Fredrick Sarathchandra: ‘Bug-Beats’ The Recording Studio for Mosquitoes

The device is insulated, sound proof, monitors and controls its internal environment.

On the creation of Bug Beats Freddy said: “It can be thought of as a mini sound recording studio for mosquitoes. For my project I needed to create a space to measure the sounds of mosquitoes in free-flight.’

‘Initially, I was going to create the ideal conditions for taking sound recordings by modifying an existing lab, but the uncertainty caused by COVID lockdowns made me rethink this idea.”

Freddy was concerned about accessibility to labs due to the pandemic and was trying to find a controlled space to test temperature, humidity and noise levels without being reliant on a particular lab space. Incorporating 9 sensors, 2 servo motors and 2 DC motors, Freddy designed a control system built to create and monitor the conditions required for mosquito flight tone measurements.

Freddy says the invention has ensured should there be future Covid related issues, his research won’t be so disrupted as the device could simply be moved to another location.

“After some preliminary testing with earlier designs (this is prototype Nr 7) it became clear that designing a small device in lieu of modifying the whole lab would be a potential solution for taking the sound measurements. As a result, this device now gives me the near-perfect lab conditions I needed for my sound recordings, but I am no longer fixed to a single location.

‘After testing the 6th prototype, it became clear that preparing a lab for accurate sound measurements may not have been the most future-proof solution as this would leave my test schedule vulnerable to further disruption from COVID. As a result, I re-designed the 6th prototype to the version which took about 4 months to design, construct and test. Interestingly, since this still happened during a period of lockdown this entire build process was done in the garage using the basic tools I had laying around.”