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The story
“Photon Matrix,” a mosquito-detecting, auto-firing laser device developed by a Chinese manufacturer, has raised over $2.5 million on an overseas crowdfunding platform and has now opened pre-orders. It’s billed as being able to take down mosquitoes faster than a swat of the hand, but on 5ch’s Science News+ thread, commenters repeatedly raised concerns about the risk of the laser hitting someone in the eye. Some hoped it could be applied to pest control on farmland or in cattle barns, while others offered the cooler take that existing insecticides or mosquito coils already do the job just fine — with skepticism about its real-world usefulness standing out overall.
Pre-orders open for laser-beam mosquito zapper
Pre-orders have begun for “Photon Matrix,” a device that scans for mosquitoes and fires a beam at them faster than you could swat one by hand.
(Chinese-language source headline: “Domestic ‘PhotonMatrix’ portable laser mosquito-killing device sees order surge, overseas crowdfunding tops $2.5 million” — EE Times China)
Source: eet-china.com / Original article here
What people said
though it's still a little scary
Let me go ahead and predict there'll be an accident where it shoots someone right in the eye
Feels like farmers all over the world would want to buy one
Sun-sun and Non-non would get burnt to a crisp too (apparent pet names for the cabbage caterpillars/butterflies that'd get zapped along with the mosquitoes)
There are tropical places where they fly year-round, plus the whole Southern Hemisphere to think about…
If you've got so many mosquitoes you need to run this thing full blast, spraying insecticide around the room would be faster
If you just need to pick off the occasional one, a mosquito coil or electric vaporizer is enough
If you want to swat down mosquitoes as you spot them, an electric racket works fine
And for outdoor camping use, there are already beefier bug-zapper machines out there
Looks like it could be fun though
Looking forward to the YouTuber reviews
This one just runs on electricity, so it seems like better value
or just the laser module itself will get sold separately as a part
So if you put it on the floor, any mosquito outside that hemisphere-shaped effective range is untouched, and once a person walks into the room, they'll have to swat it themselves or get bitten.
Nobody asked my permission to film me, you know?
Are orders really flooding in for this thing?
A Vape mosquito mat would do just fine
or aiming at a fly that landed on someone's head and burning a hole straight through their skull instead.
I always wish I could just fire a thin beam straight out of my own eyes.
Background and Key Points of This Discussion
Devices that detect and shoot insects with a laser have become an increasingly common category of Chinese-made crowdfunded products in recent years, and Photon Matrix is one example, having raised over $2.5 million on an overseas backing platform. Opinion on the thread split mainly over safety, with worries about the beam accidentally hitting someone’s eye pitted against voices confident in its precision and looking forward to the product. In Japan, laser pointer output is subject to regulation, and using similar equipment at home could raise compliance questions — though whether this particular product meets Japanese domestic standards was never confirmed within the thread and remains unclear. Some reports put the price at around 200,000 yen, and whether that’s worth it compared to existing electric mosquito repellents or insecticides was another point where opinions diverged.
※This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Science News+) thread “[Topic] Pre-orders Open for Laser-Beam Mosquito Zapper.”
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