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Whatever happened to those mosquito laser zappers? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKm8FolQ7jw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKm8FolQ7jw

by ant6n 11y ago

acdha 11y ago
According to an acquaintance who worked there, the original research was funded by the Gates Foundation’s anti-malaria R&D program. Intellectual Ventures developed the prototype Photonic Fence (http://www.intellectualventures.com/inventions-patents/our-inventions/photonic-fence/ http://www.intellectualventures.com/inventions-patents/our-i...) but concluded that low-tech things like bed nets had higher benefit per dollar for malaria prevention, particularly when you factor in the challenge of powering the device in areas without reliable electricity (the kill laser requires enough power to make solar non-trivial). The good news is that they licensed it to a company for commercialization last year: http://www.intellectualventureslab.com/invent/new-collaborator-for-photonic-fence-research http://www.intellectualventureslab.com/invent/new-collaborat... The business plan I'd like to see would be selling it as a luxury for the relatively affluent and use that sales volume to drive the manufacturing costs down. I live in Washington DC and it'd have to be really expensive compared to the cost of real-estate which is unpleasant to use from May to November due to mosquitoes, not to mention the growing number of people who will pay a premium not to spray pesticides around their children and pets. Diseases like Zika, Dengue, etc. should boost that even higher.
- ant6n 11y ago
  Definitely agree with the idea that it should be sold in the first world to get economies of scale. How much would these things cost, like 300$ a pop?
  - ojii 11y ago
    According to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mosquito_laser https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mosquito_laser it would cost $50. They deliberately built it using already available parts (the laser is the same as used for bluray for example) to keep cost down. The problem seems to be (as parent pointed out) reliable electricity.
    - acdha 11y ago
      If I'm remembering the conversation correctly, the most expensive component was the kill laser (it uses a lower-power laser to track flying things & match the mosquito size / wing frequency and then fired up one strong enough to fry an insect) but that hopefully has been going down since those figures were calculated years ago.

Whatever happened to those mosquito laser zappers? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKm8FolQ7jw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKm8FolQ7jw

by ant6n 11y ago

Whatever happened to those mosquito laser zappers? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKm8FolQ7jw https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BKm8FolQ7jw

acdha 11y ago

According to an acquaintance who worked there, the original research was funded by the Gates Foundation’s anti-malaria R&D program. Intellectual Ventures developed the prototype Photonic Fence (http://www.intellectualventures.com/inventions-patents/our-inventions/photonic-fence/ http://www.intellectualventures.com/inventions-patents/our-i...) but concluded that low-tech things like bed nets had higher benefit per dollar for malaria prevention, particularly when you factor in the challenge of powering the device in areas without reliable electricity (the kill laser requires enough power to make solar non-trivial). The good news is that they licensed it to a company for commercialization last year: http://www.intellectualventureslab.com/invent/new-collaborator-for-photonic-fence-research http://www.intellectualventureslab.com/invent/new-collaborat... The business plan I'd like to see would be selling it as a luxury for the relatively affluent and use that sales volume to drive the manufacturing costs down. I live in Washington DC and it'd have to be really expensive compared to the cost of real-estate which is unpleasant to use from May to November due to mosquitoes, not to mention the growing number of people who will pay a premium not to spray pesticides around their children and pets. Diseases like Zika, Dengue, etc. should boost that even higher.

ant6n 11y ago
Definitely agree with the idea that it should be sold in the first world to get economies of scale. How much would these things cost, like 300$ a pop?
- ojii 11y ago
  According to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mosquito_laser https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mosquito_laser it would cost $50. They deliberately built it using already available parts (the laser is the same as used for bluray for example) to keep cost down. The problem seems to be (as parent pointed out) reliable electricity.
  - acdha 11y ago
    If I'm remembering the conversation correctly, the most expensive component was the kill laser (it uses a lower-power laser to track flying things & match the mosquito size / wing frequency and then fired up one strong enough to fry an insect) but that hopefully has been going down since those figures were calculated years ago.