Photon Matrix markets $1,000 AI-lidar laser to zap mosquitoes

Chinese startup Photon Matrix is marketing a $1,000 countertop device it calls a Laser Mosquito Air Defense System, a lidar-and-AI rig that scans the room with 100,000 low-intensity pulses per second, then directs a much stronger beam at any mosquito it spots. The New York Times reported that the company, based in Changzhou about 100 miles northwest of Shanghai, has already taken 5,000 prepaid orders and secured a contract manufacturer, with mass production expected to begin within weeks.

The targeting pipeline uses the same lidar technology found in self-driving cars to pinpoint a bug. An AI-enabled camera then decides whether it is safe to fire, looking for people, pets, and surfaces that could send beams bouncing in unpredictable directions. The company says the system can neutralize up to 30 insects per second.

The killing is less clean than the pitch suggests. Founder Wang Chuan told the Times that mosquitoes whose wings have burned off can take hours or even days to die, "lying on the ground and twitching slightly." And the beam itself is hazardous: a laser powerful enough to disable a mosquito can also damage the human eye. The safety case rests entirely on that camera correctly spotting a human before the stronger beam fires.