Nathan Myhrvold and his team's runs Intellectual Ventures (IV), they tackle business, problem solving, and invention head on, and IV have the acumen and expertise to pull it off. IV cross-disciplinary approach affords us the opportunity to work with leading inventors and pioneering companies to find creative solutions.
4 years ago did Intellectual Ventures show some brilliant solutions on how to tackle big problems like malaria.
Malaria – a parasitic disease transmitted by mosquitoes, kills nearly 1 million people each year. Bed nets and insecticides have helped keep the disease in check in many parts of the world, but more tools are needed to limit contact between humans and mosquitoes. Intellectual Ventures’ photonic fence invention adds a new layer of protection by coupling low-cost camera and laser technology with software.
The device creates a virtual fence that detects insects as they cross its plane. Once detected, the photonic fence uses the insect’s wing beat to determine if it’s a mosquito, identify if that mosquito is female (only females bite humans), and then shoot the mosquito out of the sky with a laser.