Using AI to trace leaking pipes

OLD hands at some water companies still on occasion whip out a pair of dousing rods or find a Y-shaped twig to search for a leak in an underground pipe. Dousing, or water witching as it is known in America, has no basis in scientific fact. A somewhat more reliable method involves using acoustic equipment called geophones to listen for escaping water. The trouble is it takes an experienced ear to distinguish the sound of a leak from the normal gurgle of water passing though pipes, let alone to predict from that sound where any trouble might be found. As this is a problem of pattern recognition, which is something that artificial intelligence can be good at, a Brazilian startup has used AI to develop an acoustic device that makes tracing leaks a lot easier.