AMAZON AWARDED FOR DEVELOPING A POCKET SIZED DRONE : A BODYGUARD

Amazon has been awarded a patent for a pocket-sized, voice controlled drone that can be used to help police in chases, aid firefighters in tackling blazes, and even find lost children.

The unmanned aerial vehicle will have a built-in software that will allow it to understand commands spoken by a user or controls from an app, according to a United States Patent and Trademark Office filing from Tuesday.

Amazon did not mention Alexa ,but as the e-commerce giant already has experience in this technology, it could potentially build it into its drones.

The drone will have a microphone and a camera that will allow it to carry out several functions outlined by the patent including:

• Finding a lost child whereby the drone's camera will identify a person's face or perhaps a barcode printed on the kid's clothes

• Locating a vehicle when a person can't find it a parking lot by recognizing trait such as the make, model or color

• In search and rescue missions to find downed airliners, sailors or ships lost at sea

• To identify people trapped in a burning building

• Following a suspect so that a cop car could cut off the runner

• Recording stunts or other activities, effectively replacing current helmet cameras.

Very interesting and impressive

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SOURCE : NBC

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Qualcomm-powered 5G devices may arrive in 2018

 

 

Verizon has stated that it's aiming to implement 5G at some point in 2017, but today, a mobile chip giant has given us a more specific time frame. At the Qualcomm 4G/5G Summit in Hong Kong, the company announced its very first 5G modem, the Snapdragon X50, which will support download speeds at up to 5 Gbps -- a super impressive number considering that we've only just started tapping into the Gigabit space with 4G LTE, let alone the more common 450 Mbps, 300 Mbps or even just 150 Mbps download speeds on our phones these days. 

 

Furthermore, we're told that X50-powered devices "are expected to be available during the first half of 2018." Qualcomm does stress that this modem is designed for early 5G deployments, in the sense that it's leaning more towards the experimental soft rollouts. There's also no word on the specific type of devices -- be it mobile routers or smartphones -- that the X50 will land on, so don't expect to hear any flagship product to be announced with this chip any time soon.
The whopping 5 Gbps download speed is achieved by using a generous 800 MHz bandwidth in the mmWave spectrum. While it's true that such a high frequency is limited by its penetration range, such modems and cells will make use of MIMO antenna technology with intelligent beamforming and beam tracking to bounce signal off walls, in order to go around obstacles.

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SOURCE : ENGADGET

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Mourihno expected more from pogba

Jose Mourinho expected more from £89 million ($109 million) summer signing Paul Pogba in Manchester United’s 0-0 draw with Liverpool on Monday.

Speaking after the game, however, the Portuguese boss explained how he expected more in attack from pogba and believed his team could have won the game.

Mourihno said “Had it been 1-0, it would have been finished.Where Pogba was playing, I was expecting more penetration.Defensively we did really well, we should have had a little bit more. We had a big chance that I thought Zlatan was going to score.It was a very difficult game for us and for them. More difficult game for them than us. We started really well and were completely in control.” sky sports reports.

The point leaves United at seventh in the Premier League, with Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool up in fourth. After a midweek Europa League tie against Fenerbahce, Mourinho will return to Stamford Bridge for the first time since being sacked by Chelsea in December.

SOURCE : NEWSWEEK

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One person still missing after chemical plant explosion in Germany

One person is still missing after an explosion at chemical firm BASF's plant in the southwestern German city of Ludwigshafen that left at least two people dead.

The fire at a river harbor in the sprawling facility was extinguished on Monday night, about 10 hours after the explosion, BASF said. As of Tuesday morning, one person was still missing. Ludwigshafen fire service chief Peter Friedrich said that person is believed to be in the harbor, but it hasn't yet been possible to send in divers.

Eight people were seriously injured and another 17 had light injuries, BASF said. Two members of BASF's fire service have been confirmed dead.

Some of the injured had "very severe burns" and six of them were in intensive care, city official Dieter Feid said.

The explosion followed a fire in a pipeline between an area where liquids are unloaded from ships on the Rhine river and storage tanks. The BASF fire service had arrived at the scene when the blast occurred.

BASF said that the substances that burned in the subsequent blaze included ethylene — used in producing solvents and insulation — and propylene, used in producing car paint and adhesives.

It isn't yet clear what caused the blast.

SOURCE : AP

IMAGE CREDIT:  Frank Rumpenhorst/dpa via AP

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Governor Rauf aregbesola appeals to nigerians: " lets return to when we eat our indigenous rice"

 

Governor of Osun state, Rauf Aregbesola, appealed to Nigerians while speaking at an event to mark the 2016 International Day for Eradication of Poverty in the state yesterday. to stop eating imported rice and go back to eating indigenous ones. He said ; “Rice was not a staple food in Nigeria before 1980. Ofada rice was the only rice eaten during festivities. We should return to the time when we were eating indigenous rice. We have cassava, plantain, beans and yam. We should return to the time when we were eating our indigenous foods".

The economy situation and exchange rate  makes it such that imported rice and even the one produced internally  are so expensive.Many can,t afford bag of rice. At the same time, many dont trust the rice that is claimed to be produced in nigeria due to quality factor and control.

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