Tech Pulse 5/11/26

This week on Tech Pulse, we narrate three articles spanning home surveillance, emotional robotics, and screenless health tracking.AI-powered security cameras are generating confusion and more than a few laughs. They're designed to describe what they see in plain language — but the results can be wildly wrong, turning raccoons into bears and brake lights into house fires. Homeowners report false alarms about tornadoes, intruders, and bears that turn out to be themselves, while experts say these systems are brilliant at visual patterns but lack the common sense to interpret them.The inventor behind the Roomba is back, building something his old robot never had: the ability to read a room. His new startup is designing a furry, silent companion meant to genuinely bond with its owners — learning their moods, mapping their household relationships, and responding with warmth rather than words. Whether humans should grow this close to a machine is the question the piece leaves open.Fitness trackers without screens are booming, and Google just entered the market. No display means longer battery life, round-the-clock monitoring, and one less screen competing for your attention. A firsthand look at the latest devices finds that simpler hardware often delivers smarter, more useful health data.Aftersight is a media organization that serves individuals with barriers to print. This podcast is produced by Aftersight under the Chafee Amendment to the Copyright Act which states that authorized nonprofit organizations whose primary mission is to provide copyrighted works in specialized formats to individuals with barriers to print are exempt. By continuing to listen, you verify you are blind, have low vision, or barriers to reading print materials.Chapters:(00:08) - Security Cameras Are Failing Spectacularly at Common Sense (06:36) - The Roomba Guy’s Second Act: A Robot You’ll Want to Snuggle (16:20) - Fitness Bands Are Losing Screens—and Gaining Fans