Taiwan’s National Health Research Institutes unveiled a smart mosquito trap Jan. 4 capable of identifying virus-carrying species within 0.07 seconds, underscoring government efforts to prevent outbreaks of serious infectious diseases like dengue fever.
According to Miaoli County-based NHRI in northern Taiwan, the device takes images of each captured mosquito and employs artificial intelligence and cloud computing technologies to determine whether it is a potential disease vector of dengue, chikungunya or Zika with an accuracy of greater than 90 percent. The real-time geolocation data will be used to flag up potential risk areas for outbreaks.
Researchers have built an image database of mosquito specimens—each one shot 10,800 times and from 720 different angles—the NHRI said, adding it will be refined and updated with photos taken by the equipment.
Scientists can test the blood of the captured insects to determine whether they are carrying any of the viruses. Since each device costs only around NT$3,500 (US$113.60) to NT$4,000, this will be cheaper than the current system of periodically dispatching teams to make manual inspections of mosquito populations, according to NHRI.
Chen Chun-hong, deputy executive secretary of NHRI’s National Mosquito-Borne Diseases Control Research Center, said the system of smart traps is designed to alert the government to potential risk areas before people fall sick so that outbreaks can be prevented.
The device is currently undergoing trials in Miaoli and the southern cities of Tainan and Kaohsiung before it is rolled out in districts and townships that have experienced outbreaks. (CPY-E)
Write to Taiwan Today at ttonline@mofa.gov.tw