This week’s list of top data news highlights covers June 21, 2025 to June 27, 2025 and includes articles on using a guide to personalize shopping and deploying smart waste removal systems in Kenya.
1. Automating Cataract Surgery
ForSight Robotics, an Israeli medical robotics startup, has created a robotic platform designed specifically for cataract surgery, one of the world’s most common medical procedures. The platform, called Oryom, uses robotic arms guided by computer vision and machine learning to execute the highly repetitive, minute steps of cataract surgery, such as incisions, lens fragmentation, and lens replacement. It has helped complete over 300 test procedures on pig eyes and is preparing for its first human trial. The company hopes to expand surgical capacity, making it possible to treat more patients with fewer specialists.
2. Tailoring Shopping Experiences
Daydream, a California-based fashion technology startup, has developed a chat-first platform powered by agentic AI to help users discover fashion items through natural conversation. Unlike traditional e-commerce interfaces filled with dropdowns and filters, Daydream lets users describe what they’re looking for in their own words—like “a dress for a rooftop wedding in Paris”. Its AI models, trained on fashion-specific features like fit, silhouette, and occasion, interpret those prompts and surface tailored recommendations. The system continuously adapts based on each user’s clicks, searches, and saved items.
Researchers at the University of Southern California have developed a wearable sensor that detects acetaminophen levels in breast milk in real-time. The device, designed to look and function like a standard nursing pad, uses digital channels to analyze milk as it naturally leaks into the pad. Results are sent to a smartphone via Bluetooth within seconds, helping parents decide whether milk is safe to feed or should be discarded.
4. Streamlining Restaurant Operations
Dine Brands, the parent company of Applebee’s and IHOP, has deployed a centralized AI assistant to support franchisees resolve technical issues more efficiently. The system allows staff to ask plain-language questions, like how to fix a broken printer, and instantly retrieve answers from the company’s internal knowledge base. Now in use across more than 3,500 franchise locations, the system is designed to reduce downtime and let staff focus on running the restaurant.
5. Deploying Smart Waste Systems
Konza Technopolis, a Kenyan government-backed smart city project, has deployed Africa’s first automated waste collection system to support sustainable urban living. Developed in partnership with Swedish tech firm Envac, the system uses sensor-enabled waste bins connected to underground vacuum pipes to move up to 40 tons of waste daily to a central facility, eliminating the need for garbage trucks. The network is designed not just for cleaner streets, but to support smarter, data-informed city infrastructure.
A team of U.S. researchers has developed PanEcho, an AI system that helps doctors interpret heart ultrasound scans by automatically analyzing the images and highlighting signs of disease. Heart ultrasounds, or echocardiograms, require doctors to review multiple angles and measurements to assess things like heart function or valve problems. PanEcho was trained on over a million real-world scans and can evaluate many key parts of the heart at once. It generates a detailed report with measurements and flags possible abnormalities, giving doctors a fast, consistent starting point for diagnosis.
7. Identifying Disease-Carrying Mosquitoes
At the University of South Florida, researchers have developed a smart mosquito trap that uses AI and computer vision to automatically detect and identify mosquitoes as they enter the device. Unlike traditional traps that require experts to manually collect and sort captured insects, this system instantly classifies species, flagging those that carry diseases like dengue and Zika. Designed for use in outdoor public health surveillance sites, the trap helps disease control teams respond faster to outbreaks by reducing delays in mosquito monitoring and making surveillance more scalable.
8. Understanding Phenomena in the Sky
The Vera C. Rubin Observatory, an astronomical facility based in Chile, has begun capturing detailed images of the sky using the world’s largest digital camera. Designed to take a new image every 40 seconds, the system will scan the sky every few nights for 10 years. This continuous monitoring will better enable astronomers to detect supernovae, track asteroids, and study dark matter to observe how the universe changes over time. Early test images already revealed thousands of previously unseen asteroids and galaxies.
Indigital, an Australia-based ed-tech company, has developed an augmented reality app that allows communities indigenous to Australia to share cultural narratives through interactive digital experiences. The tool overlays audio-visual storytelling onto real-world locations, enabling users to access traditional knowledge in new ways. It is being used to support education, cultural preservation, and digital skills training, effectively combining ancient wisdom with modern technology.
10. Diminishing Child Exploitation Cases
Cellebrite, an Israel-based digital forensics company, has introduced a scanning feature to help law enforcement identify child sexual abuse material on seized phones and computers. The tool analyzes photos and videos on the device and compares them against a database of ten million verified abuse images maintained by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. This allows investigators to quickly flag known material in minutes rather than weeks and aims to reduce delays in child exploitation cases.
