New App Records Sound to Identify Dangerous Mosquitoes
新應用程式記錄聲音來識別危險的蚊子
Scientists have created a new app designed to identify dangerous mosquitoesbased onsounds the insects make.
科學家發明了一款新應用程式，可以根據蚊子發出的聲音來識別危險的蚊子。
The app, called Abuzz,is aimed athelping fight major diseases spread by mosquitoes. The diseases — such as malaria, dengue fever and yellow fever — kill hundreds of thousands of people each year.
這款名為Abuzz的應用程式旨在幫助抗擊蚊子傳播的主要疾病。瘧疾、登革熱和黃熱病等疾病每年奪去數十萬人的生命。
Haripriya Vaidehi Narayanan is one of the researchers who helped develop the app. She began work on the project as a graduate student at Stanford University. She is now with the Department of Immunology at the University of California, Los Angeles.
哈裡普裡亞·瓦迪希·納拉亞南是幫助開發該應用程式的研究人員之一。她在史丹福大學讀研究生時就開始從事這個項目。她現在就職於加州大學洛杉磯分校免疫學系。
Narayanan told VOA that anyone with a mobile phone could use the app to identify mosquitoes. "If they see a mosquito around, they just open the phone, open up the app, point their phone towards the mosquito and hit the record button," she said.
納拉亞南對美國之音表示，任何有手機的人都可以使用這款應用來識別蚊子。她說，「如果人們看到周圍有蚊子，只需打開手機，點開應用程式，將手機朝向蚊子，然後點擊錄製按鈕。」
"Then, when the mosquito flaps its wings and starts flying around, it makes that noise, that annoying buzzing noise. That noise is what gets recorded by the Abuzz app," she added.
她補充道，「之後，當蚊子拍打翅膀開始四處飛來飛去時，它會發出噪音，一種煩人的嗡嗡聲。而Abuzz應用程式記錄下的就是這種噪音。」
Many diseases that mosquitoes carry do not have cures or vaccines. So, targeting the flying insects is the best way to control them. "The most important step is to know where the mosquitoes are," Narayanan said.
蚊子攜帶的許多疾病沒有治癒方法或疫苗。因此，將這種飛蟲作為目標是控制它們的最佳方法。納拉亞南說，「最重要的一步是知道蚊子在哪裡。」
Traditional methods for hunting mosquitos are costly and can take a very long time. The process also requires labor-intensive trapping as well as trained scientists to identify the insects.
傳統的捕蚊方法不僅費錢，還耗時。捕蚊過程還需要耗費體力的誘捕以及訓練有素的科學家來識別昆蟲。
Manu Prakash is a professor of bioengineering at Stanford University and a lead investigator on the project. He says thatout ofabout 3,500 different mosquito species, only about 40 are dangerous to humans.
馬努·普拉卡什是史丹福大學的生物工程教授，也是該項目的首席研究員。他表示，大約3500種不同的蚊子中，只有約40種對人類構成危險。
Prakash says the goal of the project was to find out whether the mosquitoes around a person's house are just an annoyance — or whether they are possibly dangerous. To find out, his team decided to listen.
普拉卡什表示，這個項目的目標是確定住宅周圍的蚊子只是令人厭煩，還是具有危險。為了找出答案，他的團隊決定聆聽。
When mosquitoes move their wings up and down, they produce buzzing sounds. But each kind of mosquito makes a somewhat different buzzing noise. The app records these sounds.
蚊子上下擺動翅膀時，會發出嗡嗡聲。但每種蚊子發出的嗡嗡聲存在不同。應用程式會記錄這些聲音。
Users of the app can get an answer by recording as little as one or two seconds of the buzzing sound. The app compares this recording to a collection of other recordings. It then predicts which species of mosquito it is most likely to be.
這款應用程式的用戶只需錄製一兩秒鐘的嗡嗡聲就可以得到答案。應用程式將錄音與其他錄音集合進行比較。然後預測出該聲音最有可能來自哪種蚊子。
Billions of people around the world can use this tool with their phones. So, the researchers say they will be able to monitor mosquitoes on a much larger basis than in the past.
全世界數十億人可以在手機上使用這個工具。因此，研究人員表示，他們將能夠在比過去更大的基礎上監測蚊子。
By crowdsourcing mosquito information worldwide, the app can help build maps of where dangerous mosquitoes are. This can help scientists and health officials identify areas where disease is likely tobreak outand where to target mosquito control.
通過在全球範圍內眾包蚊子信息，該應用程式可以幫助繪製危險蚊子所在地的地圖。這有助於科學家和衛生官員確定哪裡可能爆發疾病以及在哪裡確定控制蚊蟲的目標。
Prakash said he believes this kind of widespread community effort can be an important step in fighting mosquito-causing diseases.
普拉卡什說，他相信這種廣泛的社區努力可以成為抗擊蚊蟲病的重要一步。
He added that the tool uses machine learning to get better as more people use it. "So, we're very excited that if ... hundreds of thousands of people are recording mosquitoes every day — especially around the world — it will create the kind of community that is needed," Prakash said.
他補充說，隨著越來越多的人使用它，這種使用機器學習的工具會變得更好。普拉卡什表示，「所以，如果每天都有成千上萬的人錄製蚊子，尤其是全世界都參與其中，這將創造出所需要的社區。」
The development team is expected to release the Abuzz app to the public in the coming months.
開發團隊預計將在未來幾個月向公眾發布Abuzz應用程式。
Another group of researchers at the University of Oxford in Britain has been developing a similar app, called Mozzwear. That app is designed to identify malaria mosquitoes by the sound they make.
英國牛津大學的另一組研究人員正在開發一個類似的應用程式，這款應用名為Mozzwear。該應用程式旨在通過蚊子發出的聲音來識別瘧疾蚊子。
I'm Bryan Lynn.
布萊恩·林恩報導。
記得點讚哦