A patent application filed by Amazon offers a vision of how doorbell cameras could be equipped with new technology that would allow the devices to gather data and identify people considered to be "suspicious." The application -- revealed by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office last month and first reported by CNN -- describes how cameras could be used to piece together a composite image of an individual's face, giving homeowners and police the ability to more easily identify someone who has engaged in potential criminal activity. The patent's inventor is identified as Jamie Siminoff, the chief executive of Ring, the home security company that manufactures doorbells that record video and connect to users' smartphones. Amazon acquired Ring in February, thrusting itself into the home surveillance business. The patent application states that home safety is a major concern for homeowners and that the presence of doorbell recording devices can be a "powerful deterrent against would-be burglars."

A bug's life doesn't seem half bad, if you can overlook the super-short lifespan or the threat of getting eaten by lizards or swatted at by humans. Flying is nice, as is being able to walk on ceilings. The versatility is enviable, which is why roboticists are on a quest to imbue machines with the power of the bug. But to harness the powers of nature, roboticists are resorting to very un-biological means. The latest insect-inspired robot tackles the problem of walking upside down using not glue, or a material that mimics the pad of a gecko's foot as past bot builders have done, but electricity.

Many aspects of geosciences pose novel problems for intelligent systems research. Geoscience data is challenging because it tends to be uncertain, intermittent, sparse, multiresolution, and multi-scale. Geosciences processes and objects often have amorphous spatiotemporal boundaries. The lack of ground truth makes model evaluation, testing, and comparison difficult. Overcoming these challenges requires breakthroughs that would significantly transform intelligent systems, while greatly benefitting the geosciences in turn.

Chapter in New Computational Paradigms: Changing Conceptions of What Is Computable, S.B. Cooper, B. Lowe, and A. Sorbi, Eds.

Volkswagen wants to put fully self-driving cars in fully human-filled cities by 2021, and that means it has limited time to crack the hardest thing about this technology: making a robot that can understand its surroundings in precise detail. Get perception right--know what's a kid and what's a fire hydrant--and the other pieces of the robo-driving puzzle get a whole lot easier. And today, the division of VW tasked with delivering on that 2021 deadline just revealed a key part of its approach. Audi AID (that's Autonomous Intelligent Driving) today announced that it is partnering with lidar maker Luminar. AID considered offerings from the dozens of lidar companies, but it was ultimately won over by how far the Luminar lidar sees--about 250 meters--and how good its resolution is.

Scientists including researchers at Nasa have proposed a plan for a nuclear-powered robot drill that would dig into a moon in an attempt to find aliens. The plan, nicknamed "tunnelbot", would offer an opportunity to delve deep beneath the distant world of Jupiter's moon Europa and check whether there are aliens hiding beneath its surface, as some researchers suspect. The water hidden beneath Europa is considered one of the most promising places to find alien life in our own solar system. But it is stuck beneath a crust of ice, making it difficult to explore directly. Now scientists have suggested that they could send the drill to dig into that crust and explore to try and find extraterrestrial life.

Major convenience store operator Seven-Eleven Japan Co. has launched an experimental outlet in Tokyo with an unmanned payment system and facial recognition technology. The facial recognition system was developed by technology giant NEC Corp. Seven-Eleven Japan plans to open such outlets in locations where customers can be identified, such as office buildings and factories, after resolving various technological challenges. The trial shop, located in a building that hosts NEC group companies, can be used only by their employees. The NEC-developed system checks customers' faces against pre-registered facial images of employees using cameras when they enter the outlet and make payments. After shoppers scan barcodes on products in the self-checkout area, the purchase amounts are automatically deducted from their salaries.

It's hard to live a day in the developed world without using a Unilever product. The multinational manufactures and distributes over 400 consumer goods brands covering food and beverages, domestic cleaning products and personal hygiene. With so many processes to coordinate and manage, artificial intelligence is quickly becoming essential for organizations of its scale. This applies to both research and development as well as the huge support infrastructure needed for a business with 170,000 employees. Recently it announced that it had developed machine learning algorithms capable of sniffing your armpit and telling you whether you are suffering from body odors.

A drone flying more than 20 times the allowed height came within 15m (50ft) of a Boeing 737 approaching a runway at Stansted Airport in Essex. The plane was flying at 10,000ft (3km) and coming in to land on 17 August when the captain spotted the drone. The first officer then saw "a dark-coloured square or rectangle-shaped object pass down the right side of the aircraft with minimal separation". The UK Airprox Board rated the risk of collision as the highest possible. After the incident, which happened at 16:36 BST, the plane was inspected on the ground and found no evidence of contact or damage.

For years tech companies such as Amazon, Alphabet and Uber have promised us delivery drones bringing goods to our doorsteps in a matter of minutes. So why are they taking so long to arrive? If our skies are to become as crowded as our streets, airspace rules need updating to prevent accidents, terrorist attacks, and related problems, such as noise pollution. But that's easier said than done. According to a recent study by Nasa, the noise made by road traffic was "systematically judged to be less annoying" than the high-pitched buzzing made by drones.