Microsoft's Research Department once again brings innovation to the next level with a mosquito trap supposedly constructed specifically to monitor the spread of the Zica virus found in Latin America earlier this year.
In particular, a new Microsoft project, described by experts as the "greatest innovation in technology traps for decades,” is part of a larger effort by the company with the brand Project Premonition, which is supposed to help automate the work that entomologists usually do by hand.
The trap was developed in Houston for the early stages of a pilot project and allowed specialists to collect only specific mosquito species rather than an entire herd of insects circulating around, flies, moths and others.
Without such a trap, entomologists had to manually sort insects in order to be able to analyze only what they were interested in and which could transmit the Zica virus.
How does it work;
The trap is powered by two microprocessors that draw power from two batteries. Οι επεξεργαστές προσπαθούν να συλλάβουν συγκεκριμένους τύπους κουνουπιών με βάση τα στοιχεία που τους έχουν δώσει οι εντομολόγοι. Η μηχανή αναλύει μια σειρά από παράγοντες, όπως την θερμοκρασία, τον άνεμος και την υγρασία. Όλα τα δεδομένα που συλλέγονται αποστέλλονται στο σύννεφο για περαιτέρω processing.
The trap uses mechanical learning, automatically improving mosquito detection capabilities. This only detects the insects that experts need.
At present, the new project is still in its early stages, but the first results are already quite optimistic, and Microsoft is aiming to continue improving the mosquito trap in the coming months.
