“A small cover on the sidewalk with a metal pattern, foot for scale”
Answer: "It’s a rain and frost/ice detector. A small current is on the 2 metallic circles, they are not touching and are isolated against each other. When raindrops connect the 2 metals, the small current is amplified or switched, so it can trigger a pump or close windows that are fully open at that time and rain or snow won’t damage things."