This is your AI Daily Roundup today. We are covering the top updates from around the world. The updates will feature state-of-the-art capabilities in artificial intelligence (AI), Machine Learning, Robotic Process Automation, Fintech, and human-system interactions. We cover the role of AI Daily Roundup and its application in various industries and daily lives. Canon Europe announces the launch of two new super-telephoto lenses, the RF 800mm F5.6L IS USM and the RF 1200mm F8L IS USM.

Zephyr, a solar-powered unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) built by Airbus, was used to deliver next generation wireless internet, as part of a test flight over Arizona. Airbus was testing the'High Altitude Platform Station' (HAPS), onboard the British-built UAV, as part of an 18-day flight in the stratosphere, 76,100ft above the surface. The test was in partnership with Japanese mobile operator, NTT DOCOMO, and could one day lead to super-fast broadband in remote areas, without the need to send a fleet of satellites into low Earth orbit, according to Airbus. It carried an onboard radio transmitter that let it provide a datalink to simulate future systems that would send internet signals between the UAV and a computer. The successful test could pave the way for a fleet of Zephyr aircraft delivering 5G and 6G mobile internet to the most remote parts of the planet, or providing a short-term signal boost during a major event in a densely populated area, Airbus says.

Otter.ai, an A.I.-powered transcription app and note-takers' best friend, has received a strategic investment from Japan's leading mobile operator and new Otter partner, NTT DOCOMO Inc. The two companies are teaming up to support Otter's expansion into the Japanese market where DOCOMO will be integrating Otter with its own A.I.-based translation service subsidiary, Mirai Translation, in order to provide accurate English transcripts which are then translated into Japanese. The investment was made by DOCOMO's wholly-owned subsidiary, NTT DOCOMO Ventures, Inc., but the size was undisclosed. However, the new round was $10 million in total, we're told. To date, Otter has raised $23 million in funding from NTT DOCOMO Ventures, Fusion Fund, GGV Capital, DFJ Dragon Fund, Duke University Innovation Fund, Harris Barton Asset Management, Slow Ventures, Horizons Ventures, and others.

There's plenty in the way of competition in the audio transcription market, which is estimated to be worth $31.82 billion by 2025. But AISense -- the startup behind speech-to-text service Otter -- has managed to carve out a niche for itself in the four years since its founding. Today the company confirmed to VentureBeat that it has raised $10 million in a round led by strategic backer NTT Docomo's Docomo Ventures, with participation from Fusion Fund, GGV, Dragon Dragon Fund, Duke University Innovation Fund, Harris Barton Asset Management, Slow Ventures, and others. This brings AISense's total venture capital raised to $23 million, following previous rounds totaling $13 million. As part of Docomo's investment, the Tokyo-based mobile phone operator says it's piloting Otter in Berlitz's English language classes in Japan.

Otter.ai to Bring AI-Powered Meeting Note Collaboration Service to Japan in partnership with NTT DOCOMO Partnership includes Investment and Customer Trials of Otter's Real-Time Transcription Los Altos, CA, January 23, 2020 –Otter.ai DOCOMO made a strategic investment in Otter through its wholly-owned subsidiary NTT DOCOMO Ventures, Inc. and announced plans for its AI-based translation service subsidiary to integrate Otter's meeting note collaboration into its offering to provide highly accurate English transcripts translated into Japanese. As a part of Otter's customer engagement with DOCOMO the Otter Voice Meeting Notes application is being used on a trial basis in Berlitz Corporation's English language classes in Japan. Students use Otter to transcribe and review the content of lessons, click on sections of text, and initiate voice playback. DOCOMO, Otter.ai and Berlitz are expanding their collaboration in language education to verify Otter's effectiveness in the study of English DOCOMO is featuring Otter during demonstrations at the DOCOMO Open House 2020, taking place in the Tokyo Big Sight exhibition complex January 23 and 24, 2020.

Toyota just brought your dreams of an Avatar-like proxy one step closer to reality. Teaming with NTT Docomo, it remotely controlled its T-HR3 humanoid robot over a 5G network from a distance of 10 kilometers (6.2 miles). So far the bot, first unveiled a year ago, has only been controlled over a direct wired connection. "This time, with an eye toward improved use in practical environments, the T-HR3 was successfully controlled wirelessly," Toyota said in a press release. The T-HR3, Toyota's third-generation humanoid robot, was designed from the get-go to be remote-controlled by a human. The operators strap themselves into a base with wearable hand, arm and foot controls, along with a head-mounted display that lets them view the world from the robot's perspective.

Japanese businesses will share industrial data with members of other sectors and even direct rivals in hopes of boosting productivity overall, through a private initiative led by retailer Seven & i Holdings and a separate government platform. Advances in artificial intelligence enable companies to use so-called big data in ways they could not before, to seek deeper understanding of customer behavior. For instance, pooling information from Seven & i's 23 million daily customer interactions and mobile provider NTT Docomo's network of 76 million mobile subscribers could help pinpoint areas where everyday shopping is inconvenient, which would help with planning the expansion of online supermarkets. Combining knowledge of people's movements and tastes could also help with building attractive towns and planning store locations. From June, Seven & i -- the department store operator and parent of convenience store giant Seven-Eleven Japan -- will link up with nine other companies, including Docomo, railway operator Tokyu, trading company Mitsui & Co. and megabank Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group.

On a Friday evening, it's fairly easy to guess the downtown hot spots where taxis likely are needed. But most of the time, cab drivers have little more than intuition to go on to find their next fare. That could change for cab drivers in Japan when NTT Docomo commercializes its artificial intelligence technology, which predicts where ride requests will be. Using ridership data from 4,425 cabs, along with other factors such as weather and mobile phone data and locations, NTT Docomo trained its AI system to predict where localized ride demand will be in 30 minutes within a 500-square-meter area. Drivers participating in its trials used tablets that provided updated ridership data every 10 minutes, which gave drivers enough time to reposition their vehicle based on anticipated requests.

If you've ever been struggling with a foreign language dictionary abroad, wishing that you could simply speak into a machine and have your chat translated for you, NTT (News - Alert) Docomo may be ready to make your wish come true. The company, which is Japan's number one cell phone carrier is about to begin offering a new real-time speech-to-speech translation service that you can use both in person and over the phone during a call, according to Geek.com According to Japanese news services, the solution is the first automated chat translation service in the world that is available on a standard cell phone. The new product combines several cutting-edge technologies: advanced speech recognition, machine translation and text-to-speech conversion of the translated results, says Geek.com. The services to power the solution will be cloud-based, says NTT Docomo.