Product Innovation | Rentokil and Vodafone Combine to Play the Rat-tective

Watch out rats. Facial recognition technology is coming for you.

A cracking example of product innovation here, described in this article in the Guardian.

Rentokil is the world's largest pest control group and is looking for ways to expand its business in emerging economies such as China, India, and Indonesia. Rentokil is targeting "cities of the future" in countries that could soon experience a pest population boom.

Partnering with Vodafone, Rentokil has been piloting the use of facial recognition software as a way to exterminate rats in people's homes.

AI is at the heart of this, with surveillance technology tracking the rodents' habits to a central command center which can then decide where and how to kill the rats caught on camera.

This technology could be seen as an example of product innovation as it is a new way to tackle the problem of pests in homes and buildings.