Patent Application
20130047497
Not applicable.
Not applicable.
Embodiments of the inventive subject matter generally relate to field of controlling insects. More specifically, embodiments of the inventive subject matter generally relate to device for releasing a larvacide into a water system.
Typically people control insects such as mosquitoes by spraying insect repellant on their body. This may prevent the insects from coming near the person, but it leaves a film on the person. The chemicals in the insect repellant may be harmful to the person if the person uses them long term. Therefore there is a need to prevent the insects from attacking the person without the need for a spray on insect repellant.
A system and method for controlling the breeding of insects is provided. The system may have a larvacide release device. The larvacide release device may have a housing, a reservoir, and an actuator. The reservoir may be configured to contain a larvacide for impairing the ability of mosquitoes to breed. The actuator may be configured to release the larvacide from the reservoir and into a water system.
As used herein the terms “larva” or “larvae” may be used interchangeably and are to be understood to be interchangeable.
The present embodiments may be better understood, and numerous objects, features, and advantages made apparent to those skilled in the art by referencing the accompanying drawings.
The description that follows includes exemplary apparatus, methods, techniques, and instruction sequences that embody techniques of the present inventive subject matter. However, it is understood that the described embodiments may be practiced without these specific details.
Embodiments may take the form of a mechanical system, an entirely hardware embodiment, an entirely software embodiment (including firmware, resident software, micro-code, etc.) or an embodiment combining mechanical, software and hardware aspects that may all generally be referred to herein as a “circuit,” “module” or “system.” Furthermore, embodiments of the inventive subject matter may take the form of a computer program product embodied in any tangible medium of expression having computer usable program code embodied in the medium. The described embodiments may be provided as a computer program product, or software, that may include a machine-readable medium having stored thereon instructions, which may be used to program a computer system (or other electronic device(s)) to perform a process according to embodiments, whether presently described or not, since every conceivable variation is not enumerated herein. A machine readable medium includes any mechanism for storing or transmitting information in a form (e.g., software, processing application) readable by a machine (e.g., a computer). The machine-readable medium may include, but is not limited to, magnetic storage medium (e.g., floppy diskette); optical storage medium (e.g., CD-ROM); magneto-optical storage medium; read only memory (ROM); random access memory (RAM); erasable programmable memory (e.g., EPROM and EEPROM); flash memory; or other types of medium suitable for storing electronic instructions. In addition, embodiments may be embodied in an electrical, optical, acoustical or other form of propagated signal (e.g., carrier waves, infrared signals, digital signals, etc.), or wire line, wireless, or other communications medium.
Computer program code for carrying out operations of the embodiments may be written in any combination of one or more programming languages, including an object oriented programming language such as Java, Smalltalk, C++ or the like and conventional procedural programming languages, such as the “C” programming language or similar programming languages. The program code may execute entirely on a user's computer, partly on the user's computer, as a stand-alone software package, partly on the user's computer and partly on a remote computer or entirely on the remote computer or server. In the latter scenario, the remote computer may be connected to the user's computer through any type of network, including a local area network (LAN), a personal area network (PAN), or a wide area network (WAN), or the connection may be made to an external computer (for example, through the Internet using an Internet Service Provider).
The water system 102 as shown in
The building 104 as shown is a house proximate the water system 102. Although the building 104 is shown as a house it should be appreciated that the building 104 may be any suitable location where humans go and want to control the amount of mosquitoes in the area including, but not limited to, an office, a retail shop, a mall, a school, a church, a park, a restaurant, a bar, an amusement park, an arena, and the like. The building 104 may have one or more computers 118b that may communicate with the larva control units 112. As shown, the computer 118b may wholly or partially contain the larva control unit 112. The computer 118b may be any suitable computer including, but not limited to, a desktop computer, a laptop, a tablet, a phone, a personal digital assistant, a controller and the like. The building computer 118b may allow the owner of the building to monitor, control, and/or manipulate the larvacide release device 106 as will be discussed in more detail below.
The building 104 may have one or more sensors 108a for detecting current conditions proximate the building 104. The sensor 108a may communicate with the larva control units 112 via the communication lines 120. The sensors 108a may include but are not limited to a thermometer, a bug detection device, a barometer, and the like. The bug detection device may monitor the density of the bugs, for example mosquitoes proximate the building 104.
The operator's facility 114 may be any building or facility where the company selling and/or maintaining the insect control system 100 has their business. As shown, the operator's facility 114 is an office building, but it may be any suitable facility. The operator's facility 114 may have one or more computers 118a. The computers 118a may wholly or partially contain the larva control unit 112. The computers may be any suitable computer including those described herein. The facility computers 118a may allow the operator to monitor, control, and/or manipulate the larvacide release device 106 and/or any portion of the insect control system 100 as will be discussed in more detail below.
The operator's maintenance vehicle 116 may be a maintenance vehicle that allows one or more workers to drive to the water system 102 and install and/or maintain the larvacide release device 106. The operator's maintenance vehicle 116 may be any suitable vehicle including, but not limited to, a truck, a car, a van, a bus, and the like. The operator's maintenance vehicle 116 may have one or more computers 118c. The computers 118c may wholly or partially contain the larva control unit 112. The computers 118c may be any suitable computer including those described herein. The vehicle computers 118c may allow the worker to monitor, control, and/or manipulate the larvacide release device 106 and/or any portion of the insect control system 100 as will be discussed in more detail below.
The larva control unit 112 maybe located wholly and/or partially in the larvacide release device 106, the communication network 110, the computer 118a at the operator's facility 114, the computer 118b in the building 104 and/or the computer 118c in the operator's maintenance vehicle 116. The larva control unit 112 may communicate with the network 110 to facilitate communication about the insect control system 100. The network 110 may be a computer network, a phone network, a satellite system, a cellular phone system, a Wi-Fi network, a wireless sensor network, a cable service network, a local area network (LAN), a personal area network (PAN), or a wide area network (WAN), or the connection may be made to an external computer (for example, through the Internet using an Internet Service Provider), the cloud, and the like. The larva control unit 112 may communicate with the network 110 via one or more communication links 120. The communication links 120 may be any suitable means for transmitting data, or power such as cables, wireless communication devices, electrical, optical, acoustical or other form of propagated signal (e.g., carrier waves, infrared signals, digital signals, etc.), or wireless, or other communications medium, and the like. The network 110 may allow the operator's facility 114 to access the larva control unit 112 and communicate with the entire insect control system 100 as will be discussed in more detail below.
The larvacide may be any type of chemical configured to kill, mutate, and/or impair the larvae of insects. Larvacide may be specifically designed to target the larval stage of an insect, such as a mosquito. Larvacides may be contact poisons, stomach poisons, growth regulators, biological control agents, and the like.
For example, the larvacide may eliminate the larvae or it may mutate the larvae's reproduction capabilities. By way of example, some acceptable larvacides may be, but are not limited to NYGUARD IGR CONCENTRATE, methoprene, Bacillus thuringiensis israelensis (BTI), Temephos, ALTOSID, APEX, DIACON, DIANEX, KABAT, MINEX, PHARORID, PRECOR, ZR-515 and the like. The larvacide may come in the form of granular pellets that dissolve in the water of the water system 102 upon release. In another embodiment, the larvacide may be a liquid or gel that is sprayed into the water system. In another embodiment, the larvacide may come in the form of bricks and/or charcoal sized forms. The insects are typically mosquitoes, but it should be appreciated that the insects may be any suitable insect including, but not limited to flies, gnats, fleas and the like.
The larvacides may be released into water from the water system 102, and/or be placed in the water system 102 while the water system is dry. If the water system 102 is dry, the larvacide may remain inactivated until water is present in the system. Upon the presence of water, the larvacide may begin to dissolve and thereby impact the larvae of the mosquitoes.
The actuator 204 may release the larvacide into the water system 102 at the given interval. As shown the actuator opens a door 211 in the port 208. The door 211 as shown is a hinged door that the actuator 204 moves toward an open position. The hinged door may be biased toward the closed position. The actuator 204 may be any suitable actuator including, but not limited to, a servo, a piston, a motor with one or more gears, and the like. When the door 211 is in the open position, as shown in
The port 208 as shown is a tube within the housing 200 below the reservoir 202. The port 208 may provide a pathway for the larvacide 203 to travel through toward the water system 102. Although the port 208 is shown as a pathway, it should be appreciated that any suitable port may be used including but not limited to, no port, a conveyor, a ramp and the like.
The larvacide release device 106 may have the whole or portion of larva control unit 112. The larva control unit 112 may control the actuator 204 in an embodiment. In an embodiment, the larva control unit 112 is simply a timer that actuates the actuator 204 and predetermined time intervals. In this embodiment, the operator or operator's worker would set the time intervals in the larva control unit 112. The actuator 204 would then release the larvacide at the given time intervals into the water system 102. In another embodiment, the larva control unit 112 may monitor, manipulate, and control the insect control system 100 in a fully automated manner as will be discussed in more detail below.
The larvacide release device 106 may include one or more sensors 108 or 108b-g. As shown the larvacide release device 106 has a reservoir level sensor 108b, an external condition sensor 108c, a larvacide release sensor 108d, and a water sensor 108e. All of the sensors 108a-g (note there may be additional sensors not shown beyond 108a-g) may be in communication with the larva control unit 112. The reservoir level sensor 108b may measure the level of the larvacide 203 in the reservoir 202. The external condition sensor 108c may measure the external conditions around the larvacide release device 106 including, but not limited to, the temperature, the humidity, presence of water, bug density and the like. The larvacide release sensor 108d may measure the amount of larvacide that is being released into the water system 102. The water sensor 108e may sense the condition of the water in the water system 102. For example, the water sensor 108e may detect the presence of water, the depth of water, the water temperature, the amount of larvacide in the water, and the like. The sensors 108a-g may be used to control and optimize the insect control system 100 as will be discussed in more detail below.
As shown in
In another embodiment, the larvacide may be the brick and/or charcoal sized larvacide. The larvacide release device may launch the larvacide into large bodies of water in order to impact the growth of the mosquito larvae in the large body of water. The launcher may be any suitable launcher including a catapult, a slingshot, a baseball type launcher and the like. The launcher may allow the larvacide to reach the inner portion of the water source from the shore. In another embodiment, the brick and/or charcoal sized larvacide may be simply dropped using the larvacide release device 106 in the water source 102 in order to dissolve slowly over time.
The data collection unit 402 may collect data from the sensors 108a-g, user input, and/or the computers 118a-c. The data collection unit 402 may store, manipulate, and categorize all of the data collected by the insect control system 100. For example, the sensors 108a-g may collect the temperature at the building 104, the temperature in the water system 102, the level of larvacide 203 in the reservoir 202, the position of the actuator, the concentration of larvacide 203 in the water system 102, the insect density at the building 104, and the like. Further, the operator, the worker and/or a person in the building 104 may input data into the computers 118a-c that will be collected by the data collection unit 402. The computer input may include, but is not limited to, type of larvacide used, time and/or date larvacide filled, user input on bug density, user input regarding number of people at building 104, when maintenance was performed, and the like. The data collection unit 402 will store this data for access by other units as will be discussed in more detail below.
The data analysis unit 404 may access the data stored in the data collection unit 402 in order to determine how the insect control system 100 is operating. From the data collected, the data analysis unit 404 may determine if the larvacide level is too low, if the actuator is operating properly, if the temperature of the water system 102 is too low for breeding mosquitoes, if the temperature is right for breeding mosquitoes, if there is water in the water system 102, if there are mosquitoes proximate the building 104, if the concentration of larvacide in the water is sufficient to control mosquitoes, and the like.
The actuation unit 406 may access data from the data collection unit 402 and/or the data analysis unit 404 to determine when the larvacide 203 will be released. When the actuation unit 406 determines that the larvacide 203 is to be released into the water system 102, the actuation unit 406 may instruct the actuator 204 (as shown in
In an additional embodiment, the actuation unit 406 may determine when to actuate the actuator 204 and/or the pump system 214 based on the environmental data in the insect control system 100. For example, the actuation unit 406 may receive data regarding the water presence and/or temperature in the water system 102. The actuation unit 406 may then only release the larvacide 203 when there is water present and the temperature is suitable for mosquito breeding.
In an additional embodiment, the actuation unit 406 may release more or less larvacide based on the density of the mosquito population at the building 104. The mosquito density may be determined by user input at one of the computers 118a-c, or by one of the sensors 108a-g at the building 104. If there are many mosquitoes at the building 104, the actuation unit 406 may increase the frequency and/or amount of larvicide 203 releases. If there is a low population of mosquitoes at the building 104, the actuation unit 406 decreases and/or stops the frequency and/or amount of larvacide 203 released into the water system 102.
The actuation unit 406 may use any suitable criteria including any combination of those described herein for determining the time interval and the amount of larvacide 203 to release into the water system 102.
The notification unit 408 may access data from the data collection unit 402, the data analysis unit 404, and/or the actuation unit 406 to determine when to notify the operator, the worker, and/or a building user when action is required. For example, the notification unit 408 may receive data indicating that the larvacide 203 is running low. The notification unit 408 may then notify the operator, worker and/or end user that the larvacide 203 needs to be replenished. The notification unit 408 may send information regarding the amount of larvacide 203 left and how long before the larvacide 203 will run out based on usage. The notification unit 408 may further notify when the insect control system 100 needs maintenance. For example the notification unit 408 may receive data the one or more of the components of the insect control system 100 is not operating properly. The notification unit 408 may then send a notification regarding which component is not operating properly to the operator, the worker and/or the building user. Proper action may then be taken in order to maintain the insect control system 100 operating. The maintenance notification may regard any suitable system including, but not limited to, the actuator 204, the pump system 214, the sensors 108a-g, the computers 118a-c, and the like. Once the notification is received action may be taken by the operator, the worker and/or the building user.
While the embodiments are described with reference to various implementations and exploitations, it will be understood that these embodiments are illustrative and that the scope of the inventive subject matter is not limited to them. Many variations, modifications, additions, and improvements are possible. For example, the techniques used herein may be applied to several types of insects including, but not limited to, fleas, gnats, flies, and the like.
Plural instances may be provided for components, operations or structures described herein as a single instance. In general, structures and functionality presented as separate components in the exemplary configurations may be implemented as a combined structure or component. Similarly, structures and functionality presented as a single component may be implemented as separate components. These and other variations, modifications, additions, and improvements may fall within the scope of the inventive subject matter.
This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 61/528,510 filed Aug. 29, 2011. This related application is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.
| Number | Date | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 61528510 | Aug 2011 | US |
