CES 2014: A Bedbug Detector that Looks Interesting but has Detractors (Video)

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This is a slightly puzzling product. To begin with, Christopher Goggin, shown as the inventor of the Electronic Dog Nose (as featured in Popular Science) may not be the actual inventor, at least according to some of the comments attached to that 2011 Popular Science article. Yet other comments on the same article claim that the unit Goggin supposedly ripped off is totally different from his, and doesn't work, while his does. A report (pdf) on bed-bugs.co.uk says the device "...clearly fails to perform to the manufacturers specification and procedures." Goggin's badge at CES showed his company affiliation as Datt Solutions Group, but Datt's website did not mention him as of Jan. 21, 2013, several weeks after CES 2014 closed. A New York Real Estate blog is skeptical, as are others. Goggin also claims to have a laser device that will kill the bedbugs you find. It sounds great. But a person who prefers the tried and true to new products that may or may not work might want to use old-fashioned, all-natural Diatomaceous earth, which kills not only bedbugs but other insect pests, and costs very little compared to most other methods. If that method doesn't work, then it may be time to try dogs, lasers, and other ways to find and kill bedbugs, which have been spotted everywhere from luxury hotels to housing projects, even in taxicabs and movie theaters.

Tim: So Chris, you are holding a device in your hands that you have invented, and it detects certain chemicals. Can you talk about what it detects?

Chris: Yes, this is a molecule detector for two organic compounds and they would be 2-octanol and 2-hexanol. Those are odors that come from certain places. And this product is designed to detect those two specific organic molecules.

Tim: Okay, now those are very specific molecules indeed. Why those twoand we will give this awayand what is it to detect?

Chris: Those two organic odors are the odors that bed bugs give off. They are distinct to bed bugs and not to any other insects. And by detecting those two odors, this product can help find or root out bed bugs that are burrowed into furniture, cracks, and crevices, bedding, warm socks on your nightstand. They are very difficult and time consuming to find. They are an insect like a lot of insects that have evolved over millions of years. So they are very good, very learned at hidingthats what they do best.

Tim: I am a little hesitant to ask but how badly do you need to detect these?

Chris: Well, a bed bug can be from anywhere from a fancy high end hotel to a very low end public housing. So they can be anywhere, they could be on a bus, airplane, movie theater, taxicab. But most of the time bed bugs are the result of just poor housekeeping in one place. And they are very portable insects so their eggs can stick to clothing, shoes, pocket books, wallets without you knowing that and then unknowingly be spread to very far flung places.

Tim: I understand that there are plenty of bed bugs to go around these days.

Chris: Yeah, and they make more every day. So yeah, there are plenty of bed bugs to go around.

Tim: Now since we are at the consumer electronics show, does this have a household and individual consumer targetwho would buy a bed bug detector?

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CES 2014: A Bedbug Detector that Looks Interesting but has Detractors (Video)