An international team of researchers has devised a futuristic tool to examine the footprints left by dinosaurs in our ancient past. The AI-powered app, Dinotracker, can identify dinosaur footprints in moments.

The research comes from a joint project by the Helmholtz-Zentrum research center in Berlin and the University of Edinburgh in Scotland. The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences published the paper on Monday. 

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Identifying a dinosaur species from a footprint isn’t always easy. The footprint is hundreds of millions of years old, often preserved in layers of rock that have shifted over the eons since the track was laid. 

Also, we still have a lot to learn about dinosaurs, and it’s not always clear which species left a footprint. Subjectivity or bias can come into play when identifying them, and scientists don’t always agree with the results.

Gregor Hartmann of Helmholtz-Zentrum, who led the project, told CNET that the research team sought to remove this propensity from the identification process by developing an algorithm that could be neutral. 

«We bring a mathematical, unbiased point of view to the table to assist human experts in interpreting the data,» Hartmann said. 

Researchers trained the algorithm on thousands of real fossil footprints, as well as millions of simulated versions that could recreate «natural distortions such as compression and shifting edges.»

How AI is being used on dinosaur tracks

The system was trained to focus on eight major characteristics of dinosaur footprints, including the width of the toes, the position of the heel, the surface area of the foot that contacted the ground and the weight distribution across the foot. 

The AI tool uses these traits to compare new footprints to existing fossils, and then determines which dinosaur was most likely responsible for the footprint. 

The team tested it against human expert classifications and found that the AI agreed with them 90% of the time.

Hartmann made it clear that the AI system is «unsupervised.» 

«We do not use any labels (like bird, theropod, ornithopod) during training. The network has no idea about it,» Hartmann said. «Only after training, we compare how the network encodes the silhouettes and compare this with the human labels.»

Hartmann said that the hope is for Dinotracker to be used by paleontologists and that the AI tool’s data pool grows as it’s used by more experts.

Bird vs. dinosaur

Using Dinotracker, the researchers have already uncovered some intriguing possibilities on the evolution of birds. When analyzing footprints more than 200 million years old, the AI found strong similarities with the foot structures of extinct and modern birds. 

The team says one possibility is that birds originated tens of millions of years earlier than we thought. But it’s also possible that early dinosaur feet just look remarkably like bird feet.

This evidence, Hartmann notes, isn’t enough to rethink the evolution of birds, since a skeleton is the «true evidence» of earlier bird existence.

«It is essential to keep in mind that over these millions of years, lots of different things can happen to these tracks, starting from the moisture level of the mud where it was created, over the substrate it was created on, up to erosion later,» he said. «All this can heavily change the shape of the fossilized track we find, and ultimately makes it too difficult to interpret footprints, which was the motivation for our study.»

Dinotracker is available for free on GitHub. It’s not in a download-and-use format, so you’ll have to know a bit about software to get it up and running. 

Belkin is ending support for most of its Wemo smart home devices, a move that will shut down the Wemo app and cloud services and significantly reduce the functionality of many popular smart plugs, switches and sensors. 

The change takes effect at the end of January, so you have only a few days to migrate compatible devices or start planning for replacements.

You can see the full list of affected devices on Belkin’s support page. Once support ends, features that rely on the cloud — including remote access, schedules and integrations with Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant — will stop working. Those Wemo devices will no longer function as «smart» products, even if the hardware still powers on. 

Since Belkin will also stop releasing firmware updates, affected devices won’t receive bug fixes or security improvements. 

Belkin’s decision highlights a growing issue in the smart home world: Devices can stop being «smart» long before the hardware wears out. 

Apple Home users get a limited lifeline

There is one major exception. Some Wemo devices that are compatible with Apple Home and HomeKit can continue working after the Wemo app shuts down, but only if you migrate them before the end-of-support deadline.

«Since the Wemo app will be ending, it’s very important that users switch to Apple Home/HomeKit by the end of the month,» says CNET smart home editor Tyler Lacoma. «Belkin has a long-term partnership with Apple, so for compatible devices, that transition is usually pretty simple.»

However, Lacoma warns that older Wemo products may not support Apple Home at all.

«If someone has a Wemo device that’s not on the list of Apple-compatible products, it won’t have much functionality left,» he says. «It won’t get firmware updates to fix bugs or improve security, so at that point, it makes sense to factory reset it and recycle it before the end of the month, then look for a replacement.»

Belkin has published a list of Wemo devices that support Apple HomeKit, and users need to complete the setup process before the Wemo app is retired. The following products will continue to work through Apple HomeKit: 

• Wemo Smart Light Switch 3-Way (WLS0403, WLS0503)
• Wemo Wi-Fi Smart Light Switch with Dimmer (WDS060)
• Wemo Smart Light Switch (WLS040)
• Wemo HomeKit Bridge (F7C064)
• Wemo Dimmer Light Switch (F7C059)
• Wemo Mini Plugin Switch (F7C063)
• Wemo Outdoor Plug (WSP090)
• Wemo Mini Smart Plug (WSP080)
• Wemo Stage Smart Scene Controller (WSC010)
• Wemo Smart Plug with Thread (WSP100)
• Wemo Smart Video Doorbell (WDC010) 

What about refunds?

Belkin says customers with Wemo devices that are still under warranty when support ends may be eligible for a partial refund. You can find the warranty period for each device in the list of devices on Belkin’s support page linked above. Refund requests won’t be processed until after the end-of-support date, and eligibility will depend on the product and purchase date.

Because many Wemo products were released years ago, most people should not expect to qualify for a refund. We’ve reached out to Belkin to ask whether other products will lose support in the near future. We haven’t heard back at the time of publishing. 

What Wemo owners should do now

If you own Wemo devices, the clock is ticking. Here’s what to do next:

• Check whether your Wemo products support Apple Home and migrate them as soon as possible.
• If your devices don’t support Apple Home, plan to replace them before support ends.
• Consider recycling unsupported devices once they lose smart functionality.
• Remove the Wemo app after services shut down to avoid confusion.

If you’re shopping for replacements, this is a good time to look at CNET’s list of the best smart plugs and review our guide on what to do when smart home devices lose support.

Looking for the most recent Strands answer? Click here for our daily Strands hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Mini Crossword, Wordle, Connections and Connections: Sports Edition puzzles.

Today’s NYT Strands puzzle is a bit of an odd one, but it might calm you down — hint, hint. If you need hints and answers, read on.

I go into depth about the rules for Strands in this story. 

If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections and Mini Crossword answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.

Read more: NYT Connections Turns 1: These Are the 5 Toughest Puzzles So Far

Hint for today’s Strands puzzle

Today’s Strands theme is: Zen state

If that doesn’t help you, here’s a clue: Mellow out.

Clue words to unlock in-game hints

Your goal is to find hidden words that fit the puzzle’s theme. If you’re stuck, find any words you can. Every time you find three words of four letters or more, Strands will reveal one of the theme words. These are the words I used to get those hints but any words of four or more letters that you find will work:

• COIL, COIF, COIFS, MATE, TAME, TAMED, CONE, CODE, NEST, NETS, LENS, TIED, DIET, MIND

Answers for today’s Strands puzzle

These are the answers that tie into the theme. The goal of the puzzle is to find them all, including the spangram, a theme word that reaches from one side of the puzzle to the other. When you have all of them (I originally thought there were always eight but learned that the number can vary), every letter on the board will be used. Here are the nonspangram answers:

• FOCUS, RELAX, LISTEN, NOTICE, BREATHE, MEDITATE

Today’s Strands spangram

Today’s Strands spangram is MINDFULNESS. To find it, start with the M that’s the first letter on the top row, at the far left, and wind down and then over and up.

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