[aenis]

Did something similar. My wife was upset about the flying rats defecating on her flower pots on the terrace. Those birds are stationary (generally) and slow so I managed to iterate a solution that (a) used a 3w green laser mounted on a webcam with servos and (b) later used a static laser with a mirror that was mounted on a set of servos. I used a stationary 4k webcam. I mapped the whole terrace so I didn't need to use stereoscopic vision. When a bird was detected (i sampled images at 1fps and built a custom model for pigeons, it was generally ok at avoiding other birds, but not perfect), i'd triagulate its position and light it up for 100ms. I used a similar contraption as the OP to cut the power. The pigeons would react by flying away, even when hit from behind or underneath. I used a series of experiments before settling on 3w. 1w was not enough.

It solved the problem for good. Its not a perfect solution, obviously: i had to implement a master override which stopped it when terrace doors were open, also it only fired at horizon or below since I didnt want to accidentally light up a plane (there is an airport 5km from where I live). We dont have kids, and rarelh entertain guests, so I didnt need to implement additional safety Measures. Lastly, it was running on a pretty beefy pc and was consuming around 60w constantly.

We fixed the problem for good by moving out. If i had to do it again, I'd try with water pistols, way safer than laser.

[MaxikCZ]

3w laser sounds terrifying in itself. Firing it autonomously even more so. Have you made some calculation of how long would direct eye-hit need to last to cause blindness, and how long for a bounced light from bright diffuse object? My guess would be way less than 100ms for direct hit, but I am not sure even diffused reflection would be safe at such power levels.

[aenis]

Nope, I assumed any exposure to the light would cause blindness. The way it operated was it would stop if anyone was at the terrace (as indicated by the door lock being in a closed position, something one could do only from the inside). But yeah, it was a product of frustration, not rational thinking. I'd certainly consider it stupid if someone else described it to me now.

[ww520]

That’s an awesome setup. Curious how do you triangulate using the video from a camera.

[dsr_]

If you aren't moving your position and you have a topographic map of your territory, and you have a line-of-sight weapon that doesn't need wind or range adjustments... then you don't really need to know where your target is in 3 coordinates, you only need 2.

I would expect that ambient lighting changes are harder to compensate for when selecting targets.

It is, however, terribly irresponsible to do this, since temporary reflectors like water puddles or a misplaced water glass can be inadvertently weaponized.

For small areas, an overhead water sprinkler would be much, much safer and not need aiming at all.

[aenis]

Yeah, I agree - this was an unsafe system. We lived in a secluded space, and that surely helped prevent accidents, but i'd not set it up like this again even if I lived alone.

As others suggested, a water cannon would be safer (not entirely sure about a sprinkler - in my experience with pidgeons they do seem able to get used to all but most unpleasant defences). Also, an auto-firing high pressure, precise water cannon would be a cool side project :->

[aenis]

That was done on the cheap; there is a finite number of spots the pidgeons used to occupy. Pigeons also have a relatively fixed height when stationary. The camera was in a fixed position. I mapped the area the camera was observing manually: railing, base of the terrace, etc. I was contemplating using two cameras but the cheap setup worked nearly flawlessly when it comes to triangulation.

[mateo1]

You better not be anywhere near a residential neighborhood. Posts like this remind of of the annoying necessity of regulating what can be sold to retail consumers.