It’s amazing what modern technology can do in the right hands, even when it comes to everyday problems most of us struggle to deal with. Case in point, a tech-savvy Reddit user who built an autonomous water gun turret that recognizes pigeons when they approach his balcony and starts shooting jets of water at them.
Pigeons may be adorable when they fight for bread crumbs in busy city squares, or when they fill the skies overhead, but many consider them annoying pests that are extremely tough to get rid of. The protagonist of our story also found himself exasperated by pigeons covering his balcony with droppings, but he decided to take a tech-oriented approach that proved surprisingly effective.
Using an electric, battery-powered water gun, an Orange P 5 mini-computer, a USB camera, an open vocabulary object detection neural network (yolo_world_v2l), 2 servo motors, rezistors and a transistor for turning on the water gun, the hero of our story built an AI-powered water gun turret design to spot and shoot at pigeons.
The system is very straightforward; a USB camera spots the pigeon when it approaches the turret’s perimeter, the neural network spots the pigeon, the servo motors turn the water gun and fire it straight at the intruder, driving the m away.
A short clip demonstrating how well the DIY anti-pigeon turret works went viral on social media, with many users claiming that they would buy it in a heartbeat if it ever became available.
“This is amazing haha! You should make this a real product, I bet it would sell!” one Reddit user commented on the video.
“Brilliant! I’ve been speccing a very similar idea for trying to prevent cats from shi**ing all over my lawn. Care to share any more details?” someone else asked.
The creator didn’t mention any plans of commercializing the AI water gun turret, but if they ever did make it available, there would definitely be a day-one buy for so many people. Plus, you can train the model to recognize animals, or even people, if you’re trying to keep them in check
