LiDAR is having a moment right now helping self-driving cars and robots not hit things, but don't forget about what else it can do. In a study called The Bare Earth, scientists from the Washington Geological Survey used it to image the ground right down to dirt and rocks. Stripped of trees and other distractions, the images provide not only valuable geological survey data, but stunning, otherworldly views of our planet. The image above depicts a LiDAR relative elevation model (REM), showing current and previous channels carved out by the Sauk River in Washington State's Skagit and Snohomish counties. In the regular satellite image below, however, only the active, vegetation-free channels are clearly visible -- a striking display of what the technique can reveal.

Note: The top row (left to right) represent the artistic style which is transposed onto the original images which are displayed in the first column (Woman, Golden Gate Bridge and Meadow Environment). Using conditional instance normalisation a single style transfer network can capture 32 style simultaneously, five of which are displayed here. This work will feature in the International Conference on Learning Representations (ICLR) 2017. Source: Dumoulin et al. (2017, p. 2)[79] Style transfer as a topic is fairly intuitive once visualised; take an image and imagine it with the stylistic features of a different image. This year Facebook released Caffe2Go,[80] their deep learning system which integrates into mobile devices.

Increasingly, researchers and artists are tinkering with machine-learning software to explore how neural networks can express creativity, whether through generating contemporary paintings or paint swatch names. Designer Philipp Schmitt decided to program a computer to produce a photobook, a process that involved curation as well as creation. The result, he believes, teaches us how to see our surroundings from a new perspective -- "through the eyes of an algorithm," in his words. Drawn from Schmitt's own archive of 207 photographs taken between 2013 and 2017, "Computed Curation" is a 95-foot-long, accordion photobook that includes captions and tags. But you'll quickly notice that these are often odd strings of companion texts.

Uber rival Lyft is raising an additional $500 million in funding ion its ongoinjg battle with Uber, according to a U.S. share authorization document filed in Delaware. The additional funding round, led by Alphabet's CapitalG, is an extension of the $1 billion round announced in October. Lyft spokesman Adrian Durbin, confirming the funding round, in an e-mailed statement said, 'Increasing the potential for this round will allow us to further accelerate our commitment to serving passengers and drivers.' The additional funding round, led by Alphabet's CapitalG, is an extension of a $1 billion round announced in October, and raises the firm's valuation to $11.5 billion Axios was first to report the news. In October Lyft had said that the previous round of funding boosted its valuation to $11 billion from $7.5 billion.

U.S. ride-hailing firm Lyft has secured a permit to test autonomous vehicles in California, taking it one step further in the race with several other companies to bring self-driving cars to the masses. Lyft's permit, reflected on the California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) website, comes two months after it announced plans to offer a self-driving car as a ride option in the San Francisco Bay Area. Lyft already has partnerships in place with autonomous car companies to advance its self-driving strategy. Ride-hailing firm Lyft Inc said on Monday it would launch its service in Toronto, marking the first international expansion for the U.S.-based rival of Uber Technologies Inc. Ford self-driving test vehicles will be connected to Lyft's network, but at first, customers will not be able to use them, according to Sherif Marakby, Ford's vice president for autonomous vehicles and electrification.

How can companies identify--and source--the technologies that will be critical for crafting a strategy to keep up in the shifting automotive landscape? The automotive industry is in the early phases of what is expected to be rapid and fundamental change. Technology is the key to further penetration of all these trends, as well as the developing business models that allow companies to capitalize on them. The industry players--traditional automotive companies and new entrants alike--that identify and secure those technological resources will be best positioned to benefit in the new mobility landscape. Thus, industry players need to think about sourcing underlying technologies rather than acquiring single products or services.

A supercomputer programmed to think like the notorious Zodiac killer could help solve one of the most difficult cases in US law enforcement history. A new artificial intelligence software designed to understand human language may be able to decipher secret messages left by the notorious serial killer who has evaded justice for decades. The computer was commanded to think like the Zodiac and produced some creepy poetry when fed all the known writings of the elusive criminal, it was learned Thursday. A University of Southern California professor created an artificial intelligence software that was designed to help crack the code of the Z340, the Zodiac killer's famous cipher. The ciphers, which were sent with letters to the police and newspapers in Northern California during the 1960s and 70s, contain letters and symbols that may hide clues as to the killer's identity.

The world's first floating nation is set to appear in the Pacific Ocean off the island of Tahiti in 2020. A handful of hotels, homes, offices, restaurants and more will be built in the next few years by the nonprofit Seasteading Institute, which hopes to'liberate humanity from politicians'. The radical plans, bankrolled by PayPal founder Peter Thiel, could see the creation of an independent nation that will float in international waters and operate within its own laws. In a new interview, Joe Quirk, president of the Seasteading Institute, said he wants to see'thousands' of rogue floating cities by 2050, each of them'offering different ways of governance'. The world's first floating nation is set to appear in the Pacific Ocean off the island of Tahiti in 2020 (artist's impression).

While the Genius of Things event in Boston is over, I'm still pondering. There are so many interesting ways that our customers are using Watson IoT to change the way we live and work. In addition to the great speakers, there were also some very impressive technology demonstrations that our partners and colleagues brought to the event. We did, when we stopped by to chat with the Persistent team. Persistent has been a leader in developing humanoid robots with Watson IoT.

Digital technologies are creating value and rearranging roles in the travel industry. Here's how industry leaders are profiting from the change. Over the past 20 years, advances in digital technologies have driven numerous innovations and disruptions in the travel industry. These technologies and the companies that offer them have rearranged the industry, leaving some players behind--travel agents, for example--while introducing more complexity into the value chain between travelers and destinations. More recently, mobile technologies have taken center stage as consumer behavior shifts with astonishing speed toward researching and booking travel through smartphones.