"It's really 1,000 times better," said Mustapha Debboun, the director of Harris County Public Health's mosquito control division. The prototype trap, part of Microsoft's broader Project Premonition research project, is designed to automatically do things entomologists previously had to do manually or not at all. For example, this new trap, which is being deployed in the Houston area for the first time this month as part of a pilot project, is designed to only collect the type of mosquito an entomologist wants to track, instead of a hodgepodge of mosquitoes, flies, moths and other critters that scientists then need to manually sort through. The trap also can tell researchers what time each mosquito was trapped, as well as what the temperature, wind and humidity was when the mosquito flew in. And it's designed to withstand the rain, wind and other elements that can batter traditional traps and take them out of commission.