High-resolution satellite imagery have been increasingly used on remote sensing classification problems. One of the main factors is the availability of this kind of data. Even though, very little effort has been placed on the zebra crossing classification problem. In this letter, crowdsourcing systems are exploited in order to enable the automatic acquisition and annotation of a large-scale satellite imagery database for crosswalks related tasks. Then, this dataset is used to train deep-learning-based models in order to accurately classify satellite images that contains or not zebra crossings. A novel dataset with more than 240,000 images from 3 continents, 9 countries and more than 20 cities was used in the experiments. Experimental results showed that freely available crowdsourcing data can be used to accurately (97.11%) train robust models to perform crosswalk classification on a global scale.

As a species, we humans are awfully obsessed with the future. We love to speculate about where our evolution is taking us. We try to imagine what our technology will be like decades or centuries from now. And we fantasise about encountering intelligent aliens – generally, ones who are far more advanced than we are. Lately those strands have begun to merge. From the evolution side, a number of futurists are predicting the singularity: a time when computers will soon become powerful enough to simulate human consciousness, or absorb it entirely. In parallel, some visionaries propose that any intelligent life we encounter in the rest of the Universe is more likely to be machine-based, rather than humanoid meat-bags such as ourselves.

Facebook has taken a major step towards creating a drone designed to beam internet access to remote areas of the world. The company has completed the second full-scale test flight of its enormous Aquila drone, but managed to land it a lot more smoothly this time around. Aquila's first successful test flight took place last year, but ended in a crash landing. The I.F.O. is fuelled by eight electric engines, which is able to push the flying object to an estimated top speed of about 120mph. The giant human-like robot bears a striking resemblance to the military robots starring in the movie'Avatar' and is claimed as a world first by its creators from a South Korean robotic company Waseda University's saxophonist robot WAS-5, developed by professor Atsuo Takanishi and Kaptain Rock playing one string light saber guitar perform jam session A man looks at an exhibit entitled'Mimus' a giant industrial robot which has been reprogrammed to interact with humans during a photocall at the new Design Museum in South Kensington, London Electrification Guru Dr. Wolfgang Ziebart talks about the electric Jaguar I-PACE concept SUV before it was unveiled before the Los Angeles Auto Show in Los Angeles, California, U.S The Jaguar I-PACE Concept car is the start of a new era for Jaguar.

Scientists have invented window blinds that store solar energy and are capable of slashing 70 per cent off homeowners' energy bills. The creators of SolarGaps claim it is the world's first'smart blind' that can store solar energy in a battery and is being marketed as an alternative to rooftop solar panels. A set of blinds is expected to sell for around £210 ($270). Scientists have invented window blinds that store energy which they claim can slash an incredible 70 per cent off homeowners' energy bills The blinds have thin solar panels mounted on slats. A motor controls the direction they point in, and makes sure they are facing the sun.

YUMA, ARIZONA – A solar-powered drone backed by Facebook that could one day provide worldwide internet access has quietly completed a test flight in Arizona after an earlier attempt ended with a crash landing. Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg's long-term plan for the drone, called Aquila, is to have it and others provide internet access to 4 billion people around the world who currently live in an internet black hole. "When Aquila is ready, it will be a fleet of solar-powered planes that will beam internet connectivity across the world," he wrote Thursday on Facebook. The drone's second flight was completed in May at Yuma Proving Ground, The Yuma Sun reported. The drone flew with more sensors, new spoilers and a horizontal propeller stopping system to help it better land after the crash in December.

As machine learning algorithms become increasingly sophisticated to exploit subtle features of the data, they often become more dependent on simulations. This paper presents a new approach called weakly supervised classification in which class proportions are the only input into the machine learning algorithm. Using one of the most challenging binary classification tasks in high energy physics - quark versus gluon tagging - we show that weakly supervised classification can match the performance of fully supervised algorithms. Furthermore, by design, the new algorithm is insensitive to any mis-modeling of discriminating features in the data by the simulation. Weakly supervised classification is a general procedure that can be applied to a wide variety of learning problems to boost performance and robustness when detailed simulations are not reliable or not available.

The Boeing Co. is investing an undisclosed amount in SparkCognition, helping the Austin, Tex.-based company close a $32.5 million funding round. Boeing's stake was placed through HorizonX, a venture it set up recently to direct investment capital for technology commercialization and new market access. SparkCognition develops "machine learning technology" -- i.e., artificial intelligence -- particularly for applications in information technology, energy, oil-and-gas, manufacturing, finance, aerospace, defense, telecommunications and security. Boeing was joined in the investment by Verizon Ventures, a private equity group. SparkCognition founder and CEO Amir Husain said the new investment "serves as tremendous validation of our technology and track record."

India is poised for a rapid climb when it comes to grids and factories incorporating self-healing concepts. The energy revolution is manifested in government programmes like access to reliable 24x7 power for all and the renewable energy target of 175GW by 2022. A lot of work is going on to include self-healing as part of the larger smart grid project, integration and balancing of renewable energy and the transmission and distribution (T&D) focus. The blackout and grid failure of 2012 underlined the need for self-healing grids which prevent damage from spreading across regions. From tractors to cement plants, biscuits to motorbikes, Indian industries are implementing sensor pilots or intelligent plant frameworks and driving the fourth industrial revolution.

Earlier this week, David Kenny, IBM Senior Vice President for Watson and Cloud, told the US Congress that Americans have nothing to fear from artificial intelligence, and that the prospects of technological unemployment and the rise of an "AI overlord" are pernicious myths. The remarks were as self-serving as they were reckless, revealing the startling degree to which IBM is willing to forfeit the future for the sake of the present. Congressman John Delaney (MD-6) recently launched the Artificial Intelligence (AI) Caucus for the 115th Congress, the purpose of which is to "inform policymakers of the technological, economic and social impacts of advances in AI and to ensure that rapid innovation in AI and related fields benefits Americans as fully as possible." The caucus, which is being co-chaired by Congressman Pete Olson (TX-22), recently had tete-a-tetes with Amazon and Google. Now, it's had an opportunity to hear what IBM--the tech firm responsible Watson, an overhyped cognitive computing that made a name for itself by defeating the world's greatest Jeopardy champions--has to say.

"We want to predict -X-." Fill in any desirable topic on the location of the X and you have the formulation of a use-case in the way many companies today think about analytics use-cases. In order of increasing probability of success of such use-cases: X equals the winning lottery number, the future price of crude oil, windows falling from high-rise buildings (not kidding; actual use-case) and finally, a customer buying a mortgage. The word'identification' here hints at the effort involved. Identifying a use-case resembles doing a reconstruction of your house: rather than dreaming up a random extension to your house, you will consider in great care its purpose, its sizing and its connection to the existing structure.