Smart TVs are capable of tracking user data, including viewing habits and app usage, which can lead to personalized advertising and content recommendations. Users may prefer to limit this tracking to protect their privacy.
In the past, roof inspections mostly focused on what could be seen from the outside. Contractors looked for broken shingles, worn flashing, or areas where water might enter the roof. The problem is that roof damage does not always show clear signs right away. Water can move through roofing layers before it becomes visible inside the home.
Most water filter pitchers are made of BPA-free plastic. But as new research shows that bottled-water drinkers ingest tens of thousands of excess microplastic particles, wellness lovers have begun to look askance at water filters that are themselves made of plastic.
Openreach says the appeal of the project is its simplicity and scale: it uses fibre already in the ground, applies machine learning to "listen" for leaks in nearby pipes, and pinpoints issues to within a few metres. The pilot sees utility provider Affinity Water and UK technology company Lightsonic use Distributed Acoustic Sensing to convert Openreach's fibre optic cables into thousands of sensors that can "hear" and pinpoint leaks from surrounding water pipes.
Long-range radio waves can pass through obstacles more easily, which makes them perfect for monitoring expansive factories or outdoor infrastructure. A recent report by Fabrity highlighted that these systems use very little power. This allows sensors to operate for 5 to 10 years on a single battery. Using such tech means you do not have to install expensive wiring across your entire site.
Since the start of 2025, at least 30 cities have canceled their contracts with Flock Safety, the AI surveillance company whose CEO wants to end all crime within the decade by blanketing the country in ever-watchful security cameras. That startling figure comes courtesy of NPR, which reports that concerned activists are putting mounting pressure on cities to cut ties with the company. "We are seeing a lot more momentum," Will Freeman, a Colorado-based organizer who runs the website DeFlock.org, told the broadcaster.
Water meter transmitters are small devices that automatically send accurate water usage data to the city. But when their batteries die, the data flow stops. Once projected to have a 20-year lifespan, the city has said the batteries are dying faster than expected. The city has moved residents with failed units to "estimated billing," which means paying for estimated water use based on their past consumption.
When people breathe, speak, sing or clear their throats, their bodies are in constant motion. Air flowing through the lungs, the oscillation of vocal folds in the throat and the rhythmic expansion of the chest all produce tiny vibrations that carry valuable information about physiology and health. However, constructing a device that can capture all of these physiological signals has remained a challenge.
All of the appliances and systems are brand-new: the HVAC, the lighting, the entertainment. Touch screens of various shapes and sizes control this, that, and the other. Rows of programmable buttons sit where traditional light switches would normally be. The kitchen even has outlets designed to rise up from the countertop when you need them, and slide away when you don't.
In fact, Stawicki was on a mission to save the lives of around 1,000 zebrafish ( Danio rerio) in her laboratory. Similarities between lines of hair cells on the fish's flanks and those in the mammalian inner ear enable her to use them as a model to study hearing problems in humans caused by some antibiotics and chemotherapy drugs. A sensor had picked up that the lab's heating system had been knocked out by a power fault.
As water-intensive data centres expand worldwide, their impact on sanitation, inequality and disease is emerging as a serious and under-examined threat. Bubble is probably the word most associated with AI right now, though we are slowly understanding that it is not just an economic time bomb; it also carries significant public health risks. Beyond the release of pollutants, the massive need for clean water by AI data centres can reduce sanitation and exacerbate gastrointestinal illness in nearby communities, placing additional strain on local health infrastructure.