The next time you’re passing through Newark airport, look up and smile. The airport’s new super-efficient LED light fixtures are also embedded with cameras and sensors—and they’re part of a growing market for surveillance technology that is built into other, everyday systems.
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At bustling traffic hubs like O’Hare International, planes can spend an interminably long time waiting for their turn to land. And at airports like Rio de Janeiro–Galeão International, pilots must contend with tight flight paths to avoid crowded population centers and hills on their final approach. But thanks to a new hyper-accurate GPS-based tracking system, airliners will no longer have to contend with land-locked navigation beacons and overworked control towers.
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Technically speaking, the smart facade—or building envelope that adapts to environmental conditions—dates back to the first window. But the contemporary idea of the smart facade has only been around for a few short decades, helped along by recent advances in chemical and material science. And over the past three years, we’ve seen the category boom.
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Between the Great Recession and federal Sequestration cuts, officials at all levels of government are scrambling to scrimp and save money anywhere they can, no matter how offbeat the method. Even if it means foregoing the latest technological solutions for a more traditional, holistic approach—like exploiting the superhuman sensory abilities of animals.
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