Drone-maker AeroVironment has developed a handheld quadcopter that it says can be carried by soldiers on the battlefield and quickly deployed to get an aerial look at a potentially hostile location. The drone, called Snipe Nano Quad, has retractable rotor arms so it can be carried in a compact form and unpacked when needed. It weighs just 140 grams (5 ounces). It's equipped with cameras that can send a visible or infrared image back to a handheld controller unit. The infrared view provides a way to see the body heat of a person who may be hidden. The drone has a top speed of around 20 miles per hour and a radio range of about 1 kilometer.

For Joseph Qualls, it all started with video games. That got him "messing around with an AI program," and ultimately led to a PhD in electrical and computer engineering from the University of Memphis. Soon after, he started his own company, called RenderMatrix, which focused on using AI to help people make decisions. Much of the company's work has been with the Defense Department, particularly during the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, when the military was at the cutting edge in the use of sensors and seeing how AI could be used to help train soldiers to function in a hostile, unfamiliar environment. Qualls is now a clinical assistant professor and researcher at the University of Idaho's college of engineering, and he hasn't lost any of his fascination with the potential of AI to change many aspects of modern life.

While artificial intelligence continues to become a part of everyday life for consumers, the technology has gathered a pretty impressive collection of critics and fear mongers. The Amazon founder and CEO paints a fairly rosy picture when it comes to A.I.--and he thinks there should be much more of it. The comments came at a gala Friday put on by the Internet Association, a Washington, D.C.-based lobbyist group. During a fireside chat with the group's CEO, Michael Beckerman, Bezos said we are currently in the "golden age" of machine learning. "We are solving problems with machine learning and artificial intelligence that were in the realm of science fiction for the last several decades," he said.

Amir Moravej, an Iranian computer engineer in Montreal, quietly worked last year on building software to help people navigate the Canadian immigration system. He saw it as a way for others to avoid the same immigration travails he suffered a few years earlier. Then came the American presidential election. "Trump accelerated everything," said Mr. Moravej, 33, the chief executive of a software start-up named Botler AI. With immigration taking center stage in American politics and elsewhere, Botler AI began putting more resources into building a chatbot tailored to one of Canada's immigration programs.

U.S. officials have told airlines to "be prepared" for an expanded ban on carry-on electronic devices allowed on airplanes. Homeland Security spokesman David Lapan confirmed to reporters Tuesday that the administration is considering expanding the ban on laptops, which currently applies to U.S.-bound flights from eight countries in the Middle East and North Africa. An expanded ban on devices larger than cellphones could potentially include "more than a couple" other regions, including flights from Western Europe. Lapan reminded reporters that DHS Secretary John Kelly has alluded to the ban "likely" being expanded. DHS officials, however, are still deciding where and how the new restrictions will be implemented.

The Air Force has a secret space robot called the X-37B. We know this because the Air Force is very proud of the X-37B, though we don't know exactly why, and the Air Force won't really say. It returned to earth last night, after almost two years in space, and it did so with a not-so-secret sonic boom, heard by residents in the greater Orlando metropolitan area, 24th largest in the United States. When the X-37B landed yesterday, it was after 718 days conducting "on-orbit experiments," according to the Air Force. It's hard to say, specifically because the people in charge are only referring to the mission in vague terms.

Drone-maker AeroVironment Inc unveiled a small four-rotor surveillance helicopter on Tuesday that can be carried in a small pouch and launched from the palm of a hand. The smaller size and simplicity of operation means it can used by ordinary soldiers, offering squads and other small military units the kind of surveillance capacity previously reserved for larger military units, where drones are operated by specialists. AeroVironment said it delivered 20 of the 5-ounce (140-gram) Snipe unmanned aircraft to its first U.S. government client in April. The company declined to identify the government agency that purchased the drones, but Aviation Week reported last year that AeroVironment was developing prototypes for the U.S. Army. AeroVironment said the drone benefited from advances in technology achieved in the development of its Nano Hummingbird drone for DARPA, the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, which has been responsible for many technological and scientific breakthroughs used by the military.

Drone-maker AeroVironment Inc unveiled a small four-rotor surveillance helicopter on Tuesday that can be carried in a small pouch and launched from the palm of a hand.

AeroVironment said it delivered 20 of the 5-ounce (140-gram) Snipe unmanned aircraft to its first U.S. government client in April. The company declined to identify the government agency that purchased the drones, but Aviation Week reported last year that AeroVironment was developing prototypes for the U.S. Army.

The Internet of Things (IoT) is an uninterrupted connected network of embedded objects/ devices with identifiers without any human intervention using standard and communication protocol. It provides encryption, authorization and identification with different device protocols like MQTT, STOMP or AMQP to securely move data from one network to another. IoT in connected Government helps to deliver better citizen services and provides transparency. It improves the employee productivity and cost savings. It helps in delivering contextual and personalized service to citizens and enhances the security and improves the quality of life.