While we may still not have flying cars, robot butlers or food replicators actually in our possession, you can now order something else you may have long dreamt of. It's called the Photon Matrix, and it uses lasers to track and kill airborne mosquitoes.
  • Mothra@mander.xyzEnglish
    23·
    6 days ago

    Okay so it won’t zap larger things like pets and people but what about other insects? I’m mildly annoyed at how the majority don’t give a fuck about insects. It says fast insects such as houseflies can’t be detected if flying fast, but there’s plenty of slow flyers that are not mozzies. Would they get zapped too? Tiny moths and butterflies? Ladybugs and other small beetles? Hovering dragonflies? We already have a massive decline in insect diversity

    • Deebster@infosec.pubEnglish
      8·
      6 days ago

      A previous version of this claimed that it could distinguish between male and female mosquitos (the ones that bite). It used the different wingbeat frequencies, if memory serves.

      It feels that a point-defence system is less harmful than gassing the whole area, which is what e.g. hotels do now.

      • Mothra@mander.xyzEnglish
        3·
        6 days ago

        Now that would have been reassuring to read. It wasn’t in the article though. I agree with you that gassing or blanket poisoning is a lot worse in principle

    • Deebster@infosec.pubEnglish
      3·
      6 days ago

      This was mentioned in the article, although not the fact that it was faked.

      I can believe that the tech has improved enough to not need faking this time around.

  • Geth@lemmy.dbzer0.comEnglish
    5·
    6 days ago

    This sounds like a dream come true, but I’m worried it’s not going to be legal in many places because of the potential eye damage.