What it's not: This season's hottest headgear for the Robot Kingdom.
What it is: One of 150 advanced reclosers the United Illuminating Co. (UI) will install this year to improve its distribution system in southwest Connecticut. When a tree branch hits a power line, this smart switch places an RF call to its substation, which relays the message to the central repair facility. UI hopes the investment will help restrict line faults to 5-second hiccups instead of hour-long outages. Intelligent breakers and talking substations? Maybe the Robot Kingdom isn't so far-fetched after all.