IoT technology in the manufacturing industry lets businesses implement digital transformation. The technology includes advanced sensor devices, gateway connectivity, and a dashboard for the managers to simplify their workload and improve all aspects of industrial production.
It can be quite difficult for manufacturing industries to keep an eye on machine health. It affects performance, and when a piece of equipment causes failure or faces downtime, it disrupts production, incurs costs and damages business processes.
It is usually caused by unplanned maintenance of the machine, tool breaks, undefined adjustments and unattended leakages. Every minute the machine is left unaddressed during its downtime phase, excess revenue is likely to get lost.
Such challenges discourage production and cause untimely delays, leading to huge maintenance costs. The managers thus seek a better solution upon which they can rely and gain valuable insights to minimize the challenges – and IoT technology is one option.

IoT in the manufacturing industry
The manufacturing sector is loaded with giant pieces of machinery and all kinds of equipment that contribute to the production process. IoT technology uses sensor devices, gateway connectivity and an operable dashboard, which form a complete IoT architecture that gets installed with the existing industrial setup. This setup provides a reliable source of processing with the industrial operations according to managerial, manufacturing or business parameters.
A main goal of IoT within manufacturing is smart factory creation. Many manufacturers opt to install smart software within their businesses and IoT technology. It strongly boosts a brand image for any business and ensures productivity along with scalability. IoT transforms many industries through advanced techniques; manufacturing is no exception.
Continue reading: https://internetofthingsagenda.techtarget.com/post/5-ways-IoT-can-improve-manufacturing-downtime

As per a study, 91.5 percent of the firms are reported to have an interest in investing in artificial intelligence technology. Growth in the use of automation, 5G, databases, cloud computing, and much more are driving the demand for artificial intelligence.
Various industries are incorporating AI in their processes to improve customer experience and business operations. Small and medium enterprises are utilizing this technology to optimize performance and functions at minimum costs.
The ability of AI to detect cyber threats is anticipated to drive its integration in the cybersecurity services. For instance, in August 2021, Stellar Cyber, a next-generation security platform collaborated with BlackBerry, the iconic smartphone brand, to accelerate the utilization of AI security solutions by MSSPs (Managed Service Providers) and enterprises. 
How AI is Used in Business Currently?
Key industry players such as Azure Cognitive Services, IBM, and Einstein AI platform are incorporating AI in businesses for optimized infrastructure, cloud tools, and to meet the demand for virtualization.
Manufacturing, retail, telecom and IT are businesses that can use AI in the future. The potential to enhance product quality, manage inventory, decrease downtime, and real-time forecasting by AI solutions is surging these businesses. Here are three ways in which businesses are using AI in today’s time. 
1. To Augment Customer Experience
Dynamic and competitive business environment coupled with customer engagement is driving the adoption of AI technology, in order to provide personalized services in real-time. Businesses such as e-commerce, financial services, healthcare, and other industries are shifting towards AI to build customer experience.
For instance, in December 2021, TPG Inc., a customer experience provider platform declared the launch of Anna -- an AI-powered customer experience platform that is capable of evaluating more than 15,000 percent interactions. This technology can offer views on every chat and call communications with the customers.
AI streamlines online experience for the users and helps consumers discover relevant products. This technology enhances customer experience by offering a personalized search. For instance, Netflix displays a different home screen for each user based on the data acquired on their views, preferences, and search history.
AI-driven search saves users the time required to scroll through multiple pages and prevents frustration caused due to impersonal searches. Further, 24/7 customer support provided by AI via chats, emails, messaging, and voice helps companies surge their businesses.
Since AI has the capacity to analyze surplus data in limited time, it utilizes predictive analytics to produce insights that estimates the interactions between a brand and customer. This predictive engagement provides knowledge on how and when to communicate with customers.
2. For Predictive Analytics
AI predictive tools enable physicians to be effective in workflows, make treatment plans, and medical decisions. Artificial intelligence technology analyzes surplus data gathered from EHR/EMR or telemedicine platforms, hence predicting diseases, diagnosis, patients’ needs, and medications.
Continue reading: https://betanews.com/2022/01/29/artificial-intelligence-and-business/

This week, America’s first blockchain-based stock exchange obtained regulatory approval from the Securities and Exchange. In a filing the SEC uploaded to its website on late Thursday evening, it said the Boston Security Token Exchange (BSTX) could use the nascent technology to offer faster trade settlements. Compared to a traditional exchange where it typically takes two days to settle a trade, BSTX will offer same-day and next-day settlements. It will also use a private blockchain to offer a market feed that will allow members to see their own trades, as well as that of others, on an anonymous basis.
Continue reading: https://www.engadget.com/bstx-sec-approval-201511318.html

When it comes to cybersecurity, the K-12 education sector has room to grow.
According to a study on K-12 cloud security by ManagedMethods, 86% of surveyed district-level school administrators reported either using or planning to implement cloud-based student data management programs — but half of respondents did not have or were unsure if they had a cybersecurity platform in place to protect that data.
School administrators in charge of K-12 cybersecurity deal with a myriad of challenges while navigating how best to secure the data of their students and staff. Andy Lombardo, Director of Technology at Maryville City Schools in Tennessee, and Charlie Sander, CEO of ManagedMethods, discuss the current threat landscape and how school administrators and IT directors can best maintain data privacy in their communities.
Challenges of K-12 data privacy
The cybersecurity knowledge gaps in the K-12 sector present opportunities for cyberattacks on unprepared systems. “One of the main data privacy challenges K12 cybersecurity leaders face today comes down to detection,” according to Lombardo. “The education industry in general is a bit further behind other industries. There are a lot of cases where data breaches and compromises are either not reported or not known, and this can threaten data privacy if not addressed.”
Another challenge of securing school data is insider risk. “One of the biggest threats to data privacy are students and staff,” said Sander. “Accidental data leaks are most common because of someone improperly sharing or storing sensitive documents in their school-provided cloud shared drives. It’s important that administrators protect privacy from both external and internal exposure.”
How to start securing school data
Faced with knowledge gaps and cyber threats from internal and external sources, those responsible for K-12 cybersecurity should begin by assessing their organization’s threat and risk levels. Lombardo recommended looking into the Cybersecurity Self-Assessment from The K-12 Cybersecurity Resource Center and the cybersecurity standards from the K-12 Security Information Exchange (K12 SIX) as a starting point for school administrators in charge of data privacy.
“Districts also need to be proactive about auditing who has access to their data — vendors included,” said Lombardo. “The Student Data Privacy Consortium (SDPC) is an indispensable tool for data sharing agreements and localized student privacy resources. Getting started begins with identifying the data that is out there, who is accessing it, and what it is being used for.”
Continue reading: https://securityboulevard.com/2022/01/security-magazine-7-ways-k-12-cybersecurity-leaders-can-secure-school-data/

There are already more than 10 billion active Internet of Things (IoT) devices in existence and around 127 new devices per second connecting to the web, according to McKinsey & Company, and new connections are expected to increase by 20 times by 2025. Conservative estimates for the number of active IoT devices by 2030 are more than 25 billion. Some put the number into the hundreds of billions. IDC believes the IoT market will be worth around $1.6 trillion by 2025, according to Statista. That’s a lot of money and a lot of potential jobs.
Here are five areas of high IoT job potential:
1. IoT Hardware 
According to McKinsey & Company, hardware currently makes up about 30% of current IoT market value. Software and services make up the rest. And that 30% number is going to gradually fall over the years. Such facts might persuade many to avoid IoT hardware, but that would be a mistake. Thirty percent of hundreds of billions is a lot. And even if it drops to 20% in a decade, by then the market could be worth a great many trillions. In other words, spending on IoT hardware will increase for the foreseeable future.
For those with hardware and installation skills, there will be plenty of work to be had in IoT hardware. And those choosing this path will face less competition than the apparently more lucrative software and services markets.
2. IoT Software 
The most dynamic area of the IoT marketplace is software. Those developing new applications and faster systems will be in high demand. Those that can figure out how to connect IoT devices with other devices and feed data to enterprise systems and analytics platforms will be in the forefront of a revolution in the IT world.
3. IoT Services 
Hardware encompasses devices, sensors, and components to route data into central systems. Software is all about developing, deploying, and integrating systems. But sitting in the middle is the thriving IoT services space. Millions of integrators, resellers, technicians, and maintenance personnel will be needed to serve this market. In all likelihood, enterprises will outsource a lot of this to third-party IoT service specialists.
Continue reading: https://www.datamation.com/careers/iot-job-trends/

Crypto can mean different things to different people. For Alex Svanevik and Nansen, it means mostly smart contracts, DeFi and DAOs, with some NFTs thrown in for good measure.
Nansen is a blockchain analytics platform that analyzes 100M+ labeled wallets and their activity on Ethereum, Polygon, Avalanche, and many other Level 1 and Level 2 blockchains. Today, Nansen released its first State of the Crypto Industry Report, covering notable trends and insights across the cryptocurrency, NFT, and DeFi markets over 2021. 
We caught up with Nansen Co-Founder and CEO Alex Svanevik to discuss the report's findings, highlighting statistics and movement within key sectors of the blockchain industry as well as an outlook for 2022.
Ethereum is not the only game in town
Svanevik has a background in data science and analytics, and got into the blockchain scene in 2017. Nansen is an effort to apply data science and analytics and analytics in blockchain in order to gain insights. Nansen keeps tracks of transactions and wallets on a number of different blockchains, and combines that with other data.
Overall, 2021 has been a good year both for crypto at large, and for Nansen. The company grew from 7 to 80 people, which means there now is enough bandwidth to embark on this type of analysis to publish findings for a report.
Continue reading: https://www.zdnet.com/article/the-state-of-the-crypto-industry-today-a-multitude-of-blockchains-with-smart-contracts-defi-and-daos-on-the-rise/

In this episode of the IoT For All Podcast, The Things Industries CEO and Co-Founder Wienke Giezeman discusses the current IoT landscape, how it fits into the ongoing digital transformation, and aspects of IoT integrations for businesses. From challenges to solutions to embedded hardware, Wienke talks about topics businesses commonly encounter when a company is looking to integrate IoT. Wienke also gives guidance for businesses exploring IoT. He recommends that they do their technology exploration and spend time understanding any problems internally to ensure IoT is utilized properly when integrated.
Wienke Giezeman is the CEO and Co-Founder of The Things Industries, a LoRaWAN connectivity and services provider with over 150,000 users. He is also the initiator of The Things Network, the first crowdsourced free and open internet of things. With over 150,000 active members from over 100 countries worldwide, The Things Network brings together startups, developers, businesses, universities, and governments in building a public Internet of Things data network.
Continue reading: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HhdWjxfcosI

This week’s show starts with a healthy portion of chips, with the main course being Nvidia’s reported acceptance that its deal to acquire ARM isn’t likely to happen. We then turn to the U.S. Commerce Department’s plans to combat the chip shortage crisis, new ML chips from Silicon Labs, Google’s first TinyML Coral microcontroller, and an Arduino-like RISC-V product. Feeling full from all of this chip ingestion we discuss how Peloton is trying to work out its excess inventory challenge. Two smart tracking companies raised some funding this week: Pebblebee on the consumer side and newly launched Tag-n-Trac for shipping and logistics. We then discuss how Thread turned the Wemo Stage controller from “meh” to “must-have” and share details of new Philips Hue fixtures. Rounding out the episode is a listener question from Michael asking if Alexa can control his Google Nest thermostat.
Read more and listen in: https://staceyoniot.com/podcast-smart-home-improvement-is-now-a-thing/

Making predictions for the year ahead is an age-old tradition, but some are easier than others. For instance, saying 2022 will see a new Marvel movie is a pretty safe bet. Looking into a crystal ball and predicting technology movements is a lot harder — especially with factors like Covid, climate change and ongoing supply chain disruption adding so much chaos to the mix. There is also the risk that overblown promises for one technology or another can wear out readers, making them much less trusting of future predictions.
With all of this in mind, here are my predictions for technology in 2022 — not based on any clairvoyance, but on my understanding of technology, industry and society. 
AI 2.0 will do more heavy lifting, but won’t replace people.
People have always made overblown promises for AI, which have inevitably ended in a damp squib. But in 2022, we should start to see AI 2.0 come to the fore. What does this mean? If AI 1.0 was about improving operational efficiencies through automating repetitive tasks, then AI 2.0 will be characterized by reducing human involvement while helping people make better decisions. Ultimately, instead of being programmed to follow sequential instructions, computers will be "trained" to make concurrent, parallel computations and arrive at better insights, faster. This doesn’t make humans any less important in the decision-making process. But it does mean that AI will be able to analyze vast datasets, triage potential courses of action and present the human at the end with fewer, better options to choose from. Similarly, with the growing emergence of Web 3.0, consumers will be able to better and more effectively engage with businesses through the use of AI and machine learning. Indeed, AI 2.0 will be one of the key technologies that brings Web 3.0 closer to fruition.
Of course, data will be at the heart of this shift. AI already creates vast quantities of data, and AI 2.0 will create more than humans can manage manually. As such, it will be characterized by an autonomous approach to data management: machines managing machine-generated data to enable machines to help people make decisions. This means there will be a growing emphasis on explainability. The more of a role that AI has in managing and analyzing data, the more we’ll need to be able to see why and how it’s reached its decisions.
Everything we do will involve a digital interaction.
The digital and physical worlds will keep merging in our daily lives throughout 2022. From reviewing and rearranging our finances and managing doctor's appointments to buying and fitting new furniture, digital interactions will be an inevitable part of the experience, even if we do most of it in person. At the same time, the way in which we process these transactions will keep evolving, as we see new adoption of and uses for blockchain technologies such as cryptocurrencies and NFTs. IDC’s Data Age 2025 report certainly shares this perspective: It says that people’s digital daily interactions will jump to nearly 5,000 over the next three years, up from the 2020 average of 601.
Continue reading: https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2022/01/27/into-the-unknown-ai-edge-and-other-digital-predictions-for-2022/?sh=15a098f054a1

dge computing is gaining traction across industries thanks to its ability to provide new ways for businesses to maximise operational efficiency, automate core processes and improve overall performance. In essence, edge computing refers to computing that takes place close to the physical location where data is collected and monitored, instead of on a server or in the cloud.
ITWeb, in partnership with Dell Technologies and Intel, conducted an edge computing survey during December/January to investigate whether South African companies are considering infrastructure modernisation to take advantage of edge, 5G and Artificial Intelligence (AI) as well as As-a-Service models.
In a rapidly digitalising world, it comes as no surprise that the overwhelming majority of survey respondents (97%) believe that edge computing is essential to digital transformation. Tony Bartlett, Director Data Centre Compute at Dell Technologies South Africa, says: “We believe edge computing will be heavily sought after in 2022. With a multitude of IoT-enabled applications and their requirements for low latency, autonomy and security, it is becoming critical to get the compute function physically closer to where the data is being generated.”
Security, privacy and regulatory compliance were regarded as the top challenge when planning, deploying and managing edge solutions. Other challenges, listed in order of priority, were: difficulty managing IT operations across multiple environments; lack of expertise to turn analytic insights into actionable outcomes; environmental factors; lack of expertise to align business goals with use case-based solutions; and inability to capture, manage and organise large amounts of data.
 
5G set to transform IT operations
Almost all of the survey’s respondents (96%) said 5G would transform IT operations within the next three years. Just under a third (30%) of respondents said their organisations had invested in 5G technologies, while 37% said their organisation had plans to invest in 5G technology in the next 18 months.
Asked to rank the most important benefits of 5G, respondents placed the ability to accelerate application and network performance at the top of the list, followed by empowering workers through the use of emerging technologies such as virtual reality and augmented reality applications. Next was ranked enabling a hyper-connected world, followed by achieving freedom from hard-wired infrastructure and enabling resilience to augment hardwired networks.
Continue reading: https://www.itweb.co.za/content/G98Yd7LYAB6MX2PD

The lifeblood of business is data, and business stakeholders need at least a basic understanding of how their IT teams use and manage that data. There are three keys to understanding master data: what it is, what can happen if it’s badly managed, and the business stakeholder’s role in master data management (MDM).
The First Key: What Is Master Data?
Master data is the core data that is absolutely essential for operations within your enterprise, division, or department. Think of master data as the nouns representing key elements of your business.
In this example, the master data is in bold:
Buyer Name at Company placed an order for 20 of SKU XXXXX on MM-DD-YYYY and has been invoiced $10000.
Other types of data that are important for business leaders are transactional data and analytical data.
In this example, the transactional data is in bold:
Buyer Name at Company placed an order for 20 of SKU XXXXX on MM-DD-YYYY and has been invoiced $10000.
In line with the above examples, analytical data would be data that has been aggregated in order to identify patterns and trends of interest. For example, analytical data may comprise average order sizes for the company, seasonality of purchases, the regions where purchases are on average more than a certain dollar amount, and so on.

 
(NicoElNino/Shutterstock)
Because master data is key for many business processes and related IT systems, it needs to be managed and standardized, so it can be used seamlessly by IT processes across an organization. It also needs to be governed in line with risk management and regulatory compliance needs.
Customer, employee, or patient data may be master data, and privacy regulations like General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) and Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA) require governance and management of that data. Data about a business’s assets and locations may be master data, and will be needed to meet risk management policies.
Managing master data requires cross-functional collaboration across an organization, and business stakeholders must be part of those efforts.
The Second Key: What Can Happen If Master Data Is Not Well Managed?
If master data represents the most important aspects of your business, there are far-reaching consequences for it being poorly managed.
Challenges that arise with mismanaged master data include:

• Business process inefficiencies. Master data redundancies and inconsistencies are not uncommon, but can lead to friction in the business processes that rely on master data. For example, if a customer account is part of the master data in a Customer Relationship Management (CRM) application, and there are separate master data for a customer account in your organization’s Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) application, changes to one set of master data will increase the risk of errors that can lead to incorrect billing and unhappy customers.

Continue reading: https://www.datanami.com/2022/01/27/3-keys-to-understanding-master-data-management-for-business-leaders-cmos-and-coos/

Skye Controls & Design in Spencerport, New York, is using Skkynet software to implement secure, real-time, bidirectional industrial internet of things (IIoT) systems for many industrial and commercial applications in companies across north-eastern US. Universities, manufacturing plants, supermarkets and even a zoo that require remote monitoring and supervisory control of mission-critical systems in real time, have replaced poorly functioning virtual private network (VPN) based systems with Skkynet software running on embedded devices, programmable logic controllers (PLCs) and the Microsoft Azure cloud. 
It all started when Rick Lisowski, president of Skye Controls, was contacted by a zoo in a nearby city. Management needed to monitor and control the water systems in a newly opened amphibian and reptile centre.  
“They had a VPN-based internet of things (IoT) system in place,” said Lisowski. “But there were three problems: it wasn’t secure, the data flow was one-way, and it didn’t work. They were using a Modbus converter connected to a VPN router that was supposed to send data to their own cloud service, where they hoped to access the data. But neither of the components worked properly and married together, they were worse. The zoo management staff never actually got any data.” 
After considering a costly and unsuitable IoT platform, Lisowski found out about DataHub technology on a web search. After some tests, Lisowski decided that a Skkynet solution would be the quickest, easiest and most cost-effective approach. He first replaced the zoo’s PLC with his DataHub-equipped PLC. He then made an outbound connection from the PLC DataHub instance to a second DataHub instance running on Microsoft Azure. By making an outbound DataHub tunnelling connection, he was able to keep all firewall ports closed on the zoo’s PLC and router. On Azure, he connected the DataHub instance to the Skye Controls Cloud IoT Service, a Windows-based IoT service used by the zoo.  
The result is a real-time, end-to-end, bidirectional data path from the water filtration systems to the zoo management offices. “The staff and management are really pleased,” said Lisowski. “Now they can monitor each specialised environment from anywhere that has internet access. They can make changes to temperature and humidity settings in the real-time graphical display right from their desktop. And a huge plus is that the DataHub software is secure by design, running behind closed firewalls yet it still lets you read and write data in both directions.” 
Soon other organisations started asking for remote access to their data. Some had the same VPN-based system that the zoo had been using. The facilities manager at Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT), responsible for water filtration, had been tinkering with such a system for months and had not managed to get any data flow at all. They had a high-tech process that needed precise, robust, real-time control, and they were willing to try a new approach. 
Continue reading: https://www.technologyrecord.com/Article/secure-and-simple-industrial-internet-of-things-128271

IPv4 is the fourth generation of Internet Protocol. Since 1983, it has been the primary network layer protocol used to power the internet and other packet-switched networks. Its defining characteristic is its use of 32-bit addresses (Example: 192.0.2.38) that allow devices to connect to the internet by sending data to and receiving data from websites, file servers, and other network devices, via their respective individual IP addresses.
While IPv4 has become ubiquitous with the internet, it was originally designed for small-scale networks. As the internet has grown beyond all expectations, the limits of IPv4’s address space have presented some technical challenges. A newer version of Internet Protocol, IPv6, was designed to alleviate some of these issues. But does that mean you should choose IPv6 over IPv4 for your IoT solution? The short answer is not really. Either protocol (or even both) is fine for IoT. The key is to configure the interfaces and network properly and securely. 
Though that may sound surprising, given the tens of billions of devices that are currently connected to the Internet. Let’s take a look at why.
IPv4’s Limited Address Space
When IPv4 was embraced as the foundation of the internet, the fact that its 32-bit address space would only yield around 4.3 billion unique IP addresses was a non-issue. As time moved on, however, more and more users began connecting to the internet, resulting in a boom in the number of smartphones, tablets, and other connected devices. As all of these devices require an IP address, the end result is that the number of addresses available under IPv4 infrastructure has been completely exhausted.
To help address this issue, a number of IP address ranges have been dedicated for use within private networks. These private IP addresses can be used by each network without a conflict with any global IP address employed elsewhere. Network administrators can assign addresses in these ranges as they like, provided that a private IP address assigned to a specific device still remains unique within its own private network. 
In order for devices with private IP addresses to be able to communicate with the internet (or an external network in global IP address space), private networks need to employ Network Address Translation (NAT). NAT is a function, commonly handled by a gateway or router, that takes a packet from a device within the private network, translates its source IP address to a global IP address before sending it out to an external network. It then keeps track of which private IP address the response packet should be forwarded to once received. NAT allows users to connect multiple devices to the internet or an external network using a single public IP address. It is used just about everywhere, from homes to businesses, and even public WiFi at cafes and libraries.
Continue reading: https://www.iotforall.com/role-of-private-networks-in-securing-ipv4-vs-ipv6-deployments

The tech market is estimated to be worth more than $2 trillion, representing 10.5 percent of the national economy. Today, the industry comprises more than 585,000 companies in the U.S. with career opportunities that are just as vast and varied, including roles in engineering, content strategy, marketing, programming and social media. 
These statistics paint a picture of a booming market; however, if you look closer, you’ll see the industry has a gender gap problem. While women make up 49 percent of the U.S. workforce, they comprise just 26 percent of the tech industry. At our virtual Equality Lounge at CES, we discussed how to share career opportunities with women earlier on and help them advance in the industry.
Here’s how organizations and leaders can get more women in tech:
1. Advocate for Women—at Every Rung Along the Career Ladder.
Make sure that women have a voice in any meeting. Actively encourage women on your team to have a point of view and share it. Pair entry and junior level women with more senior-level mentors. 
Although women play a key role in holding the door open for other women, the onus to increase representation in tech should not, however, solely fall on the laps of women. Male allies play a key role in advocating for women too.
Continue reading: https://www.worth.com/more-women-tech/

Skye Controls & Design in Spencerport, New York, is using Skkynet software to implement secure, real-time, bidirectional industrial internet of things (IIoT) systems for many industrial and commercial applications in companies across north-eastern US. Universities, manufacturing plants, supermarkets and even a zoo that require remote monitoring and supervisory control of mission-critical systems in real time, have replaced poorly functioning virtual private network (VPN) based systems with Skkynet software running on embedded devices, programmable logic controllers (PLCs) and the Microsoft Azure cloud. 
It all started when Rick Lisowski, president of Skye Controls, was contacted by a zoo in a nearby city. Management needed to monitor and control the water systems in a newly opened amphibian and reptile center.  
“They had a VPN-based internet of things (IoT) system in place,” said Lisowski. “But there were three problems: it wasn’t secure, the data flow was one-way, and it didn’t work. They were using a Modbus converter connected to a VPN router that was supposed to send data to their own cloud service, where they hoped to access the data. But neither of the components worked properly and married together, they were worse. The zoo management staff never actually got any data.” 
Continue reading: https://www.technologyrecord.com/Article/secure-and-simple-industrial-internet-of-things-128271

Google drone delivery unit Wing has added another major Australian client to its list, and calls its continued own expansion a harbinger of wider UAV-driven growth predicted to benefit the country’s retail industry.
Wing announced the addition of the Roll’d Vietnamese food company to its stable of Australian businesses using its drone delivery service to get orders quickly to customers. It says it will be flying Roll’d Vietnamese crispy Bánh mì, rice paper rolls, Gỏi, Bao, dumplings, and other street food delicacies to households and workplaces in and around the Canberra metropolis and northern state of Queensland.
Roll’d Vietnamese – described as “Australia’s leading healthy quick service restaurant brand” – joins a growing list of retail businesses whose coffees, burgers, pizzas, office supplies, healthcare products, medication, pet treats, and various grocery items (including, of course, but not limited to toilet paper) are now using Wing to quickly spirit deliveries to waiting customers by drone. 
In addition to its Canberra and Queensland operations, the company is also doing booming business in the Victoria city of Logan, which it dubbed “drone delivery capital of the world” after its 50,000 orders helped propel Wing over the 100,000 mark last year. 
The popularity of that service was also what prompted Wing to choose Logan when it improvised from its standard operational model by setting up a UAV flight center on the roof of a local mall, flying products from participating shops in it to waiting customers faster.
That was all part of the spiking Australian drone delivery activity that Wing continues to build with new retail clients. That, in addition to continued lockdowns in the country provoked by the COVID-19 pandemic, helped fuel a 600% rise in its activity last year over 2020. 
Continue reading: https://dronedj.com/2022/01/27/wing-expands-oz-activity-foresees-huge-drone-delivery-future/

With the Paris Agreement being reviewed and countries’ commitments updated at COP26 last November, there’s no doubt that green finance will remain a major topic this year.
At the same time, we’ve seen blockchain technology grow from a fringe and futuristic technology to a powerful tool with many real-world applications, particularly in green finance where transparent and traceable information is critical in measuring and monitoring climate impact. 
Here are just some of the ways blockchain technology will revolutionise green finance in 2022:
Digitised monitoring of proceeds in green bonds and loans
New green financial products will continue to emerge over time, but two of the major current products are green bonds and green loans. As regulatory focus on climate change continues to grow, there will be increased demand for the transparency and granularity of these products – which can only demonstrate positive environmental impact if the underlying data is measurable, verifiable and able to be relied upon by third parties.
Today, the monitoring of use of proceeds, underlying asset performance and environmental impact is generally done through periodic manual processes. This leaves the potential for human error and reduces the timeliness of data. These non-digitised data sets are not easily referenced over time and do not fit neatly into future carbon accounting, or ratings and reporting regimes.
While not yet mainstream, we will see increasing use of technology solutions for the monitoring of green bond and loan compliance in the coming year. One of these solutions are blockchain-based systems supported by IoT devices.
These can provide asset owners or operators, investors, lenders, ratings agencies and other stakeholders with verifiable, tamper-proof and real-time data at the asset level. And because this is a digitised process, the monitoring of proceeds can happen at a fraction of the cost and time, which means better financing terms for all.
Continue reading: https://www.eco-business.com/opinion/how-blockchain-technology-will-reshape-green-finance-in-2022/

Drones look set to become a big part of the booming food delivery business, with Vietnamese delectables now taking to Australian skies.
Roll’d Vietnamese announced on Thursday it had teamed up with Wing, a subsidiary of Google’s parent company Alphabet, to deliver its banh mi (baguettes), bao (steamed buns), rice paper rolls and the like via drones in Logan, Queensland and Gungahlin, Canberra.
“With efficient delivery within minutes, Roll’d orders can be placed via the Wing app and will be delivered by a remotely piloted custom drone to customers within a 10km radius of the delivery site,” the chain said in a statement.
In a world first, Wing launched in Canberra in 2019 and is now delivering coffee, curries, burgers, ice cream, groceries, office supplies, pharmacy items and even pet treats to homes and commercial businesses across Crace, Franklin, Harrison, Palmerston, Mitchell and Gungahlin.
In another world first in August last year, Wing began operating a drone delivery “nest” on the rooftop of Grand Plaza in Logan, sending out goods on-demand from a range of businesses at the shopping centre to surrounding suburbs.
Wing says the business took off last year as the pandemic raged on, with deliveries rocketing more than 600 per cent compared to 2020.
Continue reading: https://www.news.com.au/technology/innovation/drone-company-in-google-stable-leaves-uber-eats-in-dust-with-food-delivery-firsts-in-act-qld/news-story/7c1bb2959db5593ccceeea9e521f629e

US oil major Chevron has been benefiting from drone technology for many years. Among other things, the company is known to deploy drones for leak detection, internal equipment and asset inspection, earthworks mapping, project progress monitoring, and environmental applications. And now, the energy giant is looking to add more autonomous tools to its arsenal by placing a purchase order with American Robotics.
The order is for American Robotics’ Scout drones. Scout Systems are AI-powered, fully autonomous, FAA-approved devices that live inside a weatherproof charging and data processing station on the field. Each drone can conduct up to 20 autonomous flights per day without having a single pilot or visual observer on the ground.
While the companies haven’t revealed how many drones are being purchased or the financial terms behind the transaction, it’s worth noting that Chevron is American Robotics’ second Fortune 100 customer in the oil and gas space. In July 2021, a similar order was placed by oil and gas major ConocoPhillips.
Since working in and maintaining oil and gas infrastructure is time-consuming, labor-intensive, and can often put people in danger, the use of autonomous drones in the oil and gas industry is expected to continue and expand in the coming years. Drones allow for automated inspections, regular site monitoring, and enhanced safety for employees, all at a lower cost with increased accuracy.
Continue reading: https://dronedj.com/2022/01/27/chevron-autonomous-drones-oil-gas-inspections/

After two years of steep declines in the ranks of women across all workplaces and fields, 2022 must be a year of rebuilding. The tech sector, which has long trailed most industries in the effort to achieve gender balance, has its work cut out and little time to get it done.
Women are planning to exit — soon.
A November 2021 survey of women in tech from New View Strategies revealed that 38% plan to leave their job within the next two years. Will tech businesses and organizations find ways to retain talented women and attract more? Perhaps demographic changes will force the issue.
Women are embracing the knowledge economy. Are businesses embracing their knowledge?
In the U.S. today, of the adults over 25 who have bachelor’s degrees, 39% are women and 37% are men, according to the results of research by the Pew Research Center. If you look narrowly at the recent pool of college grads, the gender gap widens. Of graduates ages 25 to 34, 46% of them are women and only 36% are men. With a knowledge economy that runs on data and the technology that maneuvers it, getting more women in the door and into tech jobs is more than a good idea. It’s a necessity.
Continue reading: https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2022/01/27/how-businesses-can-make-the-four-great-hopes-for-women-in-tech-a-reality/?sh=596f110e7365

To feed the growing global population, estimates suggest we’ll have to increase food production by as much as 68 percent by 2050. And that’s not the only challenge; there’s also the fact that the middle-class population is growing, which generally brings with it increased demand for meat over grains, legumes, and wheat. Satisfying this demand for more food – and, most likely, more meat – presents a huge challenge for our already struggling planet, especially when you consider that the food system accounts for 26 percent of total global greenhouse gas emissions. (Agriculture, forestry, and land use make up 18.4 percent of this, while the rest is down to things like packaging, refrigeration, and transport.)
The obvious, and arguably the simplest, solution is for us all to adopt a plant-based diet. (Research shows that excluding meat and dairy is the single most impactful way for people to reduce their environmental impact.) But, if we’re honest, getting billions of people to switch overnight to a fully vegan diet is, at best, unlikely. After all, meat is deeply ingrained in many cultures, as is dairy.
With all this in mind, it’s clear that we need urgent new innovations in agriculture and food production. In this article, I outline the two broad trends that I believe will revolutionize our food system.
Trend 1: Reimagining farming methods
Embracing new farming methods could help the agriculture industry reduce its environmental impact while still increasing productivity. While previous evolutions in farming have largely been driven by mechanical improvements (namely, bigger, better machinery) or genetic advances (better seed, more effective fertilizers, etc.), the next big transformation is being driven by digital tools. For example, we have:
  Automation – including the use of robots, drones, and autonomous tractors to make farming more efficient.
·        Precision farming – which involves applying irrigation, fertilizers, and pesticides at variable rates, depending on the needs of crops, rather than uniformly applying them at set times, quantities, and frequencies.
A good example of precision farming comes from a collaboration between Israeli company Phytech and Swiss agrichemical company Syngenta. Together, they have developed a monitoring system that includes plant growth sensors and soil moisture sensors to help farmers continually monitor crop growth and soil health and take action when and where it’s needed.
Other key trends to watch in farming methods include:

• More localized, urban farming – i.e., producing food closer to the people who need it, thereby reducing food miles.
• Vertical farming (the practice of growing crops in vertical layers) and hydroponics (growing plants in nutrient-rich water) – are both methods that generally use less water, soil, and space than traditional field farming methods. If this sounds niche, think again; the world’s largest vertical farm, located in Newark, New Jersey, shows that vertical farming can be done on a huge scale and with impressive results. Creators AeroFarm say the vertical farm is 390 times more productive per square foot than a field farm.

Continue reading: https://www.forbes.com/sites/bernardmarr/2022/01/28/the-biggest-future-trends-in-agriculture-and-food-production/?sh=5061d5e3107a

When siblings Sarah and Jaron Hinkley moved back to their hometown of La Junta, CO, they were not sure what to do with their professional experiences in the food industry and drone technology services, respectively. Sarah and her husband Bryan considered starting a restaurant until Jaron came to them with an idea to use his drone technology expertise to help local farmers. The trio quickly realized that drone technology could greatly impact the agricultural industry, especially as farmers face decline in labor and resources. By creating Barn Owl Drone Services, Sarah, Jaron and Bryan can offer “table to farm” services (instead of Sarah and Bryan’s original plan of “farm to table” dining) by sitting down with farmers to learn about what they need, what challenges they face and determine how to provide them the technology they need to make their work more efficient. 
Barn Owl was awarded $200,000 from the Advanced Industries Early Stage Capital and Retention Grant grant in 2021. This award, along with other funding from investors and matching grants, has allowed Barn Owl to grow its reach from the potato farms in San Luis Valley to corn fields in Olathe and provide valuable services to farmers across Colorado. These services include crop analysis, mapping, monitoring and testing; photography and videography for marketing needs; volume metric measurements and heavy machinery inspections. Perhaps most unique is Barn Owl’s fleet of robotic weeding units, which cut weeds that interfere with crops. This allows farmers to cut down on labor costs and avoid using chemicals or pulling weeds which disturbs the soil. Barn Owl will also hire and train robotic operators to manage the drones, creating employment opportunities for highly skilled workers in rural areas. 
Ultimately, Barn Owl’s goal is to improve the lives of farmers, their families and the food we all eat. Barn Owl is grateful for the opportunity to be supported by this grant and by the State of Colorado, which Sarah sees as setting a standard for other states to invest in agriculture and business. As a new mom and running a woman founded and owned business, she knows it takes a community to not only raise a baby, but also a business. 
Continue reading: https://oedit.colorado.gov/blog-post/barn-owl-blazing-new-trails-in-agriculture-with-ai-technology

Eavision has unveiled its new all-area-aware intelligent drone EA-30X designed by Pininfarina Shanghai, a professional agriculture spraying drone especially for hills and mountains that can cover all terrains, all time, and all plant protection application scenarios.
The new generation of EA-30X dual-eye environment sensing technology provides safe and dynamic continuous obstacle avoidance and full coverage of terrain below 90 degrees; the new generation of night navigation lighting system enables dual-eye day and night autonomous operation; the new generation of CCMS-L20000 dual-peak misting nozzle penetrates thick canopy crops and significantly increases the amount of dosing on the back of leaves. The three technologies complement each other and aim to focus on the weak links in the mechanisation of China’s agricultural hills and mountains.
As an exclusive advantage of Eavision, the dual cameras allow the drones to work in challenging environments such as hilly and mountainous terrain. Pininfarina designers have taken a deep consideration of binocular camera during the design process. The design of the camera is protected by a beautiful cover in shape, but does not block the field of view and protects the camera very well at the same time. The shape is similar to that of the logo, the eagle, which echoes it. The design of the camera is also based on the logo of Eavision, the eagle, which is similar in form and meaning.
Continue reading: https://www.ivtinternational.com/news/agriculture/eavision-launches-new-intelligent-agriculture-spraying-drone.html

This study serves to explain how Blockchain and IoT can work together, what each technology is, how it works, how they integrate together, and example use cases. •Blockchain and IoT represent two collections of technologies with tremendous potential to improve and optimize businesses operations and daily life, but despite the heralding of a new era the realized results have fallen short.
New York, Jan. 27, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Reportlinker.com announces the release of the report "When Blockchain and IoT Work Together: Reappraising the Promises and Pitfalls" - https://www.reportlinker.com/p06223991/?utm_source=GNW Innovators have been combining these two groups of technologies in novel solutions, searching for ways to monetize existing capabilities and divining what customers may actually purchase. Service providers are exploring capabilities for these solutions to add value across applications, in use cases where stakeholders need a way to smooth transactions in situations that lack complete trust.
•As IoT connectivity progresses to support long range applications and high bandwidth applications, IoT can unleash waves of process optimization. While IoT is adding an identity and connectivity to billions of devices, simultaneously making it easy to measure and manage functions as well as making them vulnerable.
•Blockchain can be imagined as simply a way to find agreement with strangers. Or put another way, blockchain is a collection of technologies that secure an exchange of value without a central point of control. It minimizes the capability for any one actor behaving maliciously or deceptively to control the trusted chain. The blockchain’s goal is to reach consensus without a single central authority.
•Blockchain technologies can complement IoT deployments by adding a layer of verifiable trust to recording and exchanging data and securing devices. Integrating blockchain-enabled solutions into distributed (and/or multiparty) systems can mitigate security and operational risks, through identify verification, device authentication, and data transparency. Applications leveraging both IoT and blockchain can streamline business processes and transactions, optimizing and automating contracting terms and transactions with a consensus record that does not require a third-party approval.
•The IoT services ecosystem is fragmented but interdependent; service providers frequently work together across functions. The blockchain solutions landscape is also fragmented, with another highly complex value chain that requires proficiency across multiple domains.
•The market landscape for blockchain-enabled IoT solutions is fast-moving, with startups pivoting fast and established incumbents entering and exiting the space votsrelatively quickly. After much hype, enterprises are figuring out where blockchain in adds more value than a standard database.
Continue reading: https://www.yahoo.com/now/blockchain-iot-together-reappraising-promises-103100735.html

Web3 is one of the biggest buzzwords so far this year, and it is built upon blockchain technology, the same technology that cryptocurrency is based upon. This article will attempt to demystify blockchain technology, explain how it works, discuss tokens and ledgers, and help us gain a deeper understanding of this important technology.
A simple explanation, to begin with, is that a blockchain can be seen as a digital ledger of transactions that is duplicated and distributed across a large network of computers that are part of the blockchain. Each “block” in the blockchain contains a number of transactions, and each time a new transaction occurs, a record of the transaction is added to every participant's blockchain ledger. Because no single entity is in charge of the blockchain, it cannot easily be hacked and the transactions cannot be faked, which keeps it safer from fraud and theft.
The History of Blockchain
Although cryptographer David Chaum first proposed a blockchain-like protocol in his 1982 paper "Computer Systems Established, Maintained, and Trusted by Mutually Suspicious Groups," the first decentralized blockchain was actually conceptualized by a person or group of people known as Satoshi Nakamoto in 2008. 
Nakamoto had improved the blockchain design by using a Hashcash-like way of timestamping blocks without requiring the blockchains to be signed by a trusted party. He also introduced a difficulty parameter that stabilizes the rate at which blocks are added to the chain. Nakamoto implemented the design in 2009 as a core component of the Bitcoin cryptocurrency.
By August 2014, the bitcoin blockchain file size, (which includes records of all the transactions that have occurred), was 20 GB. By early 2020, the ledger size had exceeded 200 GB, and as of January 2022, it exceeded 374 GB.
What Is the Blockchain Ledger?
Blockgeeks provide a great description of how the blockchain ledger works. Their analogy makes it easy to understand, “Picture a spreadsheet that is duplicated thousands of times across a network of computers. Then imagine that this network is designed to regularly update this spreadsheet and you have a basic understanding of the blockchain.” Every transaction that is recorded on the ledger is stored in what is referred to as a “block,” and each block holds many transactions. The data that is contained in a block is dependent on — and linked to — the data that is in the previous block. Eventually, these blocks form a “chain” of transactions, i.e., a “blockchain.”
Adam Perella, manager of Schellman, a global independent security and privacy compliance assessor, shared this analogy with CMSWire. “If you have an account at a bank, the withdrawals and deposits for that account stay at the bank. Now, what if an account holder decides that their deposits and withdrawals should be known by everyone, so that they cannot be refuted? While it may not be obvious based on the usage of the term, a blockchain is a ledger that is shared among a very large number of nodes that function as a peer-to-peer network,” said Perella. “Because such a large group shares and maintains the same ledger, it is difficult to argue the amount of money each account holder has, and each transaction performed.”
Continue reading: https://www.cmswire.com/information-management/understanding-web3s-supporting-blockchain-technology/