Artificial Intelligence (AI) and cannabis: What has one got to do with the other? The answer is, "A lot," according to Michael Yorke, President and CEO of CROP Infrastructure Corporation based in Vancouver, Canada. CROP provides financing for cannabis growing land expansion and other needed services. It also provides turnkey greenhouse facilities, special growing and processing equipment and access to approved nutrients for select licensed cannabis producers in legal growing regions in Canada. "The use of AI in sensors and high-definition cameras can be used to keep track of and adjust multiple inputs in the growing environment such as water level, PH level, temperature, humidity, nutrient feed, light spectrum and CO2 levels," Yorke said.

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Singaporean robot creator Wong Choon Yue raises his left hand and swipes it past a sensor in a high-five gesture. Halfway across the room, a robot named EDGAR with an expressive face made of polyethylene, two hands and a torso atop a trolley with wheels, mimics the gesture, smacking its hand into that of Wong's wife and colleague, Pang Wee Ching. For the last six years, the couple has been developing EDGAR, short for Expressions Display and Gesturing Avatar Robot, which lets people in different locations transmit gestures and facial expressions to each other. They say their project is the next step in the field of communications, adding to voice and video provided by applications such as Skype. "Perhaps I have a child who is living overseas, and she misses my cooking very much. What I can do with this technology is that I log onto the robot where she is and I can use it to make her favorite Chinese chicken rice," Wong said.

A four-winged robotic "dragonfly" with Long Island connections has landed -- in the pages of Guinness World Records 2020. The BionicOpter, created by Festo AG, a global company with operations in Islandia, has been crowned the world's largest flying robotic insect. The bionic insect, with a wingspan of almost 25 inches and a body length of more than 17 inches, won the designation in Guinness World Records 2020 published this month. The 6-ounce device, which can fly and hover, accompanies entries for the most tattooed man, the farthest arrow shot (using your feet) and the most expensive commercially available hot dog ($169 by Seattle's Tokyo Dog in February 2014). Festo executive Michael Zakrzewski said the BionicOpter is one of a series of robotic devices developed by Festo that mimic the motions of animals.

McDonald's is adding Ai-based voice ordering tech to its drive-thrus. Next time you order a Big Mac, ask yourself if you're talking to a robot or a human. McDonald's this week took a step toward automating how it handles your order when it acquired artificial intelligence company Apprente. The Silicon Valley-based startup was founded in 2017 to create voice-based platforms for "complex, multilingual, multi-accent and multi-item conversational ordering," which McDonald's plans to incorporate in its drive-thrus initially. The system has already been tested at a few restaurants, so maybe you've been talking to robots about McFlurries.

The European Commission is launching a tender for two studies to survey and analyse progress on the digital transformation of the health and care in the EU, in particular with regard to citizens' access to their electronic health records (EHR) in the EU Member States and the development, adoption and use of artificial intelligence (AI) technologies in the health and care sector in the EU. The call for tender includes two specific studies (i.e. The maximum amount allocated to the studies is EUR 300 000 for Lot I and EUR 200 000 for Lot II. The closing date of the call is 23 September 2019 at 15:00. The detailed tender specifications and more information about the procedure and eligibility conditions are available on TED.

ORLANDO, Fla. - What do you think of when you hear the term Artificial Intelligence? More often than not, you might think of a movie with an evil robot intent on destroying the world. Hollywood films often present a frightening image of Artificial Intelligence (AI), but the reality is that we use AI in our daily lives without even knowing it. During its world premiere at Orlando Science Center this fall, Artificial Intelligence: Your Mind & The Machine will show visitors exactly what AI is, how it works, and what it might do in the future. From illusions that trick our brains to machines that can identify your emotions and translate languages, Artificial Intelligence: Your Mind & The Machine shows numerous ways that the human mind and thinking machines work.

Huawei's Honor subsidiary today launched a new artificial intelligence (AI)-powered app called PocketVision, which is designed to help those with visual impairments read documents, menus, and text using their smartphone camera. The PocketVision app, which was unveiled today at the annual IFA conference in Berlin, was developed in conjunction with Eyecoming, a Chinese social technology company specializing in visual impairments. According to Census Bureau data, roughly 20% of people in the U.S alone have a disability, more than half of whom report a "severe" disability. This figure is roughly consistent with other countries around the world, too. And it's against that backdrop that Huawei's Honor offshoot is launching the PocketVision app.

Integrating DataOps, artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML), Hitachi Vantara is touting big data technology in a Tuesday announcement of its Lumada Manufacturing Insights, a suite of Industrial Internet-of-Things (IoT) products. DataOps, which is an "automated, process-oriented methodology, used by analytic and data teams," according to a Wikipedia article, appears to be a major emphasis for Santa Clara, Calif.-based Hitachi Vantara, a wholly owned subsidiary of Japan's Hitachi, Ltd. "We know DataOps," pops out in large white letters on the first page of the company Web site. After asking if the Web visitor knows about the methodology, the site proclaims: "You know there's value in your data. But you've only scratched the surface. To get the full value out of your data, you need to get the right data to the right place at the right time. DataOps helps you do that."

In a recent article for Harvard Business Review, Professors Brooks Holtom of Georgetown University and David Allen of Texas Christian University describe the results of their latest research. Using big data and machine-learning algorithms, the two developed a real-time indicator to measure two main indicators that an employee is about to quit. The first was "turnover shocks," which are events that prompt workers to consider leaving an organization. This could be a change in leadership or major acquisition, for example, and was measured with events including news articles about a company, changes in stock value and legal action taken against the firm. Researchers also measured "job embeddedness," or how deeply connected a worker felt to their organization, based on publicly available data like number of past jobs, employment anniversary and tenure, skills, education, gender and geography.

Despite common misconceptions, the cruise industry is at the forefront of the travel tech revolution. Here's our pick of the most ground-breaking cruise ship technology developments that are revolutionising the industry. Much has been made of efforts to reduce emissions and improve environmental performance in the cruise sector, but few have gone as far as Hurtigruten. The line recently unveiled Roald Amundsen, the first cruise ship to sail on battery power. Estimates say the ship's hybrid propulsion will reduce CO2 emissions by about 20 per cent.