Z Advanced Computing, Inc. (ZAC) of Potomac, MD announced on August 27 that it is funded by the US Air Force, to use ZAC's detailed 3D image recognition technology, based on Explainable-AI, for drones (unmanned aerial vehicle or UAV) for aerial image/object recognition. ZAC is the first to demonstrate Explainable-AI, where various attributes and details of 3D (three dimensional) objects can be recognized from any view or angle. "With our superior approach, complex 3D objects can be recognized from any direction, using only a small number of training samples," said Dr. Saied Tadayon, CTO of ZAC. "For complex tasks, such as drone vision, you need ZAC's superior technology to handle detailed 3D image recognition." "You cannot do this with the other techniques, such as Deep Convolutional Neural Networks, even with an extremely large number of training samples. That's basically hitting the limits of the CNNs," continued Dr. Bijan Tadayon, CEO of ZAC.

The 2019 World Artificial Intelligence (AI) Conference (WAIC) took place in Shanghai (China) on 27 August. The Conference was devoted to AI applications in relation to Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS). The Conference was sponsored by the Government of the Jinshan District, which hosts the "UAS Base", and organised by the Aircraft owner and Pilot Association (AOPA) of China. In was attended by about 200 international experts from several countries of the world. In addition to Chinese experts, presentations were delivered by speakers coming from Germany, Malaysia, Korea, Thailand, USA and Italy.

Considering the way Artificial Intelligence is influencing the IT industry, the day is not far when we will receive our delivery packages by robots. Artificial Intelligence (AI) is delivering commendable results in the field of automation. Right from Siri to self-driven cars, AI has helped not only to cut down the mundane manual processes but also has redefined these tasks in a more engaging, attractive and innovative way. As per Markets and Markets Research, the AI market is expected to reach $190 billion by 2025. Needless to say, most of the companies will compete in this race to stand first.

The Fire and Disaster Management Agency will train firefighters to operate drones in an attempt to promote the use of drone technology in disaster response efforts. The agency will offer firefighters from across the country a training course from the second half of fiscal 2019, awarding those who have completed the course the role of "drone operation adviser." It plans to train a total of 135 personnel by fiscal 2023, and dispatch them as instructors to fire departments that have yet to introduce drone technology. Drones are anticipated to play a key role in reaching places that cannot be reached by firefighters and helicopters. For example, a drone fitted with a thermographic camera can identify sources of fire and give a clearer picture of the damage in large-scale fires. In landslide disasters, drones can be used to search for missing people.

Jennifer Griffin predicts Trump's military response to Iran shooting down a U.S. drone would be much different if an American had been injured or killed. Iran is still feeling the pain after U.S. cyber military forces brought down a database used by its Revolutionary Guard Corps to target ships in the Persian Gulf, hours after the Islamic Republic shot down an American drone, officials say. The retaliatory cyberattack on June 20 focused on a system that Iran uses to determine which oil tankers and marine traffic it should go after, a senior U.S. official told the New York Times. As of Thursday, Iran has yet to recover all of the data lost in the attack and is trying to restore military communication networks linked to the database, the newspaper added. President Trump reportedly signed off on the U.S. Cyber Command's strike though the government has not publicly acknowledged it happened, according to the Washington Post.

This report on global Drone Analytics market is a detailed research study that helps provides answers and pertinent questions with respect to the emerging trends and growth opportunities in this particular industry. It helps identify each of the prominent barriers to growth, apart from identifying the trends within various application segments of the global market. The global Drone Analytics market size was 2.3 million US$ and it is expected to reach 5.6 million US$ by the end of 2025, with a CAGR of 10.4% during 2019-2025. Based on industry, the drone analytics market has been segmented into agriculture & forestry, construction, insurance, mining & quarrying, utility, telecommunication, oil & gas, transportation, scientific research, and others. The construction segment is projected to grow at the highest CAGR during the forecast period.

Mix the rise of e-commerce in Japan with a chronic labor shortage and a graying society and what do you get? "I'm delivering delicious food," announced CarriRo Deli, a robot the size of a cooler box that was navigating a South Korean apartment complex in April, bringing food and drinks to residents during a trial of its "last-mile" delivery service. The robot's maker, Tokyo-based ZMP Inc., has already held a number of delivery trials at university campuses and elsewhere in Japan and is looking for partners to help it develop the business further. Aside from having a 50 kg cargo capacity and a speed of 6 kph, the robot speaks short phrases like "hello" and "thank you" and has LED eyes, a feature aimed at making it more lifelike and engaging when interacting with people. "It would be scary if a simple box was running around places," ZMP Manager Hiromasa Iwano explained at a gathering in Tokyo in late July, adding the company took into account how people would react to the robots. "We wanted to create a robot that is well-received, socially." ZMP CEO Hisashi Taniguchi said at the same event that CarriRo Deli was the world's only autonomous delivery robot with eyes when it was revealed last year, noting that although eyes had long been a feature industrial designers avoided, others are now following suit.

Intermap Technologies ("Intermap"), a global leader in geospatial intelligence solutions, today announced the launch of its Lido Surface Data NEXTView ("NEXTView") data solution, co-developed with Lufthansa Systems, for the Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS) market. NEXTView is a high-accuracy, global 3D elevation dataset customized for aviation applications. It is continually refreshed to ensure currency and compliance with regulatory update requirements. The UAS market is composed of Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs, or drones) and the control systems that fly them. It is a critical time for UAS technology as it expands in many commercial, government and military applications around the world.

BEIRUT – Lebanese army gunners opened fired at two of three Israeli reconnaissance drones Wednesday after they entered Lebanese airspace, a security official and the state news agency said, amid heightened tensions between the two countries. The incident occurred in the village of Adeisseh, a few kilometers (miles) from the Israeli border. The security official told The Associated Press that the drones left Lebanese airspace after being fired on and that none of them was shot down. The official spoke on condition of anonymity in line with regulations. The incident came just days after an alleged Israeli drone crashed in a Hezbollah stronghold in southern Beirut, landing on the militant group's Beirut media office while another exploded midair and crashed nearby. Hassan Nasrallah, leader of the Iran-backed Hezbollah, called it an act of aggression and vowed to retaliate and confront Israeli drones in Lebanese skies from now on.

The National Association of Insurance Commissioners recently created the Innovation and Technology Task Force to "explore the technological developments in the insurance sector." It cited the rise of artificial intelligence as one of the key issues that the task force would address, citing the technology's "potential to transform the insurance industry in a number of ways." The message is being received loud and clear: adapt or be left behind. The insurance industry has historically been a laggard compared to other industries when it comes adoption of new technologies. However, the industry should be credited for embracing recent advances in technology, most notably the use of computer vision (a form of AI) and drones, to automate or assist with what would have previously been arduous and/or dangerous tasks.