Tag Archives: Simplify

Forget the gimmicks: 5 essential smart home devices that truly simplify your life | Shopping Guide

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Over the years, I’ve evaluated countless smart devices, yet the few that have found a permanent spot in my home were not my initial selections. They often provide convoluted solutions for issues that barely existed initially. Ensure you’re not just acquiring a novelty that will end up in storage shortly after purchase.

While numerous smart home gadgets may not be the best investment, some can significantly enhance your home. From robot vacuums and smart bulbs to smart locks and video doorbells, I’ll spotlight five smart home devices that have genuinely simplified my life.

Smart Home Devices Overview

All prices are accurate as of publication.

Roborock Saros 10 Robot Vacuum Cleaner

$1,599.99 from Robo Rock
$1,599.99 on Amazon

Photo: John Bitner

The Roborock Saros 10 takes care of all your floor cleaning needs. It’s not merely a vacuum and mop; it empties its own dust bin and cleans its mop, allowing for weeks of hassle-free operation. With a tangle-free brush, vibrating warm water mop, and unmatched suction power, your floors will be sparkling clean.

Setting it up goes beyond just plugging it in and connecting it to your phone. Initially, you’ll take it around your home to map the floor plan, and when it transitions onto carpet, you can keep the mopping pad docked or store it automatically.

The only manual tasks required are filling the clean water tank, emptying the dirty water tank, and replacing the large dock dust bin when necessary. Depending on your home’s size and dirtiness, you’ll typically need to address the aquarium weekly, while the dust bin can go months before needing a change.

Though it’s the priciest item on this list, for those with a busy lifestyle, it’s worth every cent.

Smart Color Light Bulbs

Home Depot $26.26
$26.26 on Amazon

Photo: John Bitner

Smart bulbs are a cost-effective (and fun) introduction to the world of automation. Wyze bulbs stand out due to their competitive pricing, dependable performance, and extensive color options.

They simulate a sunrise effect every morning, gently illuminating your space until it’s bright enough to wake you.

At night, you can turn off the lights via your phone—no need to navigate a dark bedroom or step on a wayward dog toy. I even use Wyze bulbs in my home theater to create the perfect ambiance for movie nights, whether cozy or creepy.

Yale Assure Smart Lock

$203 at Home Depot
$239 on Amazon

Photo: John Bitner

You may perceive smart locks as just a fad, but my experience over the years has turned me into a loyal enthusiast. The Yale Assure Lock 2 allows me to enter without a physical key. Simply enter a passcode on the keypad when stepping out for a jog. You can also generate temporary codes for guests that expire after their visit (just remember to keep the main code private).

If you ever forget whether you’ve locked the door, you can quickly check your phone for the door’s status. The app not only shows whether the door is open or closed, but it also indicates its lock status. There’s also a door history feature, letting you see when the door is locked or unlocked.

Various models of the Yale Assure Lock 2 are available (including key-free options and those compatible with Apple Wallet), making it straightforward to find one that fits your lifestyle. If remote access is essential, make sure to choose one with WiFi.

Ring Video Doorbell

$49.99 at Ring
$49.99 at Home Depot

Photo: John Bitner

It seems like everyone in the neighborhood has a Ring Video Doorbell— and with good reason. They offer utilities that you might not realize until you own one. Do you need to monitor package deliveries when away? Want to communicate with your pets while you’re out? Looking to capture amusing videos for social media? The Ring doorbell is versatile.

I personally have an older model (the Wired Doorbell Plus) that has treated me well for four years, and the newest models, like the Wired Doorbell Pro, appear even better. All of them provide motion alerts to your smartphone whenever movement is detected, notifying you of doorbell rings and allowing you to converse with guests via two-way audio without opening the door.

If you have existing doorbell wiring, the entry-level Video Doorbell Wired meets most needs; Battery Doorbell Pro and Wired Doorbell Pro offer additional wireless convenience and enhanced video quality.

If you’re hesitant about subscribing for video storage, consider Eufy C210, which stores video locally, eliminating subscription requirements.

Be cautious of becoming overly reliant on the video doorbell’s features.

Aera Smart Diffuser

$199 at Aera
$199 on Amazon

Photo: John Bitner

The Aera Smart Diffuser addresses a common issue: unpleasant odors. If you live in a compact area like I do, with the kitchen, gym, bathroom, and main living area all close together, it becomes essential.

Unlike candles that require constant oversight and often compromise air quality, the Aera operates discreetly and hypo-allergenically. After inserting a fragrance capsule, you can set a schedule for the diffuser, ensuring a delightful scent permeates your home throughout the day. It can also be controlled remotely so that when you come home from travel, a pleasing aroma welcomes you.

While the initial investment is steep (the diffuser retails for $199), the $60 fragrance capsules tend to last around three months, making it more economical than continually purchasing premium candles. This makes it one of my favorite smart home devices, solving a frustrating problem with minimal maintenance.

  • Jon Bitner is a writer covering travel, outdoor activities, and technology for publications like GameSpot, Digital Trends, and Islands. An avid hiker, he relishes exploring the Rocky Mountains from his home in Boulder, Colorado.

Source: www.theguardian.com

Math Tricks to Simplify Counting

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“It’s hard to count moving objects.”

Connect Images – Curation/Shutterstock

Whether it’s military tanks, roaming wildlife, or busy cutlery in a restaurant, counting moving objects can be quite challenging. Thankfully, there exists a method that enables you to estimate the total number of items without having to count every single one.

The capture-recapture technique works by sampling. For instance, you allow some animals to roam, then collect a subset. After marking the individuals, they are returned to the population. Later, you can capture another group and count how many of them are marked.

If your first capture involves 50 marked animals, and you find that half of the second group are marked, you can deduce that approximately half of the total population is marked. Therefore, the entire population can be estimated to be around 100.

During World War II, Allied statisticians aimed to estimate the number of tanks manufactured by the German forces. Instead of releasing captured tanks, they labeled tank components with serial numbers. By recording the serial numbers of both captured and destroyed tanks, they could estimate total production under the assumption of uniform distribution. If the highest serial number recorded is l and n is the number of captured tanks, then the total tank count can be estimated as l + L/n.

For example, if the maximum serial number logged is 80, you might estimate the full range to be around 80/4 = 20, resulting in an overall estimate of about 100 tanks. This problem is commonly referred to as the German tank problem in statistics.

One of my favorite stories about estimating populations comes from a friend’s teacher. The class was tasked with estimating the number of forks in the cafeteria.

The students “captured” several forks, marking each with a spot of nail polish before releasing them back. A week later, they recaptured a sample and used it to estimate the total fork count.

Researcher executed a similar study 20 years ago. Concerned about missing teaspoons in their lab, they marked and released a number of spoons, tracked their movements, and published their findings. The outcome proved effective, prompting the notorious return of five misplaced teaspoons by the culprit in the building.

Katie Steckles is a mathematician, educator, YouTuber, and author based in Manchester, UK. She also serves as an advisor to Brent Wister, a puzzle column for New Scientist. Follow her on Twitter @stecks.

For more projects, please visit newscientist.com/maker.

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Source: www.newscientist.com

Google tools simplify the detection of posts generated by AI

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The probability that one word follows another can be used to create watermarks for AI-generated text.

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Google uses artificial intelligence watermarks to automatically identify text generated by its Gemini chatbot, making it easier to distinguish between AI-generated content and human-written posts. This watermarking system could help prevent AI chatbots from being exploited for misinformation and disinformation, as well as fraud in schools and business environments.

Now, the technology company says it is making available an open-source version of its technology so that other generative AI developers can similarly watermark output from their large-scale language models. I am. Pushmeet Kohli Google DeepMind is the company's AI research team, combining the former Google Brain and DeepMind labs. “SynthID is not a silver bullet for identifying AI-generated content, but it is an important building block for developing more reliable AI identification tools,” he says.

Independent researchers expressed similar optimism. “There is no known way to reliably watermark, but I really think this could help detect some things like AI-generated misinformation and academic fraud,” he said. I say. scott aaronson at the University of Texas at Austin, where he previously worked on AI safety at OpenAI. “We hope that other leading language modeling companies, such as OpenAI and Anthropic, will follow DeepMind’s lead in this regard.”

In May of this year, Google DeepMind announced Google announced that it has implemented the SynthID method for watermarking AI-generated text and video from Google's Gemini and Veo AI services, respectively. The company recently published a paper in the journal nature SynthID generally performs better than similar AI watermarking techniques for text. The comparison involved evaluating how easily the responses from different watermarked AI models were detectable.

In Google DeepMind's AI watermarking approach, as a model generates a sequence of text, a “tournament sampling” algorithm subtly moves it toward selecting “tokens” of specific words that are detectable by associated software. Create a statistical signature. This process randomly pairs candidate word tokens in tournament-style brackets. The winner of each pair is determined by which one gets the highest score according to the watermark function. Winners advance through successive tournament rounds until there is one round remaining. The “layered approach” “further complicates the potential for reverse engineering and attempts to remove watermarks,” it said. Yellow Furong at the University of Maryland.

It said a “determined adversary” with vast computational power could remove such AI watermarks. Hanlin Zhang at Harvard University. But he said SynthID's approach makes sense given the need for scalable watermarking in AI services.

Google DeepMind researchers tested two versions of SynthID that represent a trade-off between making watermark signatures easier to detect in exchange for distorting the text typically produced by AI models. They showed that the undistorted version of the AI ​​watermark continued to work without noticeable impact on the quality of the 20 million text responses Gemini generated during live experiments.

However, the researchers also acknowledged that this watermarking works best on long chatbot responses that can be answered in a variety of ways, such as composing an essay or an email, as well as on math or coding questions. The response to this has not yet been tested.

Google DeepMind's team and others have stated the need for additional safeguards against misuse of AI chatbots, and Huang similarly recommended stronger regulation. “Requiring watermarks by law addresses both practicality and user adoption challenges and makes large language models more secure to use,” she says.

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Source: www.newscientist.com

Making plants blue through gene editing could simplify weed removal by robots

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Changing the color of crops may make it easier to distinguish between target plants and weeds

John Martin – Photography/Alamy

Common crops such as wheat and corn could be genetically modified to be brightly colored to make them easier for weeding robots to work with, researchers have suggested.

Weeding reduces the need for herbicides, but the artificial intelligence models that power weeding robots can have trouble distinguishing weeds from crops that are similar in shape and color.

To avoid this problem, Pedro Correia Researchers from the University of Copenhagen in Denmark and their colleagues have suggested that crop genomes could be adapted to express pigments such as anthocyanins, which make blueberries blue, and carotenoids, which make carrots orange.

It is also possible to grow crops with unusually shaped leaves or other traits that are invisible to the naked eye but can be detected by sensors such as those in the infrared spectrum.

Correia said AI's weeding struggles could get worse as wild species adapt to agriculture, taking advantage of their ability to cope with changing climate. This type of new domestication can produce crops that are more environmentally sustainable and higher yielding, but can also be difficult to distinguish from their unchanged ancestors.

“We're trying to change a very small number of genes to increase productivity,” Correia says. “It would be great if he could change one or two more genes to make them more recognizable and to be able to use robots to weed.”

charles fox The University of Lincoln in the UK says there is precedent for intentionally changing the color of crops. Orange carrots were not common until producers selectively bred stable varieties. But he thinks genetic modification is probably not the easiest way to improve the effectiveness of weed-killing robots.

“Other methods would probably be much easier and less controversial because people generally don't like genetic modification,” Fox says. “Sounds like a lot of effort.”

Correia says he's not suggesting creating something new or adding animal genes. The research involves modifying crop genomes to incorporate genes for pigments already produced in other plants. “We're just making some changes to the crop so they can eat it too,” he says. “We'll have to test everything and test for side effects and things like that, but I think it's quite possible.”

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Source: www.newscientist.com