Buzz Off

Here’s one of my favourite ideas of the year so far. The University of Malaya has developed a smart outdoor LED light that is powered by wind and solar energy and can function off the grid even when there are power strikes. However the real innovation and how they’ve thought differently about this is that as well as being a hybrid energy light, it is also capable of imitating human scent to attract and trap mosquitos.

The lamp produces UV light that shines on a titanium dioxide surface causing the release of small amounts of Co2, the gas exhaled by humans. Mosquitoes are attracted to humans and other prey by following Co2 trails which in this case leads them to the lamp. As they get closer, the fan motion of the wind turbine sucks the mosquitoes inside a trapped netting. Brilliant. This whole idea came about to combat the rise of Dengue Fever in Malaysia. We love the idea and we hopes that the lure of the human scent given off by the street lamps will prove to be successful.