Intellectual Ventures Lab

TED2010 has long past. The presentation went off without a hitch, and that can be attributed to oodles of preparation.  A dozen people were tapped to ready the Photonic Fence for its first public demo.  There was a ton to do: finalizing the software with a handsome interface, constructing custom casing and mounts for the hardware, breeding hoards of backup mosquitoes, testing, tweaking, testing, tweaking…you get the idea.  With so many scrambling to cross off hundreds of tasks, this easily could have turned into a formidable debacle.

In order to streamline workflow, 3ric Johanson pulled a tool from the extreme programmer‘s handbag. Story cards are a visual way to organize tasks. Each item is placed on its own card and clustered based on topic, delegation, sequence, or whatever is appropriate in the moment. Dependencies between tasks are then shown using green arrows. The approach is flexible as items are easily edited or moved, while providing an always up to date big picture for all involved.

The board was hung in a prominent place in the Lab.  As to-do’s were completed, challenges revealed and priorities shifted, the board underwent constant evolution: a tapestry of note cards fluctuating, receding, diverging, with old worn cards giving way to sprightly, fresh, new ones.   Though more impressive was the team’s ability to stay focused and agile.  Ultimately the demonstration garnered a standing ovation at one of the most popular conferences today.  So the next time you’re facing down a beastly project, give story carding a try and report back with your findings.

If you want to see a video summary of all the prep, check out Getting Ready for TED

We completed a quick proof of concept:   The photonic fence project has been using an expensive lens and large area photodiode in order to detect wing beat frequency.   We knew on paper that this could be replaced cheaply, however, it seemed worth while to do some quick validation.  I ordered some $3 fresnel lenses from Ebay, and replaced our large area photo diode with a much cheaper/smaller part.   Not only did it work , but we had a AMAZING signal to noise ratio on wing beat signal – - due to the large (8.5×11″) area of the fresnel lens.  Total effort of validation:  40 minutes and some tape.   Due to X/Y movement of the retroreflected signal from the laser, we will need one more additional (inexpensive) optical element to keep the signal aligned with the photodiode.

Intellectual Ventures Laboratory has conducted baseline tests of Asian Citrus Psyllid (ACP) on site at the USDA-ARS facility in Weslaco, TX.   The goal of these tests was to validate the optical tracking, wing beat detection, and photonic exposure efficacy of Intellectual Venture’s Photonic Fence Technologies (PFT). Our initial work shows that it may be possible to use PFT for ACP monitoring or control.  Along the way, we shot a bunch of “B-roll” video using our high-speed camera, and one late night it somehow got set to music.  Enjoy!

If you still haven’t flipped through the latest issue of Make Magazine, well here it is.  Not the whole thing, just 3ric Johanson’s critically (do I qualify as a critic?) acclaimed article on the Photonic Fence.  Creating a machine that shoots mosquitoes out of the sky with lasers has been no small task.  3ric gives the low down on everything from the preliminary eye-rolling brainstorms, to the three challenges in mosquito assassination, as well as explanations of the hardware, software and methods he is currently using.  Read the entire article below.

Make 23: Mosquito Blaster

Last weekend we held a smallish release party for Make Magazine Issue 23 at Ada’s Technical Books in Seattle.    The cover features none other than the Photonic Fence project, and contains a lovely write up by 3ric Johanson with support from many folks here at the lab & Make Magazine.

Copies of the issue were passed out in exchange for participation in a single-question survey.   Here are the results:

Just tell us what you like to make.

monkey men, circuit bending, tesla coils, amps, lasers, machines of death and destruction, furniture, low cost audio computers for info access to reduce poverty, sewing projects, gardening projects, foody makery, ceramics, a robot that clears large areas of weeds on a steep inline, alternate histories, redesigned clothing, web apps, movies, self-replicating Reprap 3D printers, news, music, friends, smiles and stuff, backyard crucibles, laser light plane touch surface, drones, free enterprise, modeled computers, 3D objects & 3D objects that make 3D objects, metalwork, sustainable design, sculpture, housing, fashion, electronics, embedded CPU projects, trouble, RC aircraft…then crashing them…then re-making them, ATM prototypes, 3ric, anything original or wicked fun, software, cardboard creatures with electric eyes, simulations of societies, AI stuff, coin-shrinkers, fulgurites, wood carvings, wooden things, books, knives, motorcycles, theramin, machines to learn, soldered pysanky, yarn, block prints, costumes, handicrafts, kinetic LED sculptures for “still” photography, lego robots, Craft Robo paper cut art, electronics for scientific computing, clothes, gadgets, clothes with gadgets, FPGA boards, edible sound, magnetic art, new and infeasible ideas, shiny photos, random thing driven by microcontrollers, making people jump (parkour), skin/skeleton/guts electronics, mobile robots, dangerous toys, cupcakes, new and amazing hacking tools, concrete structures,  projBox kit, video games, companies, making people ride bikes to power the entire Seattle Bicycle Music Festival.

The most popular things people like to make according to this very formal and controlled study are robots and trouble.  Needless to say, Make Magazine caters to a hands-on and creative, though unmistakeably diverse, crowd.  Find the latest issue covering our mosquito laser on newsstands everywhere.

For photos from the event: Read more…

For those of us who were unable to attend the TED conference back in February (my couch cushions just couldn’t quite turn up the $6,000 price of admission), we are in luck!   Today, Nathan Myhrvold’s talk was released for the world to see.  Check out our founder highlighting several of our malaria projects, along with cameo appearances by 3ric Johanson and Pablos Holman.

We’ve been seeing more and more visitors from the media around here. The most recent journalist to peruse the lab was Newsweek’s Dan Lyons, who was looking for the lowdown on our malaria work. Although the Photonic Fence, a.k.a. the mosquito laser system, has gotten most of the press lately due to Nathan Myhrvold’s TED talk, we have several other malaria projects that are starting to turn heads as well.

The meat of the article follows Karima Nigmatulina, Ph.D. and Philip Eckhoff, Ph.D. (pictured above) and their disease modeling software. A few other projects got shout-outs as well. These include malaria detection tools headed by Michael Hegg, Ph.D. and Ben Wilson Ph.D. (pictured below), the artificial mosquito diet of Barcin Acar Ph.D. and Emma Mullen, and of course 3ric Johanson’s Photonic Fence. Even TerraPower managed to sneak in there.

Dan was a machine, bolting from group to group and scrawling endless notes in the process; we watched him fill up three whole pads of paper! The result is “Short-Circuiting Malaria,” which can be found on Newsweek‘s website and will be in print any day now. We appreciate the coverage and are excited that more of our projects are being recognized.

Check out the Newsweek article here.

…well, minus the CD-ROM. The slideshow gives a rundown of the Photonic Fence’s mechanics and envisioned uses. Enjoy…unless you’re on a Flash-hating iPad

Several years ago we had a thought. The discussion that followed looked more or less like this:

If mosquito populations can be effectively controlled, then we could make a huge impact in the fight against malaria.

Okay, so why not just shoot the mosquitoes out of the sky?

That’s absolutely preposterous…let’s do it!

It wasn’t exactly clear how to convince the disease carriers to fall from the air.  However, we were confident that a system could be designed that was far cleaner and more controlled than fumigation and certainly more efficient than old-fashion hand slapping.  Wondering if an unhealthy dose of photons might do the trick, we set out in search of an energy- and cost-effective way to kill a mosquito with light. This was no easy task as it became apparent that these insects, though tiny and seemingly fragile, are very resilient. Research engineer, Tom Nugent walks us through the various dosing experiments that have led us to our current method of mosquito elimination.

You can image that preparing a TED talk is no small task. However, a demonstration as ambitious and technical as shooting mosquitoes with lasers proved to be quite a feat.

Between enhancing and cleaning up the software, assembling and mounting all the components, and just making sure everything looked nice and polished, we had a half dozen people occupied for over a month. During the last minute scrabble, some valuable lessons were learned. First, when the shipping company delivers the wrong crate to TED, effectively losing the world’s only Photonic Fence, it helps not to panic. Also, we now know that hotel water glasses are great places to grow extra mosquitoes when you’re running low.

Getting ready for TED was a lot of work, but nevertheless fun and surreal. We are excited about the enthusiastic response following Nathan’s talk, and can’t wait to share our next big idea with you.