Everyone got so excited (even this site), about the potential of ending the malaria crisis with such a simple display of anti-mosquito aggression.

Six years later, it seems that mosquitoes are still flying, unmolested by deadly lasers. So what happened to the idea? Did it fly, or enter the trash can of history?

The answer is that the project is doing quite well–but perhaps not in the revolutionary manner that would keep generating the same breathless headlines. But the technology had been licensed out for commercial use (though the company says that it’s now “looking for new investors for the device so it has not been licensed out to date.”) The U.S. Commerce Department invited the company to demonstration in Germany this month. And field trials are set to begin in the third quarter. The “mosquito laser” has legs–even if some still think killing mosquitoes with lasers is a bit overelaborate.

Arty Makagon is the project lead at Intellectual Ventures (IV), Myhrvold’s product development company. He says the fence has killed 10,000 mosquitoes in tests so far, and could be deployed at up to 100 meters across. Linked together, multiple laser fences could potentially protect a large area.

IV originally saw the fence as a malaria solution for the developing world. But it’s now focused on other uses, including hospitality (protecting hotels from bugs) and agriculture. “We’re going to deploy this in the developed world first. So the system is economically viable, and then come back and deploy across the developing world for malaria eradication,” Makagon says.

The system uses a low-energy laser beam and a reflective surface to create a silhouette of insects passing through. Once the machine recognizes a mosquito (or other insect), it alerts a stronger, green laser that zaps the airborne animal for quarter of a second, disabling or killing them.