that can be misused and cause injury will and as soon as you are successful you will be sued out of business. I don't see how a laser strong enough to zap a bug won't damage an eye. You can print "don't look directly at the device" all you want but as soon as someone gets eye damage get ready for court.

 

[Sly_1]

Make one you can wear on your head