Inspiration and DescriptionInspired by the ‘Bug-A-Salt: The Original Salt Gun’, our team initially planned to build a device capable of detecting and scaring birds away from tray-return counters in food centers by firing salt pellets with compressed gas. Targets will be detected based on the confidence level labeled on the detected bird by the object detection algorithm. However, there were some issues with firing small projectiles at birds. The biggest issue of all is animal cruelty since the tiny salt pellets could injure the birds. Other issues were more conceptual. Due to how small and light the salt pellets are, it is incredibly difficult for the pellets to sustain their line of projection when fired as they quickly lose momentum. Not to mention the occasional breezes that blow through the food center.

Looking for a solution to a problem, we researched other legitimate methods to deter birds and realized that laser was a better option. Unlike projectiles, lasers do not deter birds by injuring them but by stimulating a flight response. Furthermore, lasers are much more accurate. Hence, we chose to go with lasers instead. That’s how the idea for our current device was born; A Bird Detering Laser-firing turret!

VisionAt the end of this project, we hope to have a fully functioning turret that uses a Deep Learning algorithm to detect and fire lasers at birds accurately and efficiently so as to chase them away.