A self-locking mailbox could someday flag down delivery drones and intelligently screen your driveway for intruders. Columbus State University computer scientist Lydia Ray presented the technology, called the ADDSMART project, during a 20 October session at the annual IEEE Ubiquitous Computing, Electronics, and Mobile Communication Conference in New York City. The project aims to achieve two goals: clearly marking addresses for autonomous vehicles, and reducing the energy and data storage costs of home surveillance systems. An early prototype mailbox attachment suggests that the trick, in both cases, may be radio-frequency identification. Powered by an Arduino Yun processor, one component of the ADDSMART device controls a high-frequency 13.56-MHz RFID reader, USB camera, passive-infrared motion sensor, solenoid lock, and an onboard Wi-Fi module.

The Ring Video Doorbell is the world's first battery-operated, Wi-Fi enabled, HD video doorbell. The device enables homeowners to see and speak with visitors from anywhere in the world by streaming live audio and video of a home's front doorstep directly to the free iOS or Android app. The doorbell's built-in motion sensors detect movement up to 30 feet, and HD video recording stores all recorded footage to the cloud which can be accessed via the Ring app. The Ring Doorbell is quick and easy to set up as it mounts and syncs in minutes and has a built in battery, however, it can also be powered through your existing doorbell wires. Over 11,000 people have reviewed the Ring Video Doorbell on Amazon (read reviews) and have given it an average of 4 out of 5 stars.

The core of HG Data's business lies in gathering raw documents, which it processes and delivers as a feed or flat file to customers. The data platform uses proprietary natural language algorithms to process the documents. The algorithms have intelligence built-in to identify appropriate language and syntax. For example, if a document is a job description for a global sales position requires experience with a customer relationship management (CRM) system, the platform's algorithms can distinguish between "a global salesforce using a CRM" and "the Salesforce CRM." The company collects documents from private sources and receives the data in batch loads.

Stefanie Tellex, assistant professor of computer science at Brown University, is solving a thorny robotics problem: robotic grasp. She has built a machine learning model so that robots can automatically learn to manipulate objects and can produce much-needed sample data with which other researchers can use to train robots to pick up objects, she explained at the MIT Technology Review's EmTech conference. If you go to a robotics lab and put an object in front of a robot that it has not seen before, that robot will almost always not be able to pick up that object." It's a problem because a robot has to understand the task and the object from sensor information. The robot arm's controls need answers to important questions: what is the object shape, where is it, how should the robotic arm and gripper move into position and where is the right place to grip the object to pick it up?

The alliance is the latest by IBM in a bid to harness Watson's cognitive learning capabilities to benefit millions of college students and professors. The announcement follows a separate agreement announced at the end of June between IBM and Blackboard, and the roll out of an IBM Watson-enabled app for Apple earlier this month, among other initiatives. For Pearson, the alliance represents a chance to combine its global offering of digital learning products with IBM's cognitive learning platform in an effort to give students a more immersive learning experience with their college courses. And it promises to give instructors greater insights about how well students are navigating through their courses. To accomplish that, Watson will essentially ingest and analyze all of Pearson courseware.

Symantec have debuted Symantec Endpoint Protection 14, the next evolution in endpoint innovation from the industry leader in endpoint security. Powered by artificial intelligence on the endpoint and in the cloud, Symantec Endpoint Protection 14 is the industry's first solution to fuse essential endpoint technologies with advanced machine learning and memory exploit mitigation in a single agent, delivering a multi-layered solution able to stop advanced threats and respond at the endpoint regardless of how the attack is launched. Symantec Endpoint Protection delivers powerful protection in a lightweight package, building on industry-leading 99.9% efficacy, low false positives and a 70% reduced footprint over the previous generation through new advanced cloud lookup capabilities. Powered by combined threat intelligence capabilities made possible by integrating Symantec and Blue Coat's security telemetry, Symantec now protects 175 million consumer and enterprise endpoints, 163 million email users, 80 million web proxy users, and processes nearly eight billion security requests across these products every day. Powered by combined threat intelligence capabilities made possible by integrating Symantec and Blue Coat's security telemetry, Symantec now protects 175 million consumer and enterprise endpoints, 163 million email users, 80 million web proxy users, and processes nearly eight billion security requests across these products every day.

The motorcycles being developed use the Emotion Generation Engine and Natural Language Dialogue System*1. From the words spoken by the rider, this AI-controlled system can pick up on the rider's intent and emotional state. Enabling rider and motorcycle to communicate and share an understanding of purpose will open the door to a new world of unprecedented riding experiences. Accessing Kawasaki's bank of analytical chassis and running data stored on a cloud-based data center or referencing the vast amount of information available on the Internet, the system will be able to offer the rider pertinent hints for enhanced riding enjoyment, or relay safety-related or reassuring advice as the situation dictates. Through advanced electronic-management technology, having the system update machine settings based on the rider's experience, skill and riding style will also be possible.

As of last month, Google, Facebook, Amazon, IBM and Microsoft are all joining forces to create a new AI partnership called the Partnership on Artificial Intelligence to Benefit People and Society. The collaboration, aside from having a lengthy name, will advance public understanding of AI, and agree on a list of standards for future development. Although there's currently a clear domestic trend, AI has uses that stretch beyond analysing the traffic. A number of companies involved with AI research are looking well beyond family applications. Right now, though, the immediate aim seems to be to get consumers to adopt AI as part of their everyday lives.

With all of the recent advancements in neural networks and deep learning technology, true artificial intelligence (AI) is now closer than ever. Autonomous cars, smart homes, and personal digital assistants living in our phones and connected speakers are not so far-fetched anymore, and the same goes for robot butlers. Speaking of which, the Chinese consumer electronics manufacturer Omate just debuted Yumi, an Android-powered assistant described as "the world's first family robot." If that name sounds familiar, it's because Omate also happens to be the company which makes some impressive Android smartwatches like the Omate TrueSmart . Following that product philosophy which is trying to offer something that consumers aren't asking for, but could still find attractive, Omate designed Yumi.

MIT Technology Review's EmTech conference is all about looking to the future of tech and what's more futuristic than artificial intelligence? If you are up to date with the latest news on AI, or maybe you've just watched a few episodes of HBO's Westworld, you might be wondering how soon your job will be replaced by a robot. But if the presentation at MIT's EmTech conference this year is any indication, while artificial intelligence is at an impressive point, we're still far off from robot domination. To emphasize that point, Dileep George, co-founder of Vicarious, an organization working on next-generation AI algorithms, showed video of robots falling over in silly situations in his presentation, Artificial Intelligence at Work. The footage not only got some laughs, it also highlighted the vast limitations of current robotics.