A "Smart" Trap Device for Detection of Crawling Insects and Other Arthropods in Urban Environments

We introduce a device for the automatic detecting and reporting of crawling insects in urban environments. It is a monitoring device for urban pests that complies with the context of smart homes and smart cities, and is compatible with the emerging discipline of the Internet of Things (IoT). We believe it can find its place in every room of a hotel, hospital, military camp, and residence. This box-shaped device attracts targeted insect pests, senses the entering insect, and takes automatically a picture of the internal space of the box. The e-trap includes strong attractants (pheromone and/or food) to increase capture efficiency and traps the insect on its sticky floor. The device carries the necessary optoelectronic sensors to monitor all entrances of the trap. As the insect enters it interrupts the infrared light source. This triggers a detection event; a picture is taken, and a time-stamp is set before delivering the picture through the Wi-Fi to an authorized person/stakeholder. The device can be integrated seamlessly in urban environments and operates unobtrusively to human activities. We report results on various insect pests and depending on the insect species, can reach a detection accuracy ranging from 96 to 99%.