Smart cities continue to grow across the globe as more governments embrace digitalization. The term smart cities refer to a utopia urban development that uses emerging technologies to run day-to-day activities. All this is being done through Blockchain4Cities, an initiative to coordinate control and integrate different services with transparency, privacy, and efficiency features through blockchain technology.
Smart cities like Wyoming have gone so far as to great regulatory frameworks that help integrate blockchain into the city's systems. On the other hand, Dubai has created over 20 blockchain use cases across eight industry sectors in addition to blockchain policies for its industry.
How blockchain will work in smart cities
Smart Health
The healthcare industry has seen increased patient data transmitted between healthcare providers and insurance companies. This information is private and requires a high level of security. Blockchain technology ensures data protection, integrity, shared access, and transparency. In addition, blockchain provides decentralization of data, which helps doctors and other health givers get patient information faster in emergencies.
Continue reading: https://www.benzinga.com/22/09/28934524/why-smart-cities-need-blockchain-technologies

1. Does the Metaverse need to be on a blockchain?
Blockchain-based solutions have seen financial, legal, gaming and social applications, albeit at a relatively small scale over the last few years. However, whether the blockchain infrastructure layer will be a must-have for the growth of the Metaverse narrative remains unanswered.
The answer to that question depends on how we define the Metaverse. Some definitions of the Metaverse focus only on its experiential elements. The word Metaverse often makes us imagine wearing a virtual reality (VR) headset and going through an immersive experience in a virtual world.
This is not all wrong, but it is an incomplete definition of a Metaverse. The Metaverse is expected to be a futuristic version of the internet. That is a great vision, but why do we need a new internet? The answer to that lies in the answer to another question — do we need blockchain for the Metaverse?
2. Why do we need a new internet?
Our current internet is inadequate. Incentives are skewed toward a limited set of stakeholders, creators get exploited and users have very little control over their data. Can the new version of the internet change that?
The internet has been built and evangelized through applications like Google, Meta (previously Facebook), Instagram and Amazon. These applications deploy several techniques to grab users’ attention, and monetize that when they have it. Despite creating monetizable value through these apps, users get a very tiny slice of the value accruing to them.
Continue reading: https://cointelegraph.com/explained/can-the-metaverse-exist-without-blockchain

Experts at the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) and the Department of Labor’s (DOL) Office of Federal Contract Compliance Programs (OFFCCP) are warning about the potential for automated technology, like artificial intelligence (AI), used in the workplace for hiring and human resource functions to accelerate discrimination.
Wilneida Negrón, Director of Policy and Research at worker organizing platform Coworker.org, recently explained the kinds of automatic technologies being used in the workplace, like video screening tools and AI that analyze things like “facial movements to make assessments about candidates; automated sourcing and recruitment platforms that use public data to make predictions about competencies and chatbots that screen potential applicants.”
The federal agencies hosted a September 13 virtual roundtable on the issue with external stakeholders to discuss “the civil rights implications of the use of automated technology systems, including artificial intelligence, in the recruitment and hiring of workers.” The virtual event was part of the agencies’ joint HIRE Initiative and the EEOC’s AI and Algorithmic Fairness Initiative.
The agencies issued a joint statement on the vent that detailed concerns and implications of AI and algorithmic technology in the workplace:
Continue reading: https://conduitstreet.mdcounties.org/2022/09/20/does-artificial-intelligence-have-a-place-in-hiring/

Just as artificial intelligence has improved the decisions organizations make to optimize financial performance, improve processes, meet customer needs, and more, it will be critical in helping them reach their climate goals. In fact, because it can gather, complete, and interpret large, complex datasets on emissions and climate impact, A.I. is fundamentally important in helping to manage the full range of climate-related issues.
BCG recently conducted a global survey of 1,000 leaders in A.I. and climate that tells us more about that potential—as well as the barriers getting in the way. We found that 87% of respondents feel that advanced analytics and A.I., or simply “A.I.,” is a helpful tool in the fight against climate change today, but only 43% say that they have a vision for using A.I. in their own climate change efforts.
They see the greatest business value for AI in the reduction and measurement of emissions. In fact, there are many diverse ways in which global leaders can use A.I. to achieve their goals:
Mitigation. A.I. can help measure emissions at the macro and micro levels, reduce the effects of emissions, and remove existing emissions from the atmosphere. In our work, we’ve found that A.I. can help reduce GHG emissions equal to 5% to 10% of an organization’s carbon footprint, or 2.6 to 5.3 gigatons of CO2e if scaled globally.
Continue reading: https://fortune.com/2022/09/19/climate-week-artificial-intelligence/

What do self-driving cars, medical operations and world-class chess competitions have in common? Artificial Intelligence (AI) technology. Now, more than ever before, businesses are leveraging AI to make smarter business decisions, and AI innovation isn't slowing down. Global spending on AI technologies is predicted to reach nearly $118 billion in 2022 and surpass $300 billion in 2026. 
AI not only creates workplace efficiencies that give us more time to focus on critical tasks, but it also provides deeper insights that lead to better-informed business decisions. By increasing organizational productivity and knowledge, AI has come a long way to re-humanize corporate work altogether. It has allowed professionals in nearly any field to take additional time with creative and meaningful endeavors, as well as give greater attention to their business growth and development, such as navigating complex problems, learning brand-new concepts, or improving valuable skills. 
All of this digital transformation has led to what's known as 'collaborative intelligence,' the combining of AI and human abilities to enhance their respective core strengths. This results in AI being trained to do what it does best -- going through gigabytes of information in fractions of a second -- and humans being supported to do what they do best: applying their instincts, experience, and good judgment. 
Continue reading: https://www.inc.com/sarvarth-misra/what-corporate-leaders-need-to-know-about-collaborative-intelligence.html

ST. LOUIS (DTN) -- The idea of a "tipping point" doesn't exactly sit well with Arthur Erickson. The CEO of Hylio, a leading producer of agriculture aerial sprayer drones, has long been a believer in the market. It hasn't taken increases in battery life or payload capacity, new benchmarks in acres sprayed per day or autonomous functionality to convince him autonomous aerial sprayers are the future.
"I've been at it six or seven years now, and I've seen sprayers prove highly effective for a lot of people," Erickson said.
He's a true believer and has been for a long time. Still, he's not blind to the fact that the greater agriculture industry in the United States has been slower to buy in, and that now, the industry seems poised for a big leap forward. It could be a tipping point in the consciousness of many farmers when the aerial sprayer drones become less something interesting that the neighbor's playing with and more a critical piece of the modern farmer's equipment.
"The sizes of drones we're now looking at and the reliability, the hardware and the accessibility, it's going to hit a broader and more generalized audience," Erickson said. "We're getting to that point where this is a wide-market product."
Industry experts point to leaps in terms of battery power and drone size, coupled with ever-evolving software, and they said the next wave of aerial agriculture sprayer drones could change the world sprays.
GROWTH ON TAP
Rantizo has been at the forefront of aerial drone spraying, offering retrofitted drones to spraying contractors around the country. The company's base model is currently the DJI Argas T30, capable of a takeoff weight of 170 pounds. The company was a leader in securing licensing for aerial autonomous spraying in many states and was also at the front of the effort to operate not with one machine, but a swarm -- three drones swooping over a field -- to greatly increase the acres sprayed.
Still, currently available equipment is only so capable.
Continue reading: 
https://www.dtnpf.com/agriculture/web/ag/equipment/article/2022/09/19/aerial-sprayer-drones-nearing-point

From wet-weather spraying to timely scouting, drones are not only proving their efficacy but paving a path for rural entrepreneurship and the next generation on the farm.
Over the past three decades, nothing has proven to be a greater tool in the fight against food insecurity than agriculture technology. The paths that have been paved via genetically modified organisms (GMOs), global positioning systems (GPS), and autosteer have forever changed the course of agriculture and the ability of one farmer to do more — produce more — with less. These once cutting-edge technologies have become part of the year-to-year farming formula, no longer what a farmer needs to be competitive, but what is required to meet return on investment and balance the red and black ink at the end of the year. Today’s leading technology advancements see farmers leveraging soil microbiology and traceability with some even looking to the sky… or rather just above their crop’s canopy, for solutions.
In 2021, the global agriculture drone market was $1.07 billion, by 2030, a recent MarketWatch report estimates the global agriculture drone market to reach $6.89 billion, for a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 22.5%. A significant growth rate considering the $1.93 million valuation reported for 2015. And while these numbers are impressive as standalone figures, the stories and opportunities being shared from the farm fields that drones are making an impact in, far and away overarch the monetary market value.
Continue reading: https://seedworld.com/drones-are-empowering-farmers-again/

Newswise — Ever since the Wright brothers innovated in the back of their bicycle shop in Dayton, Ohio, aviation has been, at heart, a nuts-and-bolts endeavor. For all the sophisticated equipment Idaho National Laboratory’s Unmanned Aerial Systems team has at its disposal for testing high-tech cameras, radios and sensors, there is still a lot of gearhead ingenuity involved.
Here, a $500,000 high-tech surveillance camera is kept aloft on an aircraft powered by a 1/2-horsepower gasoline engine adapted from a Honda pressure washer. The launching catapult for the plane is basically an oversized potato gun.
The group operates both in Idaho Falls and at the INL Site from a base that includes a 1,000-foot paved runway, a control trailer and a newly built 1,500-square-foot hangar.
‘Workhorses’
The Department of Energy complex has noted INL’s strength in testing unmanned aerial vehicles, or UAVs (better known as drones). Over 20 years, the lab has developed capabilities to test new platforms and evaluate technology not only for DOE but also the Department of Defense and private industry. With 890 square miles of open high-altitude desert, a secure border, and a sophisticated wireless test bed, the INL Site has proven to be a great place for testing unmanned aerial vehicles against real-world conditions like severe weather, temperature swings and day/night operations.
The first UAV work at INL involved infrared imagery and sensors to monitor remediation work and, in the case of wildfires, to collect GPS information to better coordinate ground efforts. When the runway was installed in 2010, it allowed for the use of fixed-wing aircraft. Since then, INL has spent more than $4 million to train personnel, procure aircraft and establish support facilities. Overall, INL supports more than 40 types of unmanned aircraft using mobile control stations that incorporate power, communication, monitoring and data acquisition capabilities.
Continue reading: https://www.newswise.com/articles/send-in-the-drones

“Without Stack Overflow, I’d be unemployed,” many programmers will tell you, referring to the online forum that helps solve coding problems. The site is built around questions and answers, and anything goes—from entry-level issues to, quite literally, rocket science. The community is large and diverse, and it more or less represents everyone and everything in software.
Every year, Stack Overflow asks tens of thousands of developers about their experiences in tech. It’s the largest survey of its kind, and it tells us about the kind of people involved in building software around the globe.
In the section for demographics, under “gender split,” you’ll find that, in 2022, only about 5 percent of the professional programming participants were women. The percentage is low, consistent with other reports, and doesn’t move much either. Year after year, the survey reports similar statistics.
Whether the lack of women in tech sounds like a big deal or not is up to the reader to decide. At the end of the day, if half the population is not interested in a profession as a whole, that’s nobody else’s business but theirs.
The question is this: Are women actually uninterested in programming, or do they feel unwelcome?
Continue reading: https://www.psychologytoday.com/gb/blog/dear-life-please-improve/202209/where-are-all-the-women-programmers

Widespread adoption of Web3 may eventually become a reality, but Trust Wallet CEO Eowyn Chen foresees three main barriers standing in the way of mass adoption.
During the Australian Crypto Convention on Sunday, Chen outlined how security, ease of use, identity and privacy were all vital aspects to address for growth in the Web3 industry.
Chen is the CEO of Trust Wallet, a major multichain noncustodial crypto wallet acquired by Binance two years ago. She was speaking in a keynote presentation that was attended by Cointelegraph reporters on the ground in Queensland, Australia. 
On the security front, Chen says protections should be in place to warn users “if a smart contract has potential issues,” such as a connection to a known scammer.
At the moment she explains “people who truly want to get confidence to navigate this smart contract,” have to read the code and check for any red flags before proceeding.
Eventually, she envisions users won’t have to read the code of smart contracts at all, making them more accessible for everyone, stating:
Continue reading: https://cointelegraph.com/news/3-barriers-preventing-web3-mass-adoption-trust-wallet-ceo

When investing in various cryptocurrencies, it is easy to get caught up in market volatility and trends, however, some people, especially those who are new to cryptocurrencies, overlook the fact that purchasing a coin also entails purchasing the project it stands for.
An investor must be fully informed of his investment plan, just like with traditional investing.
Understanding how each project fits into the greater ecosystem is crucial, beyond the overarching messages it may deliver.
One of the simplest ways to begin categorizing various currencies is to use the layering principle (and, in turn, various companies).
It is possible that one may have heard of Blockchain Layers like 0, 1, 2, or even Layer 3 solutions.
However, what do these Layers signify?
Let's use an analogy to try and understand different blockchain Layers.
Layer 0
The foundation of a blockchain is offered by Layer 0 technology, which consists of hardware and software components, that may be used to build blockchains.
Think about nodes and anything else that is required to connect them and transfer data, such as mining equipment and protocols.
Continue reading: https://www.livemint.com/news/world/understanding-blockchain-layers-11663585834084.html

Understanding the basics of a blockchain is the building “block” of success in the crypto space.
As of 2021, US$6.6 billion has been spent on blockchain solutions. The technology not only underpins the global cryptocurrency market but also provides unique utility for other sectors, like healthcare, logistics and real estate. 
A blockchain is a decentralized digital ledger made up of blocks that record data across a peer-to-peer (P2P) network. Once information is stored on this ledger, it becomes near impossible to delete, alter and hack. It is this unique characteristic of the blockchain that has inspired many to create their own blockchain-based businesses. 
But before pondering over how you can utilize the blockchain in your business, it is important to understand how it works. Let’s take a look at the different layers of blockchain technology to make the most of what it has to offer. 
Understanding the blockchain
When we talk about the layers of the blockchain, it is important to note that there are two ways  to understand blockchain technology. The first way is to comprehend how blockchain architecture works. Blockchain technology consists of five layers—the hardware layer, the data layer, the network layer, the consensus layer and the application layer. 
The second is the division of the blockchain network based on protocol. Protocol refers to the set of rules that govern a network. The blockchain protocol is made up of four layers—Layer 0, Layer 1, Layer 2 and Layer 3. Let’s take a look at each of these categories separately. 
Continue reading: https://www.jumpstartmag.com/what-are-the-different-layers-of-blockchain-technology/

A bear market could signal change in the way institutional investors view crypto investments, and that’s not necessarily a bad thing for an asset class sometimes mistaken for consisting solely of volatile currencies.
“A misconception about the crypto space is that there is a single thing – cryptocurrency – to allocate to, but that couldn’t be farther from the truth,” says Scott Army, Managing Director, CIO at Galaxy Digital. “There’s massive segmentation and specialization. Often, the early days of a multi-decade technology map well to venture allocations, and that’s the easiest way for institutions to enter the space.” 
In other words, the real potential in crypto is on a longer time horizon than many investors might realize based on the history of the asset class. In 2018, the ICO [initial coin offering] bubble burst because investors fundamentally lost confidence in crypto. That is not the case today, and institutional investors eyeing the space with headline-generated trepidation might reconsider what could be rare opportunities.  
“The longer the time horizon, the easier it is to focus on building great technology and useful products,” says Ben Forman, Founder and Managing Partner, ParaFi Capital, a firm focused on investing across the crypto ecosystem. “We’re long term focused, and investors are taking a multi-decade view around crypto. However, in the near term crypto has developed into a volatile, macro-driven asset class.”
Continue reading: https://www.institutionalinvestor.com/article/b1zs3n1842sw1f/Crypto-Growth-Opportunities-Emerge-in-a-Bear-Market

Moving forward, the emergence of blockchain innovation may well cause seismic shifts in the fabric of our economic and social structures. Multiple trading on dispersed exchanges in financial markets, authentication of sensitive data, and more are some of the technical advances made possible by the blockchain technology that supports cryptocurrencies.
In 2021, worldwide expenditure on blockchain technology will increase from $4.5 billion to $6.6 billion, according to one report released in 2022 by the Statista Research Department. In the following years, the growing need for digital identity security and Web 3.0 integration will raise the demand for blockchain. By 2024, blockchain expenditures are projected to reach over $19 billion, as many organizations use the technology for data validation, access, and identity protection.
Blockchain Innovative Areas in Business
Based on decades of cryptographic research, blockchain technologies generate decentralized, distributed networks in which data is immutable, safe, and transparent. This enables disintermediation, fosters more confidence between parties, and unlocks efficiency and cost savings. Although numerous applications of the technology are now being evaluated and commercialized, the industry is still in its infancy.
Recognizing the far-reaching benefits of blockchain technology, Deloitte reported that 86% of executives feel blockchain technology has significant potential for business operations in a recent 2021 Global Blockchain Survey.
Without a doubt, blockchain innovation will become an inherent component in business operations in the upcoming years. Hence, blockchain technology training should become a top priority for business executives interested in learning about blockchain technology and its adjacent opportunities. For this pursuit, blockchain online courses arise as a viable opportunity to facilitate the quest to uncover blockchain innovation’s prospects.
Continue reading: https://www.analyticsinsight.net/driving-innovation-in-business-with-crypto-technologies/

At a time, when cybersecurity is a growing concern, it is believed that blockchain can help in solving the issues through a transparent and secure peer-to-peer (P2P) network that records transactions. “Blockchain combines permanent and tamper-proof record keeping with real-time transaction transparency and accountability, as well as automated smart contract functionality, which can play an ideal role in governments attempting to combat corruption,” Vijay Pravin Mahajan, founder, and CEO, bitsCrunch told FE Blockchain.
As per a recent report by the world economic forum (WEF), public procurement (or government contracting) is the single largest marketplace for government spending and the greatest source of official corruption worldwide. According to Mahajan, blockchain now supplements and improves the current legal framework. Besides, banking is another sector, which is expected to benefit from this. 
As per a report by Statista, in 2020, the banking sector, which has a market share of approximately 30%, received a significant portion of the revenue from the global blockchain market. Global spending on blockchain solutions is expected to keep increasing in the coming years.
Continue reading: https://www.financialexpress.com/blockchain/businesses-look-to-implement-blockchain-to-create-a-safer-environment/2676983/

Digital technologies have led to the application of new-age technologies that operate with minimal human intervention. And while they may heighten productivity and drive growth, any failure can pose a significant challenge for IT and DevOps teams to resolve.
An incident or service disruption is an IT manager's worst nightmare. Very often, factors such as cybersecurity breaches, human error, and the accelerated pace of innovation place significant pressure on enterprises' IT infrastructure, leading to system failures and outages impacting the bottom line.
According to the ITIC 2021 Hourly Cost of Downtime Survey, 44% of participants (of 1,200 global organizations) said that hourly downtime costs anywhere from $1 million to over $5 million. And 91% of organizations added that even an hour of downtime impacting mission-critical server hardware and applications averaged about $300,000 in losses.
Yet another report by the Uptime Institute found that the increasing complexity of cloud environments led to system disruptions despite simultaneous innovation. The study also indicated an upward trend in major outages, with one in five organizations reporting a "serious" or "severe" outage in the past three years.
In most cases, indications of an impending IT incident, while prevalent, are often left ignored or unassessed for anticipated risks and unplanned system downtime.
So how can organizations really enhance their incident management capability to minimize IT downtime impact?
The key lies in undertaking quick, corrective measures that help identify, analyze and resolve tech disruption while reducing the impact on business. Many organizations are turning to artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML) to identify, diagnose and fix issues and proactively prevent them from reoccurring.
Continue reading: https://www.forbes.com/sites/forbestechcouncil/2022/09/19/how-to-leverage-aiml-for-predictive-incident-management/?sh=11d608986a0c

Companies are using systems to tie in data from multiple production lines at multiple sites across the globe to help improve processes, said Jon Gilchrist, engineering manager at Sightline Process Control Inc., a KPM Analytics brand, which among other things provides vision systems for bakeries. 
“We’ve seen deployments of these data systems where across the globe specific lines are being pulled into one data structure that’s presented for both decision-making and analysis purposes as well as just monitoring,” he said. “So being able to extract things like counts and common production issues from the data are a critical part of it.”
Collecting and analyzing data are enabling companies to make better decisions and identify causes of inconsistences that they otherwise would not have been able to identify, Mr. Gilchrist said.
“The real benefit is in that data, analyzing that and being able to identify where things are going wrong and solve those to actually reduce waste and increase your output,” he said. “That’s the critical side of it.”
The benefit of AI is to help bakeries break down copious complex data and make it useful, said Liran Akavia, co-founder and chief operating officer of Seebo, now part of Augury. 
Continue reading: https://www.bakingbusiness.com/articles/57333-artificial-intelligence-helps-bakeries-in-many-ways

Studious Asians, sassy yet helpless women and greedy shopkeepers: These tired stereotypes of literature and film not only often offend the people they caricature, but can drag down what might otherwise have been a compelling narrative.
Researchers at the University of Maryland’s Human-Computer Interaction Lab are working to combat these clichés with the creation of DramatVis Personae (DVP), a web-based visual analytics system powered by artificial intelligence that helps writers identify stereotypes they might be unwittingly giving fictional form among their cast of characters (or dramatis personae).
“DVP is designed to integrate smoothly with the writer’s own creative process,” said Naimul Hoque, a third-year doctoral student in information studies who recently presented DVP at the annual ACM SIGCHI Conference on Designing Interactive Systems.
It allows them to analyze existing literature for research, upload their written content as it becomes available, or even write in the tool itself, and then have its text analytics and visualizations update in real time, he said.
Continue reading: https://today.umd.edu/how-ai-could-help-writers-spot-stereotypes

NEW YORK — Since their first use in the mid-1800s in the form of hot air balloons, unmanned aerial vehicles have been used for security, photography, safety, and many other applications. Today, drones have a significant impact on the way we do business — from warfare reconnaissance and real estate marketing, to filmmaking and inventory tracking.
For example, General Motors uses drones to inspect its facilities as a way to safely monitor inventory on its production lots in two to three hours versus what might otherwise take eight to 12 hours with an on-ground, manual inspection. These inspections can also be performed without a complete shutdown of the facilities and without the risk of hoisting personnel in the air or onto the rails.
Additionally, on the military battlefield, drones are playing increasingly pivotal roles in providing crucial real-time intelligence and reconnaissance data that allow for tactical advantages. Pre-mission mapping, target surveillance, and battle damage assessment are just some of the benefits provided by drones on the battlefield without additional risk to human soldiers.
Continue reading: https://wydaily.com/news/2022/09/18/how-the-future-of-drone-technology-is-already-here/

Since the Spotsylvania County Sheriff’s Office in Virginia stood up its drone program about three years ago, it has been able to deploy unmanned ariel vehicles for a myriad of uses
“We support patrol when they have incidents such as runaways or missing people. If they have car accidents sometimes, we’ll support them on traffic problems,” says Deputy Mike Christie. “One of the most important things is that as soon as we have somebody missing, we can get on scene pretty quick. We have a vehicle with all of our equipment, and we have a driver that is nearby the office who can jump in it with myself and anybody else.”
Spotsylvania County has a heavy population area, but also has quite a bit of rural area. Also within the county is Lake Anna, which is one of the largest freshwater inland reservoirs in the state. Covering an area of 13,000 acres, it was created in 1972 to support the North Anna Power Station. Responses to the lake usually involve calls for drowning victims, missing persons or boat crashes.
“We have our search team that will get out and we can support the ground units in a couple of different ways by doing overwatch for them, we can drop water bottles if they need water, or first aid packs if there is no medic there,” says Christie. “We have several different attachments that we can attach to the drones to look for missing people.”
Earlier this year, the Spotsylvania County Sheriff’s Office responded to a reported drowning on its side of the lake. The drone team provided quick coverage of the area and located a flipped vessel in about 20 minutes. Divers were able to enter the water and quickly recover the body.
Continue reading: https://www.officer.com/command-hq/technology/security-surveillance/uav-uas/article/21278317/operating-drones-in-remote-areas

A year since the announcement of incentives for the country’s fledgling drone manufacturing industry, there has been a steady increase in the number of projects.
This has spurred startups such as Garuda Aerospace, IdeaForge and Skye Air Mobility, which provide drones-as-a-service for such projects, to accelerate manufacturing due to the increasing demand.
For instance, Garuda Aerospace said it will double its production capacity to 100 drones per day by March 2023.
Agnishwar Jayaprakash, the company’s founder and chief executive officer, said demand is outpacing supply. “We already have received 27,000 pre-bookings for drones, which are ready to be delivered by March next year. By end-2024, we aim to make up to 100,000 drones every year," Jayaprakash said.
Similarly, Mumbai-based IdeaForge received a contract worth $20 million in January last year to make drones specifically for the Indian Army. In March this year, it received a second similar order as well. Manufacturing of domestic drones was further augmented on 8 August, when industry body Drone Federation of India (DFI) signed a memorandum of understanding with the Army Design Bureau (ADB) to build and design drones for use in the Indian military.
Continue reading: https://www.livemint.com/industry/manufacturing/drone-manufacturing-industry-gets-off-to-a-steady-flight-11663174380897.html

Once the playthings of hobbyists, unmanned aerial vehicles — better known as drones — appear in the skies more frequently than ever, performing a range of commercial tasks, from documenting the construction of high-rise buildings to mapping large rural properties to detecting leaks in natural gas pipelines.
A Houston company is helping to lead businesses into the drone-assisted future. Founded five years ago, Professional Drone Services of Texas is flying drones for a roster of clients throughout Texas and parts of Louisiana. The company’s drones not only can capture aerial images from as high as 400 feet, but also collect massive volumes of data through sensors and sophisticated cameras.
Professional Drone Services was among the first wave of companies offering drone services in Texas, launching not long after the Federal Aviation Administration adopted rules that opened the skies to commercial drones in 2016. But unlike many early entrants into the market, PDS has stayed in business.
“The drone industry itself is kind of going through the growing pains of any young industry,” said Jared Janacek, founder and president of Dallas-based Texas Drone Co. “Just as fast as drone companies are popping up, they're also fading away.”
Wayne Franks, the founder and CEO of Professional Drone Services, launched the company 2017 with the help of his three sons, all of whom were involved in aviation or technology. Brent, the eldest, is a fixed-wing pilot and owner of East Texas Charter. Middle son Garrett, a Navy veteran with a nuclear background, helped develop the young company with logistics and technical support.
Continue reading: https://www.houstonchronicle.com/business/texas-inc/article/Flying-high-Houston-company-leads-businesses-17427729.php

These aerial vehicles have a radio-controlled driving component, but they aren’t restricted to the instructions they receive. Drones can perform activities and tasks autonomously, thanks to the level and height sensors, the gyroscope and the GPS built into their electronics.
Basically, a drone can be defined as an unmanned vehicle that’s capable of autonomously maintaining a controlled and sustained level of flight.
Drones have great potential in a wide range of areas, as they can move quickly over uneven and rough terrain and overcome any type of obstacle, providing images and capturing other kinds of data with a bird’s-eye view, thanks to the devices they can carry (cameras, sensors, etc.) and their applications, without any risk to people, according to Ferrovial.
Military origins
Their origins, like many other devices in human history, had a military purpose, and we have to go back to the second half of the 19th century to find antecedents of bomb-laden hot-air balloons such as those used by the Austro-Hungarian Empire and during the American Civil War and perfected shortly afterwards with steam-powered airships.
But it wasn’t until 1970 that the first drone of the modern era known as UAV (unmanned aerial vehicle, under both remote control and autopilot) was created, and its inventor was Abraham Karen, born in Baghdad to a Jewish family in 1937, who built it for the Israeli air force and later emigrated to the United States.
 While their military purpose remains substantial, as control technologies have improved and costs have come down their use has spread to numerous other applications in aerial photography, product deliveries, agriculture, meteorology, surveillance, rescues, disaster relief, infrastructure inspections, science, the fight against crime and even a sporting facet, with drone racing and acrobatics.
Continue reading: https://www.telefonica.com/en/communication-room/blog/what-drones-are-and-their-valuable-service-to-society/

Wondering how people will interact in a decentralized, transparent world? Do you imagine a future where your business will take advantage of the blockchain?
In this article, you’ll discover why digital identity matters for Web3 and you’ll learn how businesses are putting it to use.
How Web3 and Digital Identity Are Changing Business
Businesses of all sizes need to understand that Web3 is the next generation of the internet.
One of the exciting things about Web3 is that it will leverage blockchain, decentralization, and digital identity to improve the relationship between business and customer.
To understand how the relationship will improve, you need to understand how all four relevant pieces of the tech stack fit together. Think of it as a layer cake.
Layer 1: Blockchain
The foundational layer or backbone of the metaverse is blockchain technology. Blockchain is a trusted, secure, immutable, and programmable technology that’s used by many Web2 companies today.
Starbucks and Google, to name two.
To clarify, blockchain is not cryptocurrency; cryptocurrency is a use case of blockchain technology.
Layer 2: Web3
Sitting on top of blockchain technology is Web3. Web3 allows decentralization and shifts ownership of your personal data from third-party entities to you, the individual.
Layer 3: Decentralized Autonomous Organizations (DAOs)
A staple of Web3 and powered by blockchain, DAOs provide a new way for stakeholders to gather around and govern a project, business, or organization. A DAO allows each member of the community to exercise their individual voice and vote on initiatives.
Layer 4: Metaverse
The metaverse sits on top of all three layers and brings in artificial intelligence, augmented reality, and virtual reality to create a 3D internet.
Continue reading: https://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/digital-identity-why-it-matters-in-web3/

For years, the relationship between brands and creators has been rife with power struggles, with brands typically wielding enormous power over creators. In 2019, Taylor Swift penned a fuming Tumblr essay where she called out her record label for selling the rights to her music to another record label owner without giving her a say in the transaction—or the chance to own her own music. Brands have frequently taken advantage of creators and limited the ownership rights they have over their content.
But times are changing with Web3—the next iteration of the internet that is characterized by decentralized apps and blockchain technology. As a decentralized web, Web3, provides a more direct link between creators and their fans. This means that individuals own and govern parts of the internet and consumers no longer need to access the internet through intermediary behemoths like Google and Facebook. Because creators can issue their own social tokens to build and reward their audience, they can gain control and decision-making rights that have been traditionally held by brands.
If brands are going to succeed, they’ll need to prioritize their relationships with creators more than they have in the past. Brands need to recognize the importance of their relationships with content creators and acknowledge that they need to invest much more effort into forging strong relationships with creators than they have in the past.
Continue reading: https://www.forbes.com/sites/falonfatemi/2022/09/14/how-web3-is-uprooting-the-relationship-between-brands-and-creators/?sh=132e68cf5906