put that laser in a satelite and shoot them from space... all over the world, maybe we can get some sleep without slapping my face every once and a while :p
Awesome! This is seriously friggin' cool. Dealing with the malaria problem by firing short bursts of lazers with computer tracking...holy crap, that is awesome.
Oh no, how long will it take before someone says "Hmm, I wonder if we could use that to shoot down enemy planes or groups of enemy ground troops or protesters?"
Leave it to a fucking nerd to invent a laser mosquito killer. Millions invested in an unsustainable electronic contraption to humor the technocrat elite. I'd rather see insect eating birds.
besides, the unit is estimated to cost $50 to make and kill 50-100 mosquitos per second. Hell, i'll take 2 for my house... and throw in another for some hospital in africa.
AND, even if it does not live up to expectations, it draws much needed attention to malaria (notice the majority of the presentation was NOT about lasers)
Plus this was entirely funded by bill gates (charity).
@leparditas Hey, thank you. Check out my cell phone charger (and the link to vote for my grant proposal) Thank you again for the words of encouragement.
Nice idea but how people in Africa will afford those ?
Co-Arinate, Arsucam = 6 euros for a complete treatment almost 100 % efficiency.
Still million of African mainly children die from malaria.
Will that device cost less than 6 euros with battery and solar panel ?
Im going to Senegal next week it might be useful for me and other people that can afford it but dont pretend it will cure malaria in Africa when most people dont even have access to cheap efficient treatment.
@couga8888 Consider that this is still work in progress and planning ahead for the future. As time passes, things will get more affordable. Not for the regular consumer but for countries.
And for the elimination of the malaria musquito, as it is one of the most fatal diseases to mankind, countries will bundle their strength to make it so.
Can't wait till we can line our porches and properties with lasers to kill any mosquito in the area. Do mosquitoes do any good? Let's do a cost/benefit analysis of every species on its overall impact to humanity. Could we eradicate all rattlesnakes, for example? Or would the resulting rodent population negatively impact us even more? 99% of species have already gone extinct. There's nothing wrong in deliberately analyzing the idea of eradicating ones that are objectively harmful to humans.
@hughtub we still don't understand the balance of live in nature. irradicating a species so close to the bottom of the food chain as mosquitoes will have tremendous effects on the system we cannot predict. we can replace the predators we irradicated (because we are naturally predators ourselves) but mosquitoes we cannot. so: please don't become some ministre of environment ;).
@DeepDuh But haven't more catastrophic extinctions occurred in the past and the resulting ecological-niche vacuum was filled by some other critter? It's just a constantly changing equilibrium of forces, and when a species goes extinct (over 99% have), something else pops up, but may be much less harmful to humans. The question is if extinction by human selection is less devastating to the ecosystem than natural extinction through inferior adaptability or natural catastrophe.
@hughtub of course a new equilibrium will be found. the problem is: we cannot predict it (yet), because we don't have enough computational power. so it's a complete shot in the dark, whether the new equilibrium will be good or bad for us. This reminds me of Animatrix, where they destroy the sky to shut down the machines. It fails, because humans tend to oversimplify a system before making a decision. murphys law is actually very helpful when it comes to get reminded about the worst case.
who ever comes up with a cure for malaria better also come up with either an equally effective contraceptive or a great way to feed all the kids he saves. And don't get all emotional on me cause if you haven't thought about it yet you should start.
I don't think it's pessimistic to feel a company is only interested in getting alot of money in grants and support for aide in Africa. I think THAT is sickening. We're talking about basically putting hundreds of dollars into a device that probably wouldn't even have a power source... This is simply putting alot of money into something other than supplying the basic need of food and water. Zap malaria? What about food and water.. seems pointless to me jumping so far ahead...
doesn't take a genius to know this is too expensive for a location such as Africa. so i wouldn't invest in their company whatsoever. we can't even solve the simple issue of getting drinking water over there... laser turrets? come on... don't be so naive. this guy is using old technology and bleeding hearts to get funding.
lol this is soooooooooooooooooooo stupid it's not even funny... he talks about how expensive vaccines are.. but how much more expensive would putting up laser turrets be? pointless
they're not going to wipe them out completely..just reduce numbers. like ddt brought the number of mosquitos down enough to eradicate malaria in the us, they might be able to do the same with lasers just without killing lots of birds and making people sick.
Iodine deficiency disease may have affected up to a billion people simultaneously during the 20th century It can be cured with iodized printing ink The person just eats a picture of food to cure the disease visit beanangeltreon to view the video
its among the cheapest way of benefitting hundreds of millions of people
Iodine deficiency disease may have affected up to a billion people simultaneously during the 20th century It can be cured with iodized printing ink The person just eats a picture of food to cure the disease visit beanangeltreon to view the video
its among the cheapest way of benefitting hundreds of millions of people
@gareth450uk Did you not listen to like the first 9 minutes of the video, you know, the stuff about maleria, the disease that mosquitos carry. It's not like they're trying to wipe them out just for the hell of.
@gareth450uk Yeah, only we're not wiping them out. You think we're gonna install a lazer killer every 200 feet or so all over the entire earth? This is just for control of malaria-carrying mosquitos. Here in the US, there are plenty of mosquitoes. They're annoying as heck, but we don't kill them, cuz they're not dangerous.
@gareth450uk Maybe you missed the part about someone dying from malaria every 43 seconds.... dude they started it ... lets finish it... oh yeah and same millions of helpless children in the meanwhile
@mathewod One person every 2 seconds needlessly dies from starvation,,, Malaria is like a cold or flu compared to that... wake up people. The cost of a vaccine to protect one person is way cheaper than setting up ridiculous laser turrets that wouldn't even have a power source. Yes it's hard and expensive for vaccines.. but not as expensive as setting up lasers every couple feet. Lets fix one problem at a time
This talk has the aggregated value of two full blown jaw dropping talks. That is, the supercomputer model of Malaria and the idea of eradicating 'thousands of times... in software before we do it in reality' are very upbeat and bring optimism. The mosquito Star Wars is visually and conceptually unbelievable.
First of all: I always thought, when is someone FINALLY gonna invent a laser against mosquitoes.. I absolutely want that in my bedroom now :). Second of all: This talk was for nothing, because in no point he mentioned the ACTUAL cost of this stuff.. hello? it's probably way cheaper to seal a hospital with nets, than to install like two dozen of these.. even worse with the first 'solution' they had, there he didn't even mention that they want to do it low cost.. sheesh. solutions for africa?
@DeepDuh With a little legwork you could find an estimate cost yourself, just look up the prices of the products he showed you. Plus talking about cost is irrelevant in the prototype stage as cost drops way down once an item starts being mass produced. Then there is the software development cost, and as you saw they already have it operational so it must not have been too expensive. Why would he mention he wanted to do it low cost? That is implied.
@TasteOfGreen yes, he mentioned it, but then I would expect at least a qualified estimate. cost is the single most important factor for solutions for under-developed countries. compare this to the talk about diagnostics on paper sheets and you know what I mean. furthermore, I'm still not conviced, that philantropic projects done solely by westerners have a sustainable effect. very often, these things work just until it someone should service it or someone else steals it.
@DeepDuh Are you a potential developer of this technology? If not why would you want to know about cost? The reason people don't talk about costs in these talks is because it is irrelevant to the audience. They have a lot of ground to cover in a limited about of time. You also seem to assume I am resting all my hope solely on western philanthropists while this is simply not the case. I am having a difficult time figuring why you are so pessimistic.
@TasteOfGreen it is WAY more damaging to waste A LOT of money on technology that has NO effective purpose... other than making the pockets of the invetors fill... This whole talk is NOT about helping africa, it's about money. It would be cheaper to invest in large nets to cover camps...
@mnagmobile1 I agree, it would be more damaging to waste a lot of money on technology that has no effective purpose. Innovations have not always been easy or cheap, but you make progress by analyzing the good and fixing the bad, not by shitting all over the project. Unless you have reviewable information as to why this idea will fail then you really have nothing to say. Unjustified pessimism is a bane on progress and I am shocked and sickened by how often I come across it.
@TasteOfGreen I come here to see these talks because I want to know,whether there will be solutions for africa in the future.Most interesting are the projects,that put the locals themselfes in the centre,so that they can operate it,repair it and (ideally)build more of it themselves.We should support and fund more projects, that are BASED in africa.I'm not a pessimist in general but about THIS particular project and me and mnag have put our reasons.Optimism is good but don't let yourself blind.
@DeepDuh Good points. Though I have to say I try not to delude myself into believing miraculous things. I love these talks, not because they are always useful in and of themselves, but because of the mere fact that people are being shown potential if not realistic progress. We all feed off of each other and especially people at TED need to hear fresh ideas. Even if something shown at a TED talk is not practical or useful the more who see it increases the chance the idea will be improved upon.
@TasteOfGreen ugh... he's shooting it from so close. if you want a perimiter you would need ALOT of turrets.. if not, you would need an EXPENSIVE camera with extreme zoom and clarity... this would skyrocket the cost 10 fold. prototype or not. we're talking about africa here.. not the US military with billions of dollars... NOT PRACTICAL
@mnagmobile1 It is a good thing you are a technician and have extensive knowledge on this setup! You need to contact the creators of this tech and inform them of the folly of their ways immediately. Im sure they will take you seriously and in fact will likely invite you to become part of their build team, what with all of your helpful ideas and optimistic attitude.
if this technology is implemented for several decades, it may be possible that it'll stop working by means of evolutionary changes in the frequency of wingflaps and size of wings on the mosquitoes end to throw the computers off. Of course by then we'll have even better systems and such....
And another sci-fi prediction comes to life! If you have read the fantastic book "Earth" by David Brin you'll find that the auther describes this exact system. (Google for "David Brin Earth predictions" to find out what other of his predictions came true) I wonder if these guys have read this book. I think they almost must have...
Anyway, no matter what the source, this is extremely cool. I hope they can make it cheap enough to deploy it on a large scale in Africa.
i saw this laser tech from them on engadget months ago. I can't wait till they have a retail product so I can send to my mother back home in South Africa :) I hate those lil buggers and want to fry billions of em
Very cool but so far I'm more impressed with the malaria modeling. Finding out what works, and when - that's going to make a difference in the long run.
Predator drones aren't precise. We need something that can fry terrorist brains in their skull while they're asleep and everyone will think they just died a natural death. Now that will be cool!!
@Mrmoc7 well i think you missed my point I'm not in favour of military tactics to fight "terrorists" by in flicking terror on millions of civilians or even fatal methods... i think in 2010 we should be able to use more diplomatic of peaceful campaigns to eliminate conflict... bombing or zapping people isn't the solution...
Lasers are the embodiment of precision. With lasers, we can fry a terrorist's brain while he's sleeping on his bed. His wife, sleeping right next to him, wouldn't feel a thing. I am also for reducing civilian casualties and environmental destruction (which bombs do a lot of). In fact, by killing as much terrorists as we can, we're adding more manure to their native country's soil.
I assume that they'll adjust the laser to be fatal to mosquitoes and harmless to humans...
I keep thinking of the DethHarmonic episode of Metalocalypse where the London Philharmonic was accidentally diced up by overpowered visual effects lasers.
I think one of the problems with this approach is that all that would need to happen is for a mosquito to be born with a different wing pattern. Easy fix though, just recalibrate the machine thingy.
Amazing. About five years ago I designed a similar machine using a CD laser, a tiny stereo pair of microphones, and digital printer motors
What put me off BUILDING IT was listening to the sound one of my trapped nasal hairs made (exactly like a female mosquito) as I breathed while waiting to fall asleep one night
@david0aloha Yea it's still in tonic water but it's not very effective compared to modern day treatments. It's just as expensive and problematic to ship as normal meds and less effective. Plus, are you really considering shipping tonnes of Canada Dry to Africa?
No, I don't think that shipping tonnes of Canada Dry would be the best solution. I was just answering your question. Tonic water somewhat works, but as you said it's problematic. Water is heavy and hard to ship, and it's definitely not the most effective treatment.
This is a terific system. Even though they invented it for fighting malaria, I can easily see this having a huge commercial potential if the cost is less than $100 or so.
We have a house in Ghana and would easily put up four of these around just to get less mosquito bites in the evenings. Heck, get a buy-one give-one program up and you might get thousands of these for free to hospitals around sub saharan africa from consumers in the west.
@C0mBineD Well, then I get all excited like Jojo, the idiot circus boy, with a pretty new pet troll. The pet troll is my possible zing. Oh, my pretty little pet troll, I love you. So, I stroke it and I pet it and I massage it. Hee hee, I love it. I love my little naughty pet troll. You're naughty! Then I take my naughty pet and go squish! Aah! I killed it. I killed my troll."
@dude12nothin nah. I just have my own point of view ;)
Maybe I just hate africans. they are so lazy and they don't do anything to change their lives by themselves... Now they move forward only because we help them. Like a mother and a four year old kid...
Something tells me that this will fuck a lot of shit up if it gets mass produced
crudhousefull 1 month ago in playlist More videos from TEDtalksDirector
It is by acts and not by ideas that people live.
andreeaweed 3 months ago in playlist TEDTalksDirector - Top Rated 30 - 2011-01-31
Die slow you fucking mosquitoes.
bxchicano 4 months ago
put that laser in a satelite and shoot them from space... all over the world, maybe we can get some sleep without slapping my face every once and a while :p
sappiou 6 months ago 3
Awesome! This is seriously friggin' cool. Dealing with the malaria problem by firing short bursts of lazers with computer tracking...holy crap, that is awesome.
Jotto999 7 months ago
Oh no, how long will it take before someone says "Hmm, I wonder if we could use that to shoot down enemy planes or groups of enemy ground troops or protesters?"
Dimefan91 7 months ago
@Dimefan91 i think people have thought of that for long time, its just making it cost effective
Mr1234tico 7 months ago
@Mr1234tico Yeah, even Reagan tried to make that Star Wars laser program to shoot down missiles from space
Dimefan91 7 months ago
That would be so awesome:
open air picnic and the only sound is lazer pew pew pew popping mosquitoes...
...\\//
***/'\°'° =======<[HHH]
(^mosquitoe)......(^lazor)
SEThatered 7 months ago
Comment removed
SEThatered 7 months ago
this guy is a venture capitalist? i thought they were all criminals? in the muslim world they think all american capitalists hate the poor.
halflifeproductionz 8 months ago
Good video.
kopi5896 8 months ago
this video is informative.
saijai587 8 months ago
Nathan Myhrvold is great.
jamecolte 8 months ago
Cool! Just put all the mosquitos in little fish tanks, and we'll solve malaria!
technolope 1 year ago
Cool! Just put all the mosquitos in little fish tanks, and we'll solve malaria!
technolope 1 year ago
we invent, for fun. biim !!
WestIndiesTempo 1 year ago
Leave it to a fucking nerd to invent a laser mosquito killer. Millions invested in an unsustainable electronic contraption to humor the technocrat elite. I'd rather see insect eating birds.
schratboy 1 year ago
@schratboy
Birds can't eradicate malaria...
besides, the unit is estimated to cost $50 to make and kill 50-100 mosquitos per second. Hell, i'll take 2 for my house... and throw in another for some hospital in africa.
I am quite humored
DocUnsane 11 months ago
@schratboy
AND, even if it does not live up to expectations, it draws much needed attention to malaria (notice the majority of the presentation was NOT about lasers)
Plus this was entirely funded by bill gates (charity).
DocUnsane 11 months ago
He kind of sounds like Steve Carrell
KeatonIsFTW 1 year ago
blah bill gates should have put that money for tinnitus research
Leopardipzg 1 year ago
Yes, very nice, but I'm sure it will lead to evolution of transparent or highly reflective mosquitos
Floor500 1 year ago 8
@Floor500 of female mosquitos that have the wingbeat and size of male ones x.x
cavalier777 1 year ago
@Floor500 most probably they will not have time to evolve and will disappear as other species...
nurlanagabek 1 year ago
Developed because we can !
ForYeensSake 1 year ago
I want to be an inventor.
derman077 1 year ago
@derman077 you can do it man!
leparditas 1 year ago
@leparditas Hey, thank you. Check out my cell phone charger (and the link to vote for my grant proposal) Thank you again for the words of encouragement.
derman077 1 year ago
thats awesome, I have to watch the video on youtube cause TED's web site sucks
Mechanisttm 1 year ago
If it does not elimate malaria immediately. There is a ready market for the device for homes and hotel rooms in tropical climates. Awesome.
michael0845 1 year ago
Nice idea but how people in Africa will afford those ?
Co-Arinate, Arsucam = 6 euros for a complete treatment almost 100 % efficiency.
Still million of African mainly children die from malaria.
Will that device cost less than 6 euros with battery and solar panel ?
Im going to Senegal next week it might be useful for me and other people that can afford it but dont pretend it will cure malaria in Africa when most people dont even have access to cheap efficient treatment.
couga8888 1 year ago
@couga8888 Consider that this is still work in progress and planning ahead for the future. As time passes, things will get more affordable. Not for the regular consumer but for countries.
And for the elimination of the malaria musquito, as it is one of the most fatal diseases to mankind, countries will bundle their strength to make it so.
LubeRules 1 year ago
Can't wait till we can line our porches and properties with lasers to kill any mosquito in the area. Do mosquitoes do any good? Let's do a cost/benefit analysis of every species on its overall impact to humanity. Could we eradicate all rattlesnakes, for example? Or would the resulting rodent population negatively impact us even more? 99% of species have already gone extinct. There's nothing wrong in deliberately analyzing the idea of eradicating ones that are objectively harmful to humans.
hughtub 1 year ago
@hughtub we still don't understand the balance of live in nature. irradicating a species so close to the bottom of the food chain as mosquitoes will have tremendous effects on the system we cannot predict. we can replace the predators we irradicated (because we are naturally predators ourselves) but mosquitoes we cannot. so: please don't become some ministre of environment ;).
DeepDuh 1 year ago
@DeepDuh But haven't more catastrophic extinctions occurred in the past and the resulting ecological-niche vacuum was filled by some other critter? It's just a constantly changing equilibrium of forces, and when a species goes extinct (over 99% have), something else pops up, but may be much less harmful to humans. The question is if extinction by human selection is less devastating to the ecosystem than natural extinction through inferior adaptability or natural catastrophe.
hughtub 1 year ago
@hughtub of course a new equilibrium will be found. the problem is: we cannot predict it (yet), because we don't have enough computational power. so it's a complete shot in the dark, whether the new equilibrium will be good or bad for us. This reminds me of Animatrix, where they destroy the sky to shut down the machines. It fails, because humans tend to oversimplify a system before making a decision. murphys law is actually very helpful when it comes to get reminded about the worst case.
DeepDuh 1 year ago
MMS cures malaria 100% Big pharma doesn't want anyone to hear about cheap medicine.
This Vaccination is pure genocide, Bill Gates actually made a joke about it in his ted talk. Listen to it if you feel willfully ignorant.
gabydewilde 1 year ago
@gabydewilde Do you mean MMR?
LokiClock 1 year ago
Did they adopt technology from space wars program? Cool!
DimitriRytsk 1 year ago
who ever comes up with a cure for malaria better also come up with either an equally effective contraceptive or a great way to feed all the kids he saves. And don't get all emotional on me cause if you haven't thought about it yet you should start.
smokeystriper 1 year ago 2
....and then we can make it detect when a person has an original thought and it could hit him in the face with a fly swatter.
smokeystriper 1 year ago
you bueaty!!!!!!!
lordrazi111693 1 year ago
I don't think it's pessimistic to feel a company is only interested in getting alot of money in grants and support for aide in Africa. I think THAT is sickening. We're talking about basically putting hundreds of dollars into a device that probably wouldn't even have a power source... This is simply putting alot of money into something other than supplying the basic need of food and water. Zap malaria? What about food and water.. seems pointless to me jumping so far ahead...
mnagmobile1 1 year ago
doesn't take a genius to know this is too expensive for a location such as Africa. so i wouldn't invest in their company whatsoever. we can't even solve the simple issue of getting drinking water over there... laser turrets? come on... don't be so naive. this guy is using old technology and bleeding hearts to get funding.
mnagmobile1 1 year ago
Hahaha... Kill 'Em All! :)
szwedopaszczek 1 year ago
lol this is soooooooooooooooooooo stupid it's not even funny... he talks about how expensive vaccines are.. but how much more expensive would putting up laser turrets be? pointless
mnagmobile1 1 year ago
HOLY FUCKING CRAP WTF. This is possible?????
Elusefelier 1 year ago
Awesome
LubeRules 1 year ago
AMAZING!!! Simply AMAZING!!!!
MentalAtheist 1 year ago
IMMA FIRIN MAH LAAAAZOORRR!!
boorens18 1 year ago
How long till i can buy this at walmart?
branboom 1 year ago
they're not going to wipe them out completely..just reduce numbers. like ddt brought the number of mosquitos down enough to eradicate malaria in the us, they might be able to do the same with lasers just without killing lots of birds and making people sick.
boredwithcoldfeet 1 year ago
this is the most awsome solution to any problem this planet has ever had
yaHARmeMATEY 1 year ago 77
i know i'm wierd .. but i feel sorry for the mosquitos
herrbasan 1 year ago
You said you invent for FUN.... so why not go further and make this a VIDEO GAME!
100pts per mosquito, +50 per headshot and +50 per One shoot, one kill... 25 kill streak and you can call a Mosquito Nuke!!!!!
(I really should stop playing MW2....)
Jorfapigo 1 year ago 2
perfect! we'll just have to scale this up for when the space bats arrive.
jope7 1 year ago
This has been flagged as spam show
Iodine deficiency disease may have affected up to a billion people simultaneously during the 20th century It can be cured with iodized printing ink The person just eats a picture of food to cure the disease visit beanangeltreon to view the video
its among the cheapest way of benefitting hundreds of millions of people
BeanangelTreon 1 year ago
Iodine deficiency disease may have affected up to a billion people simultaneously during the 20th century It can be cured with iodized printing ink The person just eats a picture of food to cure the disease visit beanangeltreon to view the video
its among the cheapest way of benefitting hundreds of millions of people
BeanangelTreon 1 year ago
Awesome creativity!
shantanukulkarni 1 year ago
i love it, we do not like a speciecces so we aim to wipe them out. Rather unsettling.
gareth450uk 1 year ago
@gareth450uk Did you not listen to like the first 9 minutes of the video, you know, the stuff about maleria, the disease that mosquitos carry. It's not like they're trying to wipe them out just for the hell of.
timdavies90 1 year ago
@gareth450uk Yeah, only we're not wiping them out. You think we're gonna install a lazer killer every 200 feet or so all over the entire earth? This is just for control of malaria-carrying mosquitos. Here in the US, there are plenty of mosquitoes. They're annoying as heck, but we don't kill them, cuz they're not dangerous.
TheSqeeek 1 year ago
@gareth450uk Maybe you missed the part about someone dying from malaria every 43 seconds.... dude they started it ... lets finish it... oh yeah and same millions of helpless children in the meanwhile
mathewod 1 year ago
@mathewod One person every 2 seconds needlessly dies from starvation,,, Malaria is like a cold or flu compared to that... wake up people. The cost of a vaccine to protect one person is way cheaper than setting up ridiculous laser turrets that wouldn't even have a power source. Yes it's hard and expensive for vaccines.. but not as expensive as setting up lasers every couple feet. Lets fix one problem at a time
mnagmobile1 1 year ago
i hate bugs! release the lasers!
ruckenfigur 1 year ago
This talk has the aggregated value of two full blown jaw dropping talks. That is, the supercomputer model of Malaria and the idea of eradicating 'thousands of times... in software before we do it in reality' are very upbeat and bring optimism. The mosquito Star Wars is visually and conceptually unbelievable.
AlgeKalipso 1 year ago
Nathan Myhrvold... the patent troll.
supermaucat 1 year ago
current umber of videos on this channel: 666 O_O
moosekaw 1 year ago
mind=blown
thunderpants10 1 year ago
This is awesome. Death to mosquitoes!!
Mrmoc7 1 year ago
What about the other applications of this technology? The possibilities are both horrifying and exciting at the same time..
RevJoshua 1 year ago
iy looked like they were tracking at a distance there.... are laser printer mirrors capable of such accuracy? does anybody know?
tetranoob 1 year ago
Haha, love it.
killgroup 1 year ago
EPIC!
sashakid 1 year ago
Let's see if it's possible to make these cost-effective.
yared94 1 year ago
YES!!! THIS IS AWESOME!!!!!! mosquito lock on. FIRE!!!!!!!!! burn baby burn
Boehoehuahoei 1 year ago
@Looperberg hehe.. little more austin powers thrown in there? ;)
DeepDuh 1 year ago
First of all: I always thought, when is someone FINALLY gonna invent a laser against mosquitoes.. I absolutely want that in my bedroom now :). Second of all: This talk was for nothing, because in no point he mentioned the ACTUAL cost of this stuff.. hello? it's probably way cheaper to seal a hospital with nets, than to install like two dozen of these.. even worse with the first 'solution' they had, there he didn't even mention that they want to do it low cost.. sheesh. solutions for africa?
DeepDuh 1 year ago
@DeepDuh I guess this talk was for nothing, other than unveiling life saving technology to the world.
TasteOfGreen 1 year ago
@DeepDuh I guess this talk was for nothing, other than unveiling life saving technology to the world.
TasteOfGreen 1 year ago
@DeepDuh With a little legwork you could find an estimate cost yourself, just look up the prices of the products he showed you. Plus talking about cost is irrelevant in the prototype stage as cost drops way down once an item starts being mass produced. Then there is the software development cost, and as you saw they already have it operational so it must not have been too expensive. Why would he mention he wanted to do it low cost? That is implied.
TasteOfGreen 1 year ago
@TasteOfGreen yes, he mentioned it, but then I would expect at least a qualified estimate. cost is the single most important factor for solutions for under-developed countries. compare this to the talk about diagnostics on paper sheets and you know what I mean. furthermore, I'm still not conviced, that philantropic projects done solely by westerners have a sustainable effect. very often, these things work just until it someone should service it or someone else steals it.
DeepDuh 1 year ago
@DeepDuh Are you a potential developer of this technology? If not why would you want to know about cost? The reason people don't talk about costs in these talks is because it is irrelevant to the audience. They have a lot of ground to cover in a limited about of time. You also seem to assume I am resting all my hope solely on western philanthropists while this is simply not the case. I am having a difficult time figuring why you are so pessimistic.
TasteOfGreen 1 year ago
@TasteOfGreen it is WAY more damaging to waste A LOT of money on technology that has NO effective purpose... other than making the pockets of the invetors fill... This whole talk is NOT about helping africa, it's about money. It would be cheaper to invest in large nets to cover camps...
mnagmobile1 1 year ago
@mnagmobile1 I agree, it would be more damaging to waste a lot of money on technology that has no effective purpose. Innovations have not always been easy or cheap, but you make progress by analyzing the good and fixing the bad, not by shitting all over the project. Unless you have reviewable information as to why this idea will fail then you really have nothing to say. Unjustified pessimism is a bane on progress and I am shocked and sickened by how often I come across it.
TasteOfGreen 1 year ago
@TasteOfGreen I come here to see these talks because I want to know,whether there will be solutions for africa in the future.Most interesting are the projects,that put the locals themselfes in the centre,so that they can operate it,repair it and (ideally)build more of it themselves.We should support and fund more projects, that are BASED in africa.I'm not a pessimist in general but about THIS particular project and me and mnag have put our reasons.Optimism is good but don't let yourself blind.
DeepDuh 1 year ago
@DeepDuh Good points. Though I have to say I try not to delude myself into believing miraculous things. I love these talks, not because they are always useful in and of themselves, but because of the mere fact that people are being shown potential if not realistic progress. We all feed off of each other and especially people at TED need to hear fresh ideas. Even if something shown at a TED talk is not practical or useful the more who see it increases the chance the idea will be improved upon.
TasteOfGreen 1 year ago
@TasteOfGreen ugh... he's shooting it from so close. if you want a perimiter you would need ALOT of turrets.. if not, you would need an EXPENSIVE camera with extreme zoom and clarity... this would skyrocket the cost 10 fold. prototype or not. we're talking about africa here.. not the US military with billions of dollars... NOT PRACTICAL
mnagmobile1 1 year ago
@mnagmobile1 It is a good thing you are a technician and have extensive knowledge on this setup! You need to contact the creators of this tech and inform them of the folly of their ways immediately. Im sure they will take you seriously and in fact will likely invite you to become part of their build team, what with all of your helpful ideas and optimistic attitude.
TasteOfGreen 1 year ago
@DeepDuh Be careful it doesn't shoot you in the nose when a nose hair vibrates with your breath
beachcomber2008 1 year ago
Awesome. Because I generally HATE mosquitos.
They should release the plans on Instructables/Make so I can use one in the back yard.
Kl4pp5tuhl 1 year ago
we shall live and we shall see. (how effective this actually is)
if the palsmodium's life cycle is so complex shouldn't it have some volnurable points?
drorjs 1 year ago
i want one of these for my home ¬¬
bigbeautyfull 1 year ago
What! Malaria in Madagascar!? They forgot to close the ports...
LordDazzer 1 year ago 2
Make it open source now!
hoplahey 1 year ago 3
if this technology is implemented for several decades, it may be possible that it'll stop working by means of evolutionary changes in the frequency of wingflaps and size of wings on the mosquitoes end to throw the computers off. Of course by then we'll have even better systems and such....
Zetimenvec 1 year ago
Where are mosquito rights activists ??!!
yourtube20061 1 year ago
omg LOL
cosy18 1 year ago
I invent too.
derman077 1 year ago
And another sci-fi prediction comes to life! If you have read the fantastic book "Earth" by David Brin you'll find that the auther describes this exact system. (Google for "David Brin Earth predictions" to find out what other of his predictions came true) I wonder if these guys have read this book. I think they almost must have...
Anyway, no matter what the source, this is extremely cool. I hope they can make it cheap enough to deploy it on a large scale in Africa.
SolarWebsite 1 year ago
Mosquito death ray. That is the a whole new level of nerd-gasm. Amazingly awsome!
gbw80521 1 year ago
i saw this laser tech from them on engadget months ago. I can't wait till they have a retail product so I can send to my mother back home in South Africa :) I hate those lil buggers and want to fry billions of em
groMMit1981 1 year ago
Amazing! These are the TED talks I subscribed to see! :)
Expl0rati0n 1 year ago
Very cool but so far I'm more impressed with the malaria modeling. Finding out what works, and when - that's going to make a difference in the long run.
dansj861 1 year ago
LAZERRRRR. This was awesome.
reeged 1 year ago
that is pretty cool.. but it makes me wonder if the military has something similar that is modified for people.. oh yea predator drones ...
Th3Wab3 1 year ago
@Th3Wab3 Yes, they do.
derman077 1 year ago
@Th3Wab3
Predator drones aren't precise. We need something that can fry terrorist brains in their skull while they're asleep and everyone will think they just died a natural death. Now that will be cool!!
Mrmoc7 1 year ago
@Mrmoc7 well i think you missed my point I'm not in favour of military tactics to fight "terrorists" by in flicking terror on millions of civilians or even fatal methods... i think in 2010 we should be able to use more diplomatic of peaceful campaigns to eliminate conflict... bombing or zapping people isn't the solution...
Th3Wab3 1 year ago
@Th3Wab3
Lasers are the embodiment of precision. With lasers, we can fry a terrorist's brain while he's sleeping on his bed. His wife, sleeping right next to him, wouldn't feel a thing. I am also for reducing civilian casualties and environmental destruction (which bombs do a lot of). In fact, by killing as much terrorists as we can, we're adding more manure to their native country's soil.
Mrmoc7 1 year ago
That's ridiculously awesome.
jussts 1 year ago
I assume that they'll adjust the laser to be fatal to mosquitoes and harmless to humans...
I keep thinking of the DethHarmonic episode of Metalocalypse where the London Philharmonic was accidentally diced up by overpowered visual effects lasers.
theshredator 1 year ago
That is some awesome software!!!
quarkphotonect 1 year ago
This guy emphasizes the 'h' in 'where' like Stewie emphasizes the 'h' in 'cool whip'.
DancingHorses26 1 year ago
I think one of the problems with this approach is that all that would need to happen is for a mosquito to be born with a different wing pattern. Easy fix though, just recalibrate the machine thingy.
Shalek 1 year ago
MOSQUITO LASER DEFENSE SYSTEM
leafsoup 1 year ago
I would like one for my back yard.
brojde 1 year ago
Satan's airforce is doomed at last!
CHAS1422 1 year ago
anyone else notice the difficultly this guys seems to have with saying words with the letter "H" in them?
soulsanctuarymusic1 1 year ago
@soulsanctuarymusic1
"Cool HWhip"
nightmathzombieethan 1 year ago
please explain where the accent of "hwere" "hwat" "idear" "soder" etc? its just annoying and horrible english
GGAlice1 1 year ago
@GGAlice1 The guy is an inventor not a linguist, deal with it.
Plasmon19 1 year ago
Fire the "La-ser"
jungenbum 1 year ago
If DDT worked in America why not use it in Madagascar?
chezer90 1 year ago
@chezer90 Because it's toxic
AndrewKulcsar 1 year ago
Freaking Awesome!
steve0281 1 year ago
Amazing. About five years ago I designed a similar machine using a CD laser, a tiny stereo pair of microphones, and digital printer motors
What put me off BUILDING IT was listening to the sound one of my trapped nasal hairs made (exactly like a female mosquito) as I breathed while waiting to fall asleep one night
My machine would have shot me in the nose...
A great talk, and hearteningly great ideas. :)
beachcomber2008 1 year ago
FINALY!!!
just make them smaller so sharks can use them
Ultranoob1 1 year ago 29
@Ultranoob1 LOL I want freaking sharks with freaking laser beams attached on their freaking heads!!!
2Critical4You 1 year ago
Quinine from tonic water is an effective cheap treatment and control for malaria
mike6459 1 year ago
@mike6459 Since when does tonic water have quinine in it?
VitriolicAC 1 year ago
@VitriolicAC
Since always - that's where the name comes from. It was a tonic for malaria.
david0aloha 1 year ago
@david0aloha Yea it's still in tonic water but it's not very effective compared to modern day treatments. It's just as expensive and problematic to ship as normal meds and less effective. Plus, are you really considering shipping tonnes of Canada Dry to Africa?
VitriolicAC 1 year ago
@VitriolicAC
No, I don't think that shipping tonnes of Canada Dry would be the best solution. I was just answering your question. Tonic water somewhat works, but as you said it's problematic. Water is heavy and hard to ship, and it's definitely not the most effective treatment.
david0aloha 1 year ago
This is one of my favorite TED talks of all time.
doubadia 1 year ago
I would have enjoyed it more if I didn't feel Kermit the Frog was doing the talking.
Trigunflame 1 year ago
@Trigunflame
it's very appropriate though, no?
catching bugs in mid air?
Zetimenvec 1 year ago
@Zetimenvec Touche'
Trigunflame 1 year ago
if I was a mosquito I would be shitting myself right now
Prestonboy13 1 year ago 2
how is a consumer camera going to detect the mosquitoes at 10 metres away lol
mikeccuk2006 1 year ago
pretty awesome... but I can't help but think of the military applications of this sort of stuff. which also makes it scary.
peace to all
baronmorris 1 year ago
@baronmorris Yeah, well the military probably already has things years ahead of this.
Makes you think, doesn't it.
BeardedBill86 1 year ago
Superb :D
Haitahx 1 year ago
He's obnoxious
uneedhelp2 1 year ago
@uneedhelp2 To be fair, he did just invest a laser that targets and pwns very specific types of insects... with parts from ebay.
awesomeSkins 1 year ago
@awesomeSkins true.
uneedhelp2 1 year ago
normally, i'm calm and reserved when watching ted talks - but this is fucking awesome!
anthonyfoxtrott 1 year ago
This man will take over the world.
This was one of the most entertaining TED talks, and if it actually works, one of the more important ones.
ThroneofEden 1 year ago
lol he pronounces his H's before his W's
Hwat Hwo Hwen Hwere
Limited317 1 year ago
Comment removed
defect530 1 year ago
lol, a laser gun. Piew piew!
Waranoa 1 year ago 9
It would be cooler if they mounted the lasers on sharks. Sharks with frickin' laser beams.
revjimbob 1 year ago
Science will save humanity. Our future is glorious.
drealm 1 year ago
This is a terific system. Even though they invented it for fighting malaria, I can easily see this having a huge commercial potential if the cost is less than $100 or so.
We have a house in Ghana and would easily put up four of these around just to get less mosquito bites in the evenings. Heck, get a buy-one give-one program up and you might get thousands of these for free to hospitals around sub saharan africa from consumers in the west.
Sondre7 1 year ago
Holy crap! THIS IS AWSOME!!!!!!!!!
melis256 1 year ago
Build a better mousetrap???
This is building a better flyswatter. I want one in my kitchen.
PlayT0E 1 year ago
i want one
ifailalotofthetime 1 year ago
this reminds me of the parody commercial " Starwars Musquito Defense System English Version "
would be great if we have this system available for normal use
shintsu01 1 year ago
Pinky suck moment. i am so stealing that :)
POLlyy23 1 year ago 4
@POLlyy23 SAME. :-)
thatguitarkid 1 year ago
killing things it´s allways the first approach!
How about, trying to find a way to inhibit the parasite to reproduce itself , instead of killing the bugs, disrupting the ecosystems.
But i gess it wouldn't be so profitable, as selling lasers,right?!!
Prina76 1 year ago 2
fuck this shit
C0mBineD 1 year ago
@C0mBineD Did helping other people with technology hurt your little brain? Go back to your job a McD's.
dude12nothin 1 year ago
@dude12nothin okay brb
C0mBineD 1 year ago
@C0mBineD Well, then I get all excited like Jojo, the idiot circus boy, with a pretty new pet troll. The pet troll is my possible zing. Oh, my pretty little pet troll, I love you. So, I stroke it and I pet it and I massage it. Hee hee, I love it. I love my little naughty pet troll. You're naughty! Then I take my naughty pet and go squish! Aah! I killed it. I killed my troll."
dude12nothin 1 year ago
@dude12nothin <3
C0mBineD 1 year ago
@C0mBineD c=3
dude12nothin 1 year ago
This comment has received too many negative votes show
Let them die, god damn it.They are already overpopulated... Overall it will be just better for everyone.
edv11nas 1 year ago
@edv11nas You fail as a human being
dude12nothin 1 year ago
@dude12nothin nah. I just have my own point of view ;)
Maybe I just hate africans. they are so lazy and they don't do anything to change their lives by themselves... Now they move forward only because we help them. Like a mother and a four year old kid...
edv11nas 1 year ago
@edv11nas Fair enough. I disagree but who doesn't, right? Good luck to you sir.