5 ms·
Solid work, but I find it quite concerning that there appears to be no discussion of potential false positive detections of other species beyond those specifica
by hyperion2010 6y ago
Solid work, but I find it quite concerning that there appears to be no discussion of potential false positive detections of other species beyond those specifically targeted. The research is still in a very early phase, and `wing-beat frequency, and/or other factors` means they are thinking about it a bit. If I deploy one of these I want to know how many friendly or benign insects I'm going to be killing.
- TooSmugToFail 6y agoThey are not "thinking about it a bit", their earlier work was concerned with precisely identifying the species and gender of the mosquito. I believe this system can very accurately ID and neutralize an exact specie of a mosquito.
- CookieMon 6y agoyeah, from 10 years ago: > The laser detection is so precise that it can specify the species, and even the gender, of the mosquito being targeted. “The women are bigger. They beat at a lower frequencies,” Mr. Myhrvold said. Since it is only the female mosquitoes who bite humans, for the sake of efficiency, his system would leave the males alone. -- https://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/02/12/using-lasers-to-zap-mosquitoes/ https://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/02/12/using-lasers-to-za...
- rossdavidh 6y agoTrue that, but if a system of this sort is not used, I think in reality it would not be the case that nothing would be used, but rather that very broad-spectrum insecticides get used. That's what happens now. So even a somewhat-targeted method would be a big improvement over what happens now.