It's definitely annoying when you're trying to swat a mosquito that's flying around a room, but you lose track of where it is. Bzigo is designed to help, as it optically-tracks mozzies and then highlights them with an eye-safe laser.
Developed by an Israeli startup of the same name, Bzigo incorporates an infrared LED, an HD wide-angle infrared camera, and a microprocessor. Utilizing computer vision algorithms running on the latter, it's reportedly able to differentiate between mosquitos and other pixel-sized airborne objects (such as dust particles) based on their movement patterns. It even works in the dark.
Once Bzigo detects that a mosquito is in the room, it notifies the user via an app on their smartphone. To help them see where the insect is, the device laser-projects a box around it, whenever it stops moving. It's then up to the user to do the actually swatting, although a future version of the product may be able to "autonomously eliminate" mosquitoes after they've been detected.
The current prototype, which was unveiled this week at CES in Las Vegas, is reportedly capable of sighting mosquitoes up to a distance of 8 meters (26 feet). It's intended for indoor use only.
Should you be interested in getting one, you can reserve a unit by placing a US$9 deposit via the first link below. Doing so will get backers a $30 discount on the planned $169 retail price. The company is currently in talks with investors, with hopes of having Bzigo on the market sometime early next year.
Source: Bzigo via IEEE Spectrum
