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Idea

A device for safely capturing snakes in one's home

Image credit: Photo by Ajayvir Pal from Pexels

Contrived _voice

Contrived _voice Jan 14, 2022

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Concept
A small device that identifies snakes and RF tags them for finding them later for capture.
Why
The worst thing about having a snake in your home, Is the inability to find it without putting your life in danger. Sticking your hand into the ceiling and other crevises raises the odds of you getting bitten but at least you know where it is. The longer you leave it in there, however, the further it hides making it even more dangerous if it finds its way into wardrobes or kitchen cabinets.
A report by the World Health Organization reports 81000 to 138000 deaths per year from snakes with 5.4 million bites and 2.7 million envenomings. Children and workers are especially vulnerable.
How it works.
Snakes are ectotherms, thus whenever they decide to hide somewhere their body temprature drops. The solution is a combination of a thermosensitive and motion sensitive camera.The two are connected with a chipset with one program directive. If it's small and moves but has a lower temprature than 30 to 40 degrees celcius the trap activates. 
The trap fires an RF module that attatches to the snake's body. It limits its movement by weight and the tracking begins. Now you don't have to go looking for the snake, You know where it is. You can just wait for the experts to come get it. Plus you limit property damage incurred searching for it.
The attatchment to the snake is still unsolved, Any ideas on how it can be attatched to the snake without harming it?

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General comments

jnikola

jnikola2 years ago

Does it mean you need to have sensors all over your home just to track down snakes? Maybe a service could do that by supplying you with sensors and putting them in strategic places. If many sensors are out there, and two of them recognize the snake's movement, they would send a signal in the snake's direction. The snake could be located by looking for a spot where these signals overlap. If more sensors detect a snake, it would be even more precise. That's one way how it could work, without harming the snake. But here you have two problems 1) sensors not being there all the time and thus, no continuous snake detection system and 2) technology behind snake movement detection could be tricky to design.

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Contrived _voice

Contrived _voice2 years ago

J. Nikola I thought of a solution for that one. Statistics. Snakes have preferred means of entry. Pit vipers like holes in the building or just the front door if you leave it open, A mamba will prefer gaps in the roof if there are trees nearby. The hiding places however will be the same. Don't catch them as they enter, Catch them once they've hidden. The sensor problem could be remedied if you could find a way to put the RF tag on the snake. I recently took one apart, the tags are pretty small, thumb size. Once the tags are on herding it to where you want it should be easy.

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Povilas S

Povilas S2 years ago

Contrived _voice What holes in the walls/roof do you have in mind? Any unnecessary holes can be simply fixed, those used for ventilation can be covered with nets to let the air but not something else through. This is better and cheaper than putting sensors near them. Open doors and windows is another issue, people sometimes simply forget to close those or leave them open to ventilate the house. When it comes to windows, placing nets similar to those used for protection from insects could work, but this can't work for doors so the only way is to remember closing them each time you enter/exit the house.
To be sure not to overlook any snakes, sensors would have to be placed in each room (not only at potential entrance points) and the same goes for the system shooting RF tags - it would have to be precise enough not to miss the snake and you'd need an RF shooting "gun" in each separate room, mounted on the wall or at a similar, strategically convenient position. A robot I'm proposing in this idea would be a better, although technologically more complicated solution.

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Contrived _voice

Contrived _voice2 years ago

Povilas S In some areas houses built of stone have small gaps where the stone meets the roof, Finding those gaps is hard. Burrowing frogs too make holes into the house if you give them enough time. I like the robot Idea and it could work, but wouldn't a snake hunting robot be expensive?

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Povilas S

Povilas S2 years ago

Contrived _voiceI see about the holes. Yes, such a robot would most likely be expensive. I think the economy of this might work in places where dangerous wild animals entering homes is a common problem (e.g. Australia), such robot there might be worth the investment. Later, the technology could be improved to include more animal species and the cost would drop. It's always the most expensive in the beginning.

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