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A neural network-powered algorithm can take any old photo and turn it into a work of art befitting an old master. Alex J. Champandard of AI Game Dev built his art algorithm off the Deep Forger software architecture, a 19 layer neural network called VGG (short for visual geometry group.) Essentially, the VGG allows Champanard to meld qualities of two images into a third output. One of the images for his project comes from a library of classic art....

Today was Google’s biggest day of the year, keynote day at the Google I/O developer conference. What got announced during that exciting (but grueling) two-and-a-half hour dog and pony show on stage? A whole lot. Here are the most important bits. 1. Android MMedia Platforms Design TeamAs expected, the first and biggest things at Google I/O is the developer preview of the next version of Android, known for the moment as Android M....

Physics effects every sport, from baseball to swimming. But when your sport features machines in competition, science can become even more important. One need look no further than how race cars have changed over the years for proof. You have race cars to thank for the first reliably steel disc brakes, and the carbon-fiber discs current F1 cars use will probably make their way to normal cars once production costs get low enough....

In theory, shape-memory metals ought to be revolutionizing every corner of technology already, from the automotive industry to biotech. These futuristic metals—which can be bent and deformed but pop back to their original shape when heated or jolted with electricity—have already existed for decades. Until now, though, every shape-memory alloy has faced the same glaring issue: they wear out, and fast. Depending on the alloy, the metals will slowly lose their ability to change shape after just a few (or if you’re lucky, a few thousand) transformations....

Wall panel video conferencing, a flexible e-paper tablet that rolls up like a fully interactive magazine, a HoloLens-powered classroom where students can learn in a hands-on way, and immersive work desks that are fully interactive. They’re all part of this new “world of the future” video by Microsoft.The company set the speculative video five to 10 years in the near future, wanting to show how its new offering, especially tools beyond Office and Windows—especially Kinect or the HoloLens—could change the world by connecting the real with the virtual....

W1906+40 may be a star, but it sure is acting a lot like a planet. It seems the tiny L-dwarf is not only the size of Jupiter, but has a large, long-lived red spot-like storm in its northern hemisphere just like our gas giant. W1906+40 belongs to a class of objects called L-dwarfs, which skirt the line between small, cool stars and a class of would-be stars called brown dwarfs that never became hot enough to fuse atoms into new elements....

Media Platforms Design TeamWASHINGTON — Both the old guard and a surprising upstart turned heads this weekend at the Wood Stove Decathlon at the National Mall.Travis Industries earned the Popular Mechanics People’s Choice award for its Lopi Cape Cod stove, earning 5021 votes. More than 15,000 ballots were cast online since the award was announced in March, and in person through paper balloting over the weekend. An established stove manufacturer with more than 500 employees and 35 years of industry experience, Travis took advantage of its large customer base and established online presence....

Media Platforms Design TeamSloppy CodeA majority of app crashes come simply from programmer error, according to Janzen, the most common occurring when a programmer references an object or variable that doesn’t exist, technically called a null-pointer error. “When a programmer is developing an app, they have to be very careful to try and anticipate things that can go wrong,” he says. “When they don’t, that’s what can cause a null-pointer.“­ Another aspect is sloppy handling of multitasking, or threads, as programmers call them, Carter explains....

Welcome to a world in which protest drones are a thing.Earlier today a drone bearing the notorious radioactivity symbol landed at the office of Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe. In truth, the drone carried just a water bottle and a flare, and showed only traces amounts of radiation, not enough to hurt anybody. But the drone also carried a message, as today a Japanese court approved the restart of some nuclear power facilities that had laid dormant since the 2011 Fukushima disaster....

Media Platforms Design Team MILFORD, Mich. — The Caddy crew finally released the tech specs of the 2009 Cadillac CTS-V performance sedan last week—months after they first showed the car, and the supercharged 6.2-liter V8 that goes under its hood, at the Detroit auto show. And though GM didn’t quite let us behind the wheel at the General’s test center here, we were treated to one very wild ride-along. —Jim McCraw The Design Caddy’s new CTS-V will look different, of course....

Media Platforms Design Team LOS ANGELES — Any hardcore Pontiac enthusiast worthy of his Royal Bobcat T-shirt will remind you that it was indeed a sad day when General Motors chose Chevrolet’s 350 V8 to be the “corporate engine” replacement for Pontiac’s homegrown powerplants back in the early 1980s. The old Pontiac 400-cu-in-displacement and 455-cid V8s were legendary. But that Chevy small-block V8 has continued to evolve over the decades, and today’s LS series engines are some of the most potent on the market....

Far too many hours of our lives are squandered trying on clothes. But as more apparel companies catch on to 3D body scanning technology, the fitting room could become a thing of the past. Within seconds, 3D body scanners take a snapshot of the human form and produce a 3D replica, with complete measurement data. From injury-preventing sneakers to lightweight firefighting gear, here are five ways 3D scanning tech is being used for a better, more intimate fit....

Media Platforms Design TeamBryan Bonner’s mock video used DIY digital effects and a store-bought costume to show how easy it would be for Stan Romanek to fake his evidence of alien life. The fake, pictured at left, was released the day before a news conference when an actual still from Romanek’s footage was released (right), though bloggers have picked up the Bonner footage as the “real” thing. (Stills via the Rocky Mountain Paranormal Research Society and the Rocky Mountain News)If real life were anything like a sci-fi movie, Stan Romanek might just hold the future of mankind in his hands....

Media Platforms Design TeamNASAIn the 35 years since their launch, the two Voyagers have gone where no man or machine has gone before. They flew past Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune, and now Voyager 1 is on course to become the first man-made object to leave our solar system and enter the interstellar medium—the space between stars. (In 2012, PopMech gave a Breakthrough Award to the Voyager team for pushing the frontiers of space exploration....

Media Platforms Design TeamLAS VEGAS – The 2008 Consumer Electronics Show is off to a blazing start, but now comes the big talk: Microsoft CEO Bill Gates sounds off with his annual take on the industry, and what his software giant will have to offer in the year ahead. Could we see a new, Vista-based mobile operating system? What about some touchscreen functionality expanded from the Surface? Stay tuned, because we’ll be live with minute-by-minute news and analysis....

We’ve heard that NASA and others are experimenting with grippers based on gecko’s foot padding. But researchers at the University of Oslo, working with the company Festo, have taken on the features of a chameleon’s tongue that make it sticky and converted it into a new robotic gripper.Called the FlexShapeGripper, it looks a little like the Versaball, which conform to an object’s shape before removing air to get a strong grip....

Media Platforms Design TeamI have been told I am a hoarder. Wait. It’s not what you think. Not one of those “I have carved a narrow pathway between the boxes of old coffee cup lids that leads me to my hot plate which balances on the arm of a cat-pee-soaked recliner” kind of hoarder.No, I am an email hoarder.I have a lot of emails. Whatever. Define a lot. Are 10,117 emails in my inbox and 17,596 emails in my sent box a lot?...

Media Platforms Design TeamResponding to stricter environmental laws and an anticipated proliferation of new vehicles with unconventional powertrains, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has proposed sweeping changes to the fuel-economy ratings of all new light-duty cars and trucks. The ratings have been used since the early 1970s to inform consumers how vehicles perform on the EPA’s standardized fuel economy tests, noting the miles-per-gallon achieved in urban and highway settings, as well as a combination of the two....

PopularMechanics.com, Nov. 30 – Since investigators discovered traces of radiation on three British Airways jets yesterday and expanded their search today, the public health scare caused by the radiation poisoning of an ex-Russian spy in London has exploded into a mini-hysteria–one that experts say is largely overblown. At least 2500 airline passengers have contacted British Airways over concern about exposure to polonium 210–the radioactive poison that killed the spy, Alexander Litvinenko–adding to the more than 1700 Londoners who’ve called the U....

Media Platforms Design TeamOur friend Brian Howard, editor at The Daily Green, cowrote a field guide to the subject, a new book called : How Energy-Efficient Lighting Can Save You Energy and Money and Reduce Your Carbon Footprint. We picked five little known facts about lighting from the book to bring you an overview of what you’ll find.Green LightingDifferent Spaces Deserve Different LightsFor many of us, our lighting strategy ends with changing the bulbs in an overhead light....