This is safety-critical software: one mistake will blind a person.
> "Importantly, the device additionally uses millimeter-wave radar to scan its field of view for larger objects such as people and pets. If any of these are detected, its mosquito-zapping laser will not fire."
I note the startup doesn't actually disclose the laser output power anywhere, or what regulatory class that power level falls in. It's federal law[0] that commercially-sold lasers are labelled with this information.
They do in a YouTube video on their channel [0]. It’s 40 (!) watts. They also show it shooting indiscriminately at any small object, with an example where they feed it foam chips.
That's more than enough to permanently blind someone with a partial reflection, i.e. you point this at an insect and there's a small polished-metal object somewhere behind it.
In parts of the world bieng able to eliminate mosquitos(other more deadly bugs) will outweigh a great deal of risk assosiated with lasers.
and there are things that can be done.
heat and motion detectors that disarm the system if people/pets are present
fields of fire that are above 99.999 % of peoples eyes
fields of fire very close to walls, where mosquitos alight, but it is almost impossible to get in the way for humans
multiple laser turrets that indivualy dont have the power to hurt a human badly, but can zap a bug
through co ordinated action.....perhaps set up outdoors with artificial breath and infra red bait traps to bring the mosquitos above a crowd.
more robust systems to be used in agricultural contexts.
this will be about comfort and protecting vulnerable populations, mosquitos/other bugs wont be going anywhere, chemical control has proven to cause ecological probelms worse than the bugs, and the attempts at useing biological methods is only a partial solution.
I’m not here to sell my own startup, but there are other ways to kill mosquitoes than a 40 watts laser that could make someone blind from a secondary reflection (out of the mmWave radar detection range)
I think that by "secondary reflection" you are perhaps refering to a direct single reflection, rather than a double bank?
But in any case it is very very unlikely that there will anything availible outside of a high caliber optics lab that can reflect cohearant laser beams in such a way as to retain a dangerous power level.
The 40 watt laser is needed in order to provide a kill shot in in a small target in millisecond pulse, that only has to penetrate a fraction of a millimeter, and would be unlikely to penetrate a full cm into a human eye and do permanent damage even with a direct hit, not that anyone is going to advocate for useing lasers for eye surgery....oh wait
I may haven't fully understood your answer, but a typical household mirror could reflect 90% of the laser power in a single coherent direction. Any sufficiently polished metal tool would have dangerous specular direction. I'm not sure of the math for a diffuse reflection, but the laser classification is here for a reason.
A human eye being transparent up to the fragile retina, yes, a laser would penetrate the eye and be concentrated in an extremely small spot on the retina. That's exactly the reason why we have safety around lasers, and why everything above 5mw is strictly for enclosed use. 40 watts shot at random in the void is definitely dangerous by all measures.
any light reflected in a domestic situation will no longer be a cohearant laser.if it was very focused UV it could cause temporary blindness, but a milisecond pulse will not contain enough energy to burn @ 40 watts, all that said, it is a given that certifying lasers for full on autonomous bug zapping(a dream of billions), is a very steep regulatory hill to climb, and will not be decided on redit, or here
but as insectides get less effective while also proving to be realy bad for our environment, and the possibility of a true plauge bieng vectored by mosquitos a constant concern, I am absoulutly certain that research into laser bug zappers is going to progress
Light being coherent and light being dangerous are two completely orthogonal concepts. A laser is dangerous because of the very tight beam, but any household mirror keeps that beam focused. Plus, a mosquito needs 100millijoules to fry (from the intellectual ventures study) which is a lot more than what a retina can handle. The short duration actually makes it even worse, because the eye lids can’t close soon enough to avoid the retina burning (they take 100ms to close). That’s the reason why lasers are classed by power.
A retina being easier to burn than a mosquito is the fundamental reason why we haven’t seen that tech deployed. LiDAR detection with a 2D goniometer + high power laser has been available commercially for a while. There just never was someone to create something so deceptive as to sell a 40watts device as possibly safe.
40W is scary strong for a laser. Almost like a nuke compared to a firecracker[0]:
> 5 milliwatts is wimpy. We can do better.
A 1-watt laser is an extremely dangerous thing. It’s not just powerful enough to blind you—it’s capable of burning skin and setting things on fire. Obviously, they’re not legal for consumer purchase in the US.
“the device additionally uses millimeter-wave radar to scan its field of view for larger objects such as people and pets. If any of these are detected, its mosquito-zapping laser will not fire”
I’d want to see some third-party testing around eye safety before putting this in my home.
There is no eye safety - if it burns mosquito then it burns your retina.
And if you aren't moving, lets say sleeping, would the device decide it is ok to fire?
Instead of laser, they should have made a mechanical hand with fly zapper, fragile/soft enough to not injure people and pets, yet strong enough to kill mosquito. Or even like in that movie where kung-fu master catches a fly using chopsticks :)
The eye safety issue with laser mosquito zapping could be addressed with multiple beams.
Say you need to deliver at least M joules of energy at the wavelength of the laser to the mosquito over at most T seconds in order to kill it, and suppose and eyes must receive less than E joules of energy at the wavelength over that same timeframe to not be damaged.
Encircle the area you want to protect with at least M/E lasers each individually each with low enough output power to not damage an eye if they hit is directly. Control all these lasers with a common controller which picks out a target and fires all the lasers at it simultaneously.
The target gets hit with all the lasers receiving a fatal rapid influx in energy. Anyplace else in the area that gets hit by any beams that miss the target should only get hit by one and so be safe.
Add a suitable safety margin by increasing the number of lasers and decreasing their individual power so that even if a person or animal gets a direct hit from one beam plus reflections from a couple more they will be safe.
That should be safe for almost all normal rooms. Train the installers to refuse to install in places with a lot of curved reflective surfaces, such as mirror coated elliptical room where a miss trying to zap a mosquito at one focus could be bad news for a human at the other focus.
What I really want is an iOS app that helps me locate insects in a room. Start video feed, analyze pixels for a small object flying around and draw a green box around each while flying and a red box once it lands somewhere. I can take care of the rest.
I often spot the mosquito but lose track of it after a second (against a patterned background) or if it rapdily changes direction (which they seemed to have evolved to do).
This product brings back fond memories to one of those early-internet gems: the "Star Wars mosquito defence system" gag infomercial that was launched 18 years (!) ago: https://youtu.be/wSIWpFPkYrk
I think these things are a bit wasted on mosquitos which can be done in quite well by a plug in mozzie killer with insecticide in. Now bed bugs could be a worthier foe.
I recently learned about mosquito dunks and they work very well. They stop mosquito eggs from hatching, which is better because they still waste time laying eggs
the small Lidar for commercial use like the Sony AS-DT1 , advertised like the "World’s Smallest and Lightest Precision LiDAR Sensor" available today hare a resolution of * ±5 centimeters* that is good for an Xenomorph but not for a mosquito and, anyway , for Xenomorph there are better options :-) , see : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IS2PtmM9mwU
4. The video of the company on youtube seems just another computer graphic gimmick to sell vaporware, IMHO. There is a prototype someone can independently test ?
They write "Relying on the advancement of lidar detection technology, this sci-fi and magical product will soon truly become a reality", I have to say no, not for now.
"The concept of a laser-based mosquito defence system took off back in 2007, when astrophysicist Lowell Wood (one of the architects of the USA's famous Reagan-era "Star Wars" missile defence initiative) raised the idea of a smaller, mosquito-targeting laser system at a Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation brainstorming session on eliminating malaria.
Over the following years, prototypes were built, using freely available parts from cell phones and laser printers. A device was patented and demonstrated by a company called Intellectual Ventures, which was more interested in owning the patent than making a product. "
> which was more interested in owning the patent than making a product.
I really hope that after copyright protections (insanely long, IMO) get revamped in the LLM aftermath, we start focusing on patent law. Patents were always in my mind a way to protect small_inventor from big_bad_corp, and give them a breathing room to get a product to market. We should really focus on this, and make patents moot as long as a) a working prototype is not demonstrated, b) the patent holder doesn't pursue the tech, c) a small domain-specific timeframe (less for medicine for example) and d) it's really really generic (i.e. a method to have LLM agents work in a loop - no, bobby, everyone can do that.)
Here we go again; ideas like these seem to crop up every summer. Here's the problem all of them have in common: a laser powerful enough to kill a mosquito is also strong enough to blind people or to set things on fire if it misses.
In the original prototype that was covered some years ago by the gates foundation, they specifically had a way to detect female mosquitoes (by the wing flapping rates, iirc) so they don't just zap indiscriminately.
> "Importantly, the device additionally uses millimeter-wave radar to scan its field of view for larger objects such as people and pets. If any of these are detected, its mosquito-zapping laser will not fire."
I note the startup doesn't actually disclose the laser output power anywhere, or what regulatory class that power level falls in. It's federal law[0] that commercially-sold lasers are labelled with this information.
[0] https://www.law.cornell.edu/cfr/text/21/1040.10
[0]: https://youtu.be/Ta0f0oB4I-Q?si=WqlhTmVHVszXSjtU
and there are things that can be done.
heat and motion detectors that disarm the system if people/pets are present fields of fire that are above 99.999 % of peoples eyes fields of fire very close to walls, where mosquitos alight, but it is almost impossible to get in the way for humans multiple laser turrets that indivualy dont have the power to hurt a human badly, but can zap a bug through co ordinated action.....perhaps set up outdoors with artificial breath and infra red bait traps to bring the mosquitos above a crowd. more robust systems to be used in agricultural contexts. this will be about comfort and protecting vulnerable populations, mosquitos/other bugs wont be going anywhere, chemical control has proven to cause ecological probelms worse than the bugs, and the attempts at useing biological methods is only a partial solution.
A human eye being transparent up to the fragile retina, yes, a laser would penetrate the eye and be concentrated in an extremely small spot on the retina. That's exactly the reason why we have safety around lasers, and why everything above 5mw is strictly for enclosed use. 40 watts shot at random in the void is definitely dangerous by all measures.
A retina being easier to burn than a mosquito is the fundamental reason why we haven’t seen that tech deployed. LiDAR detection with a 2D goniometer + high power laser has been available commercially for a while. There just never was someone to create something so deceptive as to sell a 40watts device as possibly safe.
> 5 milliwatts is wimpy. We can do better.
A 1-watt laser is an extremely dangerous thing. It’s not just powerful enough to blind you—it’s capable of burning skin and setting things on fire. Obviously, they’re not legal for consumer purchase in the US.
Just kidding! You can pick one up for $300[1].
[0]: https://what-if.xkcd.com/13/
[1]: http://www.wickedlasers.com/arctic
I’d want to see some third-party testing around eye safety before putting this in my home.
Instead of laser, they should have made a mechanical hand with fly zapper, fragile/soft enough to not injure people and pets, yet strong enough to kill mosquito. Or even like in that movie where kung-fu master catches a fly using chopsticks :)
This isn't the best example, how is it supposed to hit your retina if your eyes are closed?
Say you need to deliver at least M joules of energy at the wavelength of the laser to the mosquito over at most T seconds in order to kill it, and suppose and eyes must receive less than E joules of energy at the wavelength over that same timeframe to not be damaged.
Encircle the area you want to protect with at least M/E lasers each individually each with low enough output power to not damage an eye if they hit is directly. Control all these lasers with a common controller which picks out a target and fires all the lasers at it simultaneously.
The target gets hit with all the lasers receiving a fatal rapid influx in energy. Anyplace else in the area that gets hit by any beams that miss the target should only get hit by one and so be safe.
Add a suitable safety margin by increasing the number of lasers and decreasing their individual power so that even if a person or animal gets a direct hit from one beam plus reflections from a couple more they will be safe.
That should be safe for almost all normal rooms. Train the installers to refuse to install in places with a lot of curved reflective surfaces, such as mirror coated elliptical room where a miss trying to zap a mosquito at one focus could be bad news for a human at the other focus.
1. this is NOT a product is an Indiegogo fund raising:
https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/worlds-first-portable-mos...
the product estimated shipment should be * october 2025*
2. In the Indiegogo page, they assert it will use a Lidar ( laser based) and not a mm radar ( based on radio signals );
3. Can a Lidar track something big as a mosquito ? apparently NO:
https://dronelife.com/2025/04/15/sony-launches-worlds-smalle...
the small Lidar for commercial use like the Sony AS-DT1 , advertised like the "World’s Smallest and Lightest Precision LiDAR Sensor" available today hare a resolution of * ±5 centimeters* that is good for an Xenomorph but not for a mosquito and, anyway , for Xenomorph there are better options :-) , see : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IS2PtmM9mwU
4. The video of the company on youtube seems just another computer graphic gimmick to sell vaporware, IMHO. There is a prototype someone can independently test ?
They write "Relying on the advancement of lidar detection technology, this sci-fi and magical product will soon truly become a reality", I have to say no, not for now.
Please tell me if I'm wrong.
Microsoft alum fights malaria by zapping mosquitoes with lasers | ZDNET https://share.google/qd3yWi72Zk9yRyxoh
"The concept of a laser-based mosquito defence system took off back in 2007, when astrophysicist Lowell Wood (one of the architects of the USA's famous Reagan-era "Star Wars" missile defence initiative) raised the idea of a smaller, mosquito-targeting laser system at a Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation brainstorming session on eliminating malaria.
Over the following years, prototypes were built, using freely available parts from cell phones and laser printers. A device was patented and demonstrated by a company called Intellectual Ventures, which was more interested in owning the patent than making a product. "
I really hope that after copyright protections (insanely long, IMO) get revamped in the LLM aftermath, we start focusing on patent law. Patents were always in my mind a way to protect small_inventor from big_bad_corp, and give them a breathing room to get a product to market. We should really focus on this, and make patents moot as long as a) a working prototype is not demonstrated, b) the patent holder doesn't pursue the tech, c) a small domain-specific timeframe (less for medicine for example) and d) it's really really generic (i.e. a method to have LLM agents work in a loop - no, bobby, everyone can do that.)
The fact it doesn't do houseflies is a huge downer though.