The 'ultimate mosquito killer' uses lasers and AI — custom model trained to detect and lock lasers on these pests

Maker and STEM Microcontrollers Robot Kits The 'ultimate mosquito killer' uses lasers and AI — custom model trained to detect and lock lasers on these pests News By Mark Tyson published 31 May 2026 The working prototype took computer vision and robotics enthusiast four months to create. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn an affiliate commission. Here’s how it works . (Image credit: Getty Images) Copy link Facebook X Whatsapp Reddit Pinterest Flipboard Email Share this article 0 Join the conversation Follow us Add us as a preferred source on Google Newsletter Subscribe to our newsletter A computer vision and robotics expert has created and trained what he boasts is “the ultimate mosquito killer.” Steven Cheng shared details of his high-tech bug zapper project on social media. Key innovations here include the use of computer vision and deep learning technologies to detect and lock onto mosquitoes so the laser ‘artillery cannon’ could do its work. Spent 4 months building the ultimate mosquito killer: an artillery cannon guided by computer vision + deep learning.Trained a custom model to detect and lock onto mosquitoes using a DSLR + zoom lens setup.The dataset collection phase was brutal — the mosquitoes definitely… pic.twitter.com/jqfgz0eq9l May 28, 2026 For scanning the environment, Cheng concluded that a DSLR paired with a high-magnification zoom lens was the best option. This was also used in the training stage to build up a large dataset of mosquito images. A side effect of ‘welcoming’ mosquitoes in for photographs at this stage of the project was “countless mosquito bites all over my body,” recalled the intrepid technologist. With the image database built and annotated, Cheng moved on to leveraging deep learning techniques. This task “really put my graphics card through its paces,” he commented. However, the detection performance of the resulting model was &