In the future, any mosquito that dares to get within a 328-foot range of you could be automatically destroyed in midair, thanks to a high-tech "Photonic Fence" developed by Seattle-based Intellectual Ventures Laboratory.

Intellectual Ventures' Photonic Fence intelligently targets and kills flying pests at a rate of 20 per second, leaving other friendly insects alone.

Intellectual Ventures' Photonic Fence will help farmers target specific pests, if a Department of Agriculture trial goes well.

Intellectual Ventures' fly swatter is able to discriminate between nice and nasty bugs.

While work continues on such malarial control developments as the next generation of bednets, Intellectual Ventures' Photonic Fence team believes progress could be made with a radically different form of protection — a fence that uses cameras and lasers to identify mosquitoes and shoot them down.