Controlling Dengue Fever Mosquitoes using Intelligent Sensors and Traps

In the last decades, we have witnessed a tremendous increase in dengue fever cases. Four decades ago, only nine countries had reported severe dengue epidemics. Currently, dengue is endemic in more than 100 countries. In this project, we discuss why we are losing the war against dengue and propose a completely different vector control approach. We propose to further develop our recent research on intelligent sensors to field conditions. Our idea is to propose an inexpensive device that will empower the population with the knowledge of Aedes aegypti densities. This will motivate local mosquito control activities and put the community, governmental and aid organizations far ahead of disease outbreaks.

Funding Agency

Google - Google Research Awards for Latin America

USAID - United States Agency for International Development

IVCC - Innovative Vector Control Consortium

Achievements

Data gathering

Data collected

We collected more than one million instances for 20 different insect species including mosquitoes, houseflies, bees, and wasps. For 10 out of 20 insect species, it was possible to collect the data for each individual sex, totaling 30 class labels

Machine learning classifier

A simple experiment with a classifier embedded into the cylindrical chambers. The left chamber contains Aedes aegypti females, the right one Anopheles quadrimaculatus females, and the center chamber females from both species were put in.