Boffins hunt and kill cockroaches with machine vision laser Researchers gave a laser beam machine vision and trained it to hunt cockroaches. The rationale is that pesticides are bad for the environment – at least that was the excuse they gave in the abstract. Ildar Rakhmatulin, Mathieu Lihoreau and Jose Pueyo of Heriot-Watt University, University Paul Sabatier and the University of …
"Let's start with something lower powered that maybe only lightly scars the owner's retinas"
I know of a much more effective and environmentally friendly approach. Far, far cheaper, too. And doesn't require electricity. Non-toxic to humans and other animals (keep it away from your bees, pet tranatula, friendly neighborhood scorpions, and ant farm).
Simply dust the affected area with DE.
About $20/10lbs at your local farm store.
"What sort of neighbourhood do you live in?"
For scorpions? Pretty much anywhere South of the Northern version of the 50th Parallel, with the exception of the Great Lakes & North Eastern US, and New Zealand. Why? Where do you live?
Typical humans tormenting my bretheren merely to make money.
One day humanity will pay for this along with turning my fellow cockroaches into cyborgs (as detailed on el-reg a few weeks back)
We will rise and then you wont be laughing as we take over your petty little world.
<sends his top research team off to design mirrors and head mounted lasers..........
Not dinner, rather a snack. Crickets, anyway ... the dried ones taste & crunch almost exactly like popcorn with a hint of dried shrimp[0]. I toss 'em with a little salt and some chili powder[1], and sometimes throw in a little lime zest. Tasty, cheap, and nutritious. What's not to like? You can easily find them online as "Chapulines", if you have the mind to do so.
Yes, they go well with beer.
I've never tried cockroaches, nor is it high on my list of things to do. Somehow I suspect that laser braising isn't going to change this anytime soon.
[0] The ones a friend sends me from Mexico, anyway.
[1] Often jalapino, but sometimes I'll go hotter. Depends on who I'm sharing with.
I was part of a team which set up almost exactly this system circa 2018 - except we just tracked Fruit Flies in a container with a very low powered laser and so didn't exterminate our test subjects. Demonstration for military - so no more details, but it's good that academia has finally caught up!
Upping the power could be quite effective.
I run a 100w laser cutter for various projects and over this summer we had quite a few wasps coming in & out of the building.
I can confirm that at 50% power a wasp flying through the unfocused beam loses the majority of it's wing surface (and ends up walking)
at 75% power a wasp flying through the beam ends up as several parts of wasp and a puff of smoke
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