Graphics have proven to be very useful in powering video games where you can zap huge numbers of bad guys in a minute. But now they may prove useful in powering lasers that can zap live mosquitoes out of the sky &8212' all in the name of eliminating malaria.
Intellectual Ventures, the research company founded by Nathan Mhyrvold, created a &''laser fence&'' to protect homes from malaria-bearing mosquitoes. It&'s a great example of taking technologies that were invented for one purpose and adapting them for another.
The laser fence taps an Nvidia graphics chip to process the data coming in from a camera to identify a mosquito in real-time and then activate the laser to zap it.
&''You have to recognize that it&'s a mosquito, versus all of the other bugs that might be flying around, recognize that it&'s a female mosquito, and then shoot it down. That recognition of trying to find that mosquito while it&'s flying around is done on the GPU,&'' said Dan Vivoli, senior vice president of marketing at Nvidia in Santa Clara, Calif., in an interview with KGO-TV.
Malaria still kills a million people a year, mostly in Africa, where pesticides and bed nets are not extremely effective. The Intellectual Ventures researchers say they think that a mosquito zapper can be built for about $50. Incidentally, Intellectual Ventures has been blasted for being a &''patent troll&'' because it is suing some tech companies. This is an example of how the company invents interesting technologies as well. The company would likely find a partner to mass-produce a laser fence.
Next Story: Obama may appoint Google&'s Eric Schmidt as Commerce Secretary Previous Story: RIM and Microsoft: cloudy with a chance of collaboration
Print Email Twitter Facebook Google Buzz LinkedIn Digg StumbleUpon Reddit Delicious Google More&8230'
Companies: Intellectual Ventures, Nvidia
Companies: Intellectual Ventures, Nvidia
Dean is lead writer for GamesBeat at VentureBeat. He covers video games, security, chips and a variety of other subjects. Dean previously worked at the San Jose Mercury News, the Wall Street Journal, the Red Herring, the Los Angeles Times, the Orange County Register and the Dallas Times Herald. He is the author of two books, Opening the Xbox and the Xbox 360 Uncloaked. Follow him on Twitter at @deantak, and follow VentureBeat on Twitter at @venturebeat.
Have news to share Launching a startup Email: tips@venturebeat.com
VentureBeat has new weekly email newsletters. Stay on top of the news, and don't miss a beat.
Discuss Add this link to... Bury
Comments