Passengers' baggage is collected by robots, they relax in a luxurious waiting area complete with an indoor garden before getting a face scan and swiftly passing through security and immigration - this could be the airport of the future. It's a vision that planners hope will become reality as new technology is rolled out, transforming the exhausting experience of getting stuck in lengthy queues in ageing, overcrowded terminals into something far more pleasant. The changes also represent major challenges that could upend decades-old business models at major airports, with analysts warning operators may face a hit to their revenues to the tune of billions of dollars. Facial scanning in particular is generating a lot of buzz. Changi in the affluent city-state of Singapore, regarded as among the world's best airports, is set to roll out this biometric technology at a new terminal to open later this year.

Is committed to a robotic future that empowers and enhances human abilities, enriches human experiences and delivers intuitive, reliable and fun products that are usable by all. We have worldwide HQs in San Francisco, New York, Tel-Aviv, Shenzhen, and Singapore. The temi team is making this vision a reality.

Once again, the US dominates an examination of the smartest future-focused companies, but Chinese sci-tech superstars are making gains. MIT Technology Review released its list of the 50 Smartest Companies of 2017 in June. This annual list is the publication editors' "best guess as to which firms will be the dominant companies of the future" and, indeed, many of them are sitting comfortably in that position in the present. There are certainly some usual suspects featured in the full 50 – household tech names such as Google, Apple, Facebook, Microsoft and Amazon all get their billing. But this is about brains, not just brawn (where brawn equates to multinational might and eyewatering revenues, in this case).

Technology-led business disruption, today, is not an exception but a rule. Transformative technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) tools, blockchain, virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), and 3D printing, increased hyper-connectivity through the Internet of Things (IoT), and smarter decision making through big data analytics are altering the world as we know it. In this backdrop, Mint recently organized a select roundtable around the theme'Driving digital innovation with velocity and scale'. During the discussion, moderated by Leslie D'Monte, national technology editor of Mint, the chief digital officers (CDOs), chief information officers (CIOs) and other information technology (IT) decision makers discussed the digital imperatives in their organizations. For the banking sector, it is already written on the wall: 'You better change digitally or else face the Kodak moment.'

Lili Cheng is responsible for Microsoft's AI Developer services such as Bot Framework and Cognitive Services Within Microsoft, Cheng has diverse talent. She founded the Social Computing Group in Microsoft Research & Future Social Experiences (FUSE) Labs, was the Director of User Experience for Microsoft Windows, and innovated on technical infrastructure in the areas of real time data and search, including: real-time ingestion of Facebook and Twitter firehose data on Microsoft Azure; desktop search which unified the Windows and Office search indexes for Windows, and core search technologies for Office 365. Prior to joining Microsoft, Cheng worked in Apple Computer's Advanced Technology Group on the User Interface research team, where she focused on QuickTime Conferencing and QuickTime VR. Her first career was as an architect in Tokyo and Los Angeles for Nihon Sekkei, and Skidmore, Owings & Merrill on commercial urban design and large-scale building projects. She continues to maintain her architect's license with an eye towards inventing new ways for people to interact online.

A new computer algorithm, developed by researchers at Stanford University, can correctly determine someone's sexuality with up to 91% accuracy just by analysing a photo of their face. It's the robotic equivalent of a "gaydar" and it's sure to stir up a minefield of discussion, but first, a few caveats. The study used 35,326 photos from a US dating site and the artificial intelligence only distinguished sexuality between two photos (always one straight, one homosexual) of people of the same gender – the study did not include transgender or bisexual people. The photos used were portraits of faces, so the AI's judgments are made based on a "faceprint" determined from things like eyebrows, cheeks, hairline, neckline and nose, rather than clothing or hairstyle. Among men the system was accurate 81% of the time, and with women it was 71% accurate, but when given repeated photos of the same man (and so, more data) the accuracy increased to 91%.

A radical drone that can fly without the help of humans has revealed over $32 million in funding from backers including Microsoft is one step closer to hitting the skies of Israel. Optimus can fly for half an hour without a human pilot on the controls. Its creator, Airobotics, recently became the first in the world to be granted permission to fly an automated drone, and says the new funds will meet growing demand in the mining and homeland security industries and go towards investing in its business development efforts and expansion across industrial facilities. Israel's Airobotics, a maker of automated industrial drones, said on it has raised $32.5 million in a private funding round led by BlueRun Ventures China, Microsoft Ventures and OurCrowd.com. It also received funding from existing investors including, CRV, BRV, Waze CEO Noam Bardin, Richard Wooldridge, and David Roux, the co-founder and former chairman of Silver Lake Partners.

Do your feet smell bad? If you don't dare to ask a friend, one Japanese start-up might have the answer with a new robot dog that will sniff your feet and give you a pitilessly honest verdict - even fainting if the stink is especially strong. Malodorous feet can be socially awkward in Japan where shoes are removed at the entrance to every home. Japanese start-up Next Technology has designed that can sniff out a person's feet and assess how strong the odor is. Hana-chan - a play on the Japanese word for'nose' and a common girl's nickname - is a helpful little robot mutt who will bark if she detects moderately whiffy toes, but will keel over if the pong is particularly pungent. The 15-centimeter (6-inch) dog, equipped with an odor detection sensor for a nose, also sprays air freshener to resolve the situation if the aroma is unbearable.

Artificial Intelligence has been the talk of the town ever since Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg and Tesla's Elon Musk exchanged a war of words over its potential. Other than that several world leaders have expressed their concern over the capabilities of an AI system in the near future. Meanwhile, on September 4, Musk tweeted that countries which grow their superiority in Artificial Intelligence will rule the world and the competition might lead to World War III. He said that Russia, China and more countries are the biggest contenders. This statement came after Russian President Vladimir Putin, speaking to school children, said, "Whoever becomes the leader in this area will rule the world." As a response, Musk tweeted, "It Begins…" Not only then, there have been other famous personalities who have expressed their opinions and concerns on the subject.

Artificial intelligence can figure out a person's sexual orientation by analysing a picture of their face, a controversial new study claims. According to its authors, who say they were "really disturbed" by their findings, the accuracy of an AI system can reach 91 per cent for homosexual men and 83 per cent for homosexual women. The study also concludes that homosexual men and women tend to have "gender-atypical facial morphology, expression, and grooming styles". The paper, titled Deep neural networks are more accurate than humans at detecting sexual orientation from facial images, was co-authored by Stanford University's Yilun Wang and Michal Kosinski, and first spotted by the Economist. In it, they claim to "show that faces contain much more information about sexual orientation than can be perceived and interpreted by the human brain".