IRTA CReSA participates in the creation of a sensor that identifies mosquito-transmitting diseases

The catalan company Irideon has created a device based on a trap that captures the insect, automatically identifies it thanks to an optical sensor and cloud machine learning technology and sends the data in real time to the specialists in prevention. The company has received support from ACCIÓ and the participation of the IRTA-CReSA and the Public Health Agency of Barcelona in the pilot phase. It already offers a reliability of between 80 and 90% and that identifies mosquito species that can transmit diseases such as the tiger mosquito.

One of the traps (source: ACCIÓ)

According to Encarnação, Irideon currently “has identified the most dangerous mosquito species, such as the tiger mosquito, which can transmit diseases, such as the one caused by the Zika virus.” “Our device works as a ‘cloud’ library where all the data identifying these species is collected and we are working to improve it and incorporate more species of mosquitoes present around the world,” he says. This information can be useful to all institutions involved in the prevention and action against epidemics spread by mosquitoes, such as public health protection institutions that produce maps of transmission risk or hospitals, responsible for the treatment of people infected by one of these insects and the application of protocols to prevent their transmission to other citizens.