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A Survey of TinyML Applications in Beekeeping for Hive Monitoring and Management

arXiv.org Artificial Intelligence

Honey bee colonies are essential for global food security and ecosystem stability, yet they face escalating threats from pests, diseases, and environmental stressors. Traditional hive inspections are labor-intensive and disruptive, while cloud-based monitoring solutions remain impractical for remote or resource-limited apiaries. Recent advances in Internet of Things (IoT) and Tiny Machine Learning (TinyML) enable low-power, real-time monitoring directly on edge devices, offering scalable and non-invasive alternatives. This survey synthesizes current innovations at the intersection of TinyML and apiculture, organized around four key functional areas: monitoring hive conditions, recognizing bee behaviors, detecting pests and diseases, and forecasting swarming events. We further examine supporting resources, including publicly available datasets, lightweight model architectures optimized for embedded deployment, and benchmarking strategies tailored to field constraints. Critical limitations such as data scarcity, generalization challenges, and deployment barriers in off-grid environments are highlighted, alongside emerging opportunities in ultra-efficient inference pipelines, adaptive edge learning, and dataset standardization. By consolidating research and engineering practices, this work provides a foundation for scalable, AI-driven, and ecologically informed monitoring systems to support sustainable pollinator management.


Motion-Based User Identification across XR and Metaverse Applications by Deep Classification and Similarity Learning

arXiv.org Artificial Intelligence

This paper examines the generalization capacity of two state-of-the-art classification and similarity learning models in reliably identifying users based on their motions in various Extended Reality (XR) applications. We developed a novel dataset containing a wide range of motion data from 49 users in five different XR applications: four XR games with distinct tasks and action patterns, and an additional social XR application with no predefined task sets. The dataset is used to evaluate the performance and, in particular, the generalization capacity of the two models across applications. Our results indicate that while the models can accurately identify individuals within the same application, their ability to identify users across different XR applications remains limited. Overall, our results provide insight into current models generalization capabilities and suitability as biometric methods for user verification and identification. The results also serve as a much-needed risk assessment of hazardous and unwanted user identification in XR and Metaverse applications. Our cross-application XR motion dataset and code are made available to the public to encourage similar research on the generalization of motion-based user identification in typical Metaverse application use cases.


Students flee as Kirk shot in front of crowd of hundreds

BBC News

Video shows conservative activist Charlie Kirk speaking to a crowd of hundreds on the campus of Utah Valley University on Wednesday. Then a single shot rang out, and students fled in every direction. The 31-year-old influencer and Trump ally was rushed to hospital but pronounced dead later. 'We love you, you will always be with us', says father of Minneapolis shooting victim Fletcher Merkel, 8, was one of two children killed in Wednesday's shooting at Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis. The Garnet wildfire in Fresno County has scorched nearly 14,000 acres (5,665 hectares) and remains uncontained.


DoorDash plans to test drone deliveries in San Francisco warehouse

Los Angeles Times

Things to Do in L.A. Tap to enable a layout that focuses on the article. Masslie Arias, of DoorDash, prepares to load a delivery package on a hovering drone on July 31 in Frisco, Texas. This is read by an automated voice. Please report any issues or inconsistencies here . Food delivery app DoorDash is setting its sights on a new destination to test out flying drone deliveries: San Francisco.


Putin and Netanyahu present twin challenges to Trump's diplomacy

BBC News

Into the two big foreign policy arenas sucking up much of the Trump administration's time and effort come two major challenges in less than 24 hours. Israel's air raid on the offices of Hamas in Doha and a Russian drone incursion deep into Polish airspace represent two massive headaches for the White House. After all, these are conflicts - Ukraine and Gaza - US President Donald Trump said he would deal with swiftly and decisively. In each case, a leader he sees as a natural, if problematic ally - Russian President Vladimir Putin and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu - has thrown a massive spanner in the wheels of White House peace-making. The Doha raid came just two days after the Trump administration delivered its latest proposals to end the war in Gaza.


Accidental or deliberate? Russia's drone incursion into Poland is a test for Nato

BBC News

Russia's drone incursion into Poland is a test for Nato Wednesday morning's incursion of Russian drones into Polish airspace led to jets being scrambled, an emergency government meeting being called - and concerns that Europe and Nato's resolve against Moscow may not be up to the test. Poland's Prime Minister Donald Tusk said Polish airspace was violated 19 times and at least three drones were shot down by Warsaw's jets, aided by Dutch F-35s and an Italian early warning aircraft. Russia has pushed back against accusations that the incursion was deliberate - though it also stopped short of denying its drones had trespassed sovereign Polish airspace. No objects on Polish territory were planned to be targeted, Moscow said. But European officials have forcefully batted off suggestions the act may have been unintentional. There is no evidence whatsoever that this amount of drones flew over this route over... Polish territory by accident, Germany's Defence Minister Boris Pistorius said, while his Italian counterpart Guido Crosetto called the overnight events in Poland a deliberate attack with the double aim of provoking and testing.


SpaceX Targets an Orbital Starship Flight with a Next-Gen Vehicle in 2026

WIRED

Orbital missions will unlock the next phase of Starship's development, providing better data on the performance of the spacecraft's heat shield and allowing for tests of in-orbit refueling, which will be essential for missions to Mars. Save this storyIt has been two weeks since SpaceX's last Starship test flight, and engineers have diagnosed issues with its heat shield, identified improvements, and developed a preliminary plan for the next time the ship heads into space. Bill Gerstenmaier, a SpaceX executive in charge of build and flight reliability, presented the findings Monday at the American Astronautical Society's Glenn Space Technology Symposium in Cleveland. The rocket lifted off on August 26 from SpaceX's launch pad in Starbase, Texas, just north of the US-Mexico border. It was the 10th full-scale test flight of SpaceX's Super Heavy booster and Starship upper stage, combining to form the world's largest rocket. There were a couple of overarching objectives on the August 26 test flight.


Larry Ellison tops Elon Musk as world's richest person

BBC News

Larry Ellison briefly tops Elon Musk as world's richest person Elon Musk briefly lost his title as the world's richest person to Larry Ellison, the co-founder of Oracle and an ally of US President Donald Trump. Ellison's wealth surged to $393bn (ยฃ290bn) on Wednesday morning, surpassing Musk's $385bn (ยฃ284bn), according to the Bloomberg Billionaires Index. The jump came after shares in Oracle, which make up a significant part of Ellison's fortune, soared more than 40%, boosted by the database software company's surprisingly rosy outlook for its cloud infrastructure business and artificial intelligence (AI) deals. But the firm's share price had shed some of those gains by the end of the day, putting Musk back on top. Before briefly losing it to Ellison, Musk had held the title of world's richest person for nearly one year.


Watch: Footage shows second claimed attack on Greta Thunberg Gaza flotilla

BBC News

Campaigners say a vessel, part of a flotilla carrying aid to Gaza, has been struck in a suspected drone attack. It's the second such suspected attack in two days. Swedish campaigner Greta Thunberg is amongst the activists travelling to Gaza with the flotilla to try and break Israel's naval blockade. BBC Verify has been analysing footage of the incident and has spoken to two weapons experts who say a device found on board after the attack appears to be a grenade. 'I witnessed war crimes' in Gaza, former worker at GHF aid site tells BBC A retired US soldier reveals why he quit working at Israel and US-backed Gaza Humanitarian Foundation aid hubs.


'I didn't know I could ask for help': Bruce Willis's wife on caring for Hollywood actor

BBC News

The actor, well known for his roles in the Die Hard franchise, was diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia - a condition his family publicly disclosed in 2023. Emma Heming Willis spoke with CBS Mornings host Gayle King about her husband and her new book, which she hopes will help fellow caregivers. 'We love you, you will always be with us', says father of Minneapolis shooting victim Fletcher Merkel, 8, was one of two children killed in Wednesday's shooting at Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis. The Garnet wildfire in Fresno County has scorched nearly 14,000 acres (5,665 hectares) and remains uncontained. The BBC's Tom Bateman spoke with Patrick Scallen who lives near the Annunciation Church and ran towards the sound of gunfire.