Intel is deploying hi-tech drones to help spot parts of the Great Wall of China that have fallen into disrepair. The chipmaker is sending some Falcon 8 drones to shoot aerial photos of the famous Jiankou section of the wall, which is known for its steep climbs and scenic views. Due to its thick vegetation and centuries old materials, the areas has'naturally weathered' and requires repair -- a process that can be made easier by using drones, Intel said. Intel, which is partnering with the China Foundation for Cultural Heritage Conservation for the project, will send its Falcon drones to take aerial photos that will then be converted into high-definition images. Artificial intelligence will create a visual representation of the Great Wall to identify areas that are in need of repair and plan the safest way to restore them.

A solar-powered spy drone that can fly for a year without maintenance or fuel could one day carry out missions for the British military. The Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV) uses the sun to power its engines during the day as well as recharge its batteries for overnight operation. Known as Phasa-35, the aircraft could one day be used for surveillance and provide vital communications to remote areas at altitudes of up to 70,000ft (21,000m). Work is already underway to prepare the first drone for flight tests in 2019, according to British defence giant BAE Systems, which is developing the aircraft. A solar-powered spy drone (artist's impression) that can fly for a year without maintenance or fuel could one day carry out missions for the British military Engineers from BAE and Farnborough-based firm Prismatic announced Thursday they would collaborate on the development of the UAV.

Bees are getting extinct due to variety of issues such as: pollution, pesticides, fungicides, climate change, etc. Lately Walmart applied for patent with the U.S. Patent Office for drone pollinators designed to fly from plant to plant, collecting pollen from one and transferring to other. Robotics is already being implemented in strawberry harvesting, fresh-fruit picking, data mapping and seeding. The autonomous tractors might also capture a commonplace. Recently, an interactive presentation at Colorado State University, shared the overview of future of farming by the presenters Raj Khosla and Tom McKinnon. Khosla discussed the 5 R's of precision agriculture: "at the right time, in the right amount, at the right place, use of the right input, in the right manner."

You may know Airbus as that Boeing competitor that also makes planes, but the European company is in fact an defense and aerospace giant that makes helicopters, satellites, and drones, and now it's using its aircraft not just to move people, but to give those on the ground a whole new view from the skies. A year-old effort called Airbus Aerial will seek to serve climate modelers, farmers, city planners, engineers, first responders, and anybody else who needs a a particular view of the world. The company combines data from observation satellites (of which Airbus is the largest global operator), manned planes with cameras slung underneath, and drones, to get to the places others can't reach. Airbus Aerial packages it all up, and presents it neatly to the customer, via a cloud-based interface. "It's a very complex thing to just say'I need satellite data'," says Jesse Kallman, president of the company.

Drones and crawlers may be a stepping stone. Norwegian oil producer Statoil is eying an unmanned, remotely operated production concept. Noble Drilling and General Electric Co this year launched a partnership to produce a fully digitized drilling vessel, work the companies said paves the way for an autonomous drilling fleet.

A provider of drone-based aerial intelligence solution, named Kespry, declared some new capabilities that includes on-site processing of drone-captured roof inspection data; a virtual test square (VTS) to support claims decision-making in minutes; and enhanced automated hail detection. "For insurance carriers and their clients, the faster an accurate roof damage assessment can happen, the better. Touchless claims will rapidly become the industry standard," states George Mathew, CEO of Kespry. The new'touchless inspection' includes- claim adjusters or roof inspectors (inspection to be carried via drone), VTS and automated hail-damage detection driven by machine learning algorithms. "Kespry allows me to more efficiently and safely evaluate and measure a greater number of roofs on a daily basis," explained Jim Grabowski, loss recovery specialist at Frontline Insurance.

SAN JOSE--Every spring, Facebook throws a splashy conference for app and web developers, the barnacles of its massive online ecosystem. But this year's F8 came at a supremely awkward time: In the aftermath of the Cambridge Analytica scandal, the company has begun to scrub its depths, making life more annoying for developers whose products depend on tapping into Facebook's valuable deposits of user data. For years, in fact, access to that data was one way Facebook lured developers into working with the platform. In recent weeks, Facebook has limited developers' access to data on Facebook events and guest lists plus users' login information, religious affiliation, relationship status, work history, call and text history, and more. That's meant that a company with an app that, say, syncs groups invitations with Facebook events, like a gift registry, or that links Facebook friend information to its own users whether they have acquaintances in common, like dating apps, could be forced to rejigger chunks of their business model or at least ask their users to agree to new privacy conditions and get new approvals from Facebook.

Click to learn more about author Cathy Nolan. Americans have long been divided in their views about the trade-off between security needs and personal privacy including data privacy. Much of the attention has been on how government collects data or uses surveillance, though there are also significant concerns about how businesses use data. When a terrorist attack happens, people tend to favor more surveillance by the government but at the same time some people are becoming increasingly concerned about their privacy and protecting their civil liberties. New information about the extent that digital technologies have captured and sold a wide array of data about individual's habits, preferences, prejudices, and personalities have alerted people to the amount of data they have provided, either willingly or unwittingly, to data brokers.

Drones work is amazing, and the wonderful images we are able to experience is all because of the great photographers. Jani Ylinampa, the nature photographer captured the beauty of Kotisaari Island during the four seasons with his drone. Back in 2015, Jani took an aerial photo of the idyllic island nestled in the Kemi river, and the image went viral on social media, and he returned back to capture more of this beauty. "The seasonal changes in Lapland are drastic and this little island is the perfect way to display them," says Jani. This beautifully captured island is four miles from the Arctic Circle and temperature drop to well below freezing during winter months.

Starship's delivery robots collect food or drinks from a business park's canteen before bringing it to the front door of a particular building. Srivathsan Canchi is one of "thousands" of office workers at the sprawling headquarters of technology firm Intuit who has been ordering his coffee from a robot. There's no need for the product manager to stand in line anymore, all the more useful since he injured his foot. Instead he opens the Starship Technologies app on his phone, and orders his caffeinated drink. Around 15 minutes later, a dog-sized robot on wheels rolls around the corner to meet Canchi at the front of his building.