Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

A Program Learns Oriental Ink Painting

Posted by Unknown on from the midi-killed-art dept.

mikejuk writes about a neat use of machine learning. From the article: "Using reinforcement learning to make a computer paint like an oriental Sumi-e artist isn't just a matter of shouting 'well done' — and yet, when you look at the results, that's what you want to do. ... Three researchers at the Tokyo Institute of Technology have attempted to teach a computer how to do it [paint] using standard reinforcement learning. When the program used the brush to create a smooth stroke, it was rewarded. After it had learned to use the brush, it was set to rendering some photos and the results look very good."

53 comments

  1. Natural progression. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0, Funny

    Oriental painters work for rice cakes and undercut western painters. Computer program works for electricity and undercuts Oriental painters. Oriental engineers design and build computer. Cycle is complete - no westerners needed.

  2. The future is already here ... by k(wi)r(kipedia) · · Score: 1

    but we just haven't made it fast enough, shrunk it into a form factor that can fit in our pockets, or integrated it into a multifunctional device that can talk, walk, feed us, and entertain us in kinky ways. (Apologies to William Gibson, who famously said, "The future is already here -- it's just not very evenly distributed.")

  3. It was rewarded... by Ryanrule · · Score: 2

    ...what was the reward? Human flesh?

    1. Re:It was rewarded... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

      ...what was the reward? Human flesh?

      Nah.
      It got a byte to eat.

    2. Re:It was rewarded... by guttentag · · Score: 1

      I know, my first thought was, "what would a computer do with a lifetime supply of chocolate?" So I RTFM.

      My understanding is that they basically told it your goal is to earn yourself the highest score possible. You get 0 points for painting off the edge of the page, lots of points for smooth brush strokes, etc. I wouldn't really call it a reward system, any more than WOW's grinding is a reward system.

      Obligatory: "I am now telling the computer exactly what it could do with a lifetime supply of chocolate!"

    3. Re:It was rewarded... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      They just gave it another human battery.

    4. Re:It was rewarded... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Score. You give it a better reward (i.e. higher number) when it produces a better solution, and the program is made in a way to try to maximize the rewards it receives. It can't know a priori how good a solution will be, so it experiments a bit to get an idea of what are good parameters; after a while the algorithm should give you good solutions. This yields results far better than random search (using the same computer time, since you'll find good solutions with random tries if you're patient enough). By the way, if you read the literature you'll see "reward" is a common term.

    5. Re:It was rewarded... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      They gave it a partial copyright claim and a 1% take of all commercial net profit in region 2, paid once every 20 years.

    6. Re:It was rewarded... by pitchpipe · · Score: 1

      It got a byte to eat.

      Word!

      --
      Look where all this talking got us, baby.
    7. Re:It was rewarded... by Samantha+Wright · · Score: 1

      The computer is rewarded with less uncertainty as the trials approach perfection. Surely, for deterministic calculating machines, there is no finer goal.

      --
      Bio questions? Ask me to start a Q&A journal. Computer analogies available for most topics!
    8. Re:It was rewarded... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

      But ll it wanted was a nibble.

    9. Re:It was rewarded... by drinkypoo · · Score: 2

      I wouldn't really call it a reward system, any more than WOW's grinding is a reward system.

      When you do something that you find rewarding there is a chemical change in the brain which can be represented with a number. The computer doesn't actually have a brain, it's just a collection of state machines (real and virtual) so you just increase a number and it doesn't feel any way about it. Does that make it not a reward when you're talking about a scoring system? Splitting hairs, I say, if the result is the same; you "reward" the desired behavior with more points, and that leasts to more of the desired behavior. Arguably, WE are just state machines (nobody has proven this either way though — we still don't understand something as fundamental as memory, and without it it's hard to make declarative statements about local existence in a world with quantum effects) and if we are what's the damn difference anyway? The computer's scoring system involves a number and ours involves having more of a chemical.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  4. It only did the strokes, not the art by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

    Once the brush agent was trained it was used to create ink paintings of photos. The contours that the brush follows were generated manually, so the artistic effect isn't quite as autonomous as it might appear.

    Basically, it only learned the basic movements. A person manually told it where to apply them.

    1. Re:It only did the strokes, not the art by kermidge · · Score: 1

      Still, not too shabby. Check out the photo conversions on page 7.

    2. Re:It only did the strokes, not the art by Cow+Jones · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Right. It would be interesting if we could use something like this to train Photoshop filters to get closer to the result we want...

      On a side note, one of the example photo conversions on page 7 of the PDF (or here from the third link) has the i-programmer writer commenting "I can't help but think that the bird looks a lot like something from Angry Birds...". That's not an accident: the original source image is this photo of a red cardinal bird, which was photoshopped by DeviantArt user mohamedraoof to look like a "Natural Angry Bird". All three images, the original photo, the deviation, and the sumi-e version look very nice in their own way.

      --

      Ah, arrogance and stupidity, all in the same package. How efficient of you. -- Londo Mollari
  5. Operant conditioning by crash123 · · Score: 1

    Why can't they just call it what it is?

    1. Re:Operant conditioning by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      ... because that's not what it's called.

  6. angry bird pic by TheLink · · Score: 2

    The bird pic is not from a real bird.

    Some guy did actually draw some birds based on the angry birds:
    http://funnyzela.com/real-life-angry-birds/

    So that oriental ink bird is a more abstract drawing of a pseudo-realistic version of an imaginary bird... Something like that - did I miss a step? :).

    --
    1. Re:angry bird pic by retchdog · · Score: 1

      and the drawing contours were manually specified. the robot just learned how to make particular sumi-e strokes.

      is all japanese ai/robotics like this? here's a hint, you guys: most of the time, the motor control is the easy part; planning and feature detection are what is interesting. seriously, what's up? the japanese certainly aren't stupid, i guess they just have an obsession with building toys.

      --
      "They were pure niggers." – Noam Chomsky
    2. Re:angry bird pic by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Well, while you may might have a point about Japanese research (there certainly does seem to be a broader range of weird applications there), the statement "most of the time, the motor control is the easy part" is about 30 years out of date. The current AI community pretty much universally believes that planning is the easy part, and motor control, perception, etc is in fact the hard part.

      That said, there is nothing fundamentally wrong with doing unusual, seemingly frivolous applications if you know what you're doing, and if it leads to good science. To discount research simply because the application appears frivolous to you, without really understanding the underlying technology, is a bit reminiscent of a recent congressional report on NSF spending, which criticized some top discoveries in the field of robotics by complaining that it resulting in laundry folding robots that took 20 minutes to fold a shirt.

    3. Re:angry bird pic by retchdog · · Score: 1

      perception=feature detection, so i covered that.

      anyway i don't have a problem with it per se; it just seems like a pattern in the japanese innovations that make it into the press. i don't know if it leads to good science; for instance, this thing seems kind of a dead end to me.

      --
      "They were pure niggers." – Noam Chomsky
  7. That's easy by michaelmalak · · Score: 1

    You just install FrontPage.

  8. RACIST. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1

    We call it ASIAN these days, you racists.

    1. Re:RACIST. by Ignacio · · Score: 2

      The *people* are Asian. The *products* and *styles* are oriental.

    2. Re:RACIST. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I am an oriental person. The term is not derogatory.

      Go cry about something else that doesn't concern you, prude.

    3. Re:RACIST. by Zanadou · · Score: 1

      The *people* are Asian. [Therefore] the *products* and *styles* are Japanese.

      FTFY - from the point-of-view of most Western people.

  9. Alright, but now.. by Sav1or · · Score: 1

    Now turn it loose with a few Grand Strategy games, Real-time Strategy games, and Counter Strike for good measure. And don't forget a copy of The Art of War. This should turn out well.

  10. nyud.net link by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    http://www.sumiesociety.org.nyud.net:8080/frame.htm

    Have a heart, man! You don't post a small time web site on /.

  11. What if it's "Sumo-e artist" instead of "Sumi-e"? by Taco+Cowboy · · Score: 2

    Can't imagine how the Sumo-e art would look like, tho ...

    --
    Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !
  12. Has anyone bothered to ask, by axlr8or · · Score: 1

    What does a computer consider a positive reward? And, if you tell it what it expects as a positive reward, how does it realize it?

    1. Re:Has anyone bothered to ask, by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reinforcement_learning

  13. You do know western companies design computers? by Sycraft-fu · · Score: 2

    Most of the componentry in your computer was designed by a western company. The most complex being the CPU and GPU. Well those come from Intel and AMD for CPUs and Intel, AMD, and nVidia for GPUs. All US companies. In the case of AMD the GPU design division is largely in Canada, and for Intel CPU design alternates between the US and Israel (they have two teams). nVidia does their design in California.

    There are quite a few manufacturing facilities for various computer parts in Asia but most of the design work is in the west.

  14. Program learns what? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    from tfa: "The contours that the brush follows were generated manually"

    Wow, you discovered blur

  15. no it doesn't by khipu · · Score: 2

    If you read the paper, it attempted to reproduce the pressure profile during the strokes.

    See those nice renderings of photographs as brush strokes? The path of the strokes was generated by hand, only the learned pressure profile was used. And the pressure profile it actually used seems pretty poor.

    The paper is pretty much faking its results (although it's at least honest about doing so).

  16. Re:What if it's "Sumo-e artist" instead of "Sumi-e by Errtu76 · · Score: 1

    The same. Just a lot bigger.

  17. but humans still fail at using computers by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    How am I supposed to appreciate a painting with those awful JPEG artifacts?

  18. Why bother? by kelemvor4 · · Score: 2

    Adobe Photoshop has been able to do this for years. At least since CS3 (the first version I used). Might be of some value as an exercise in a programming class, I guess. The finished product, however, is just a copy of other software that already exists.

  19. Can the strokes have spirit? by WillAdams · · Score: 1

    Omori Sogen (first ``o'' in each name should have macrons over them) and Terayama Katsujo (last ``o'' should have a macrons over it) in _Zen and the Art of Calligraphy: The essence of sho_ examined brush stokes under high magnification to show how the strokes were infused w/ ki (the spirit of the artist) --- compare Plate 2 `` the ink particles are lacklustre and weak'' w/ Plate 5 ``a dramatic transformation has taken place --- the bokki (infusion of ki into the ink) is sold, dynamic, alive.''

    What do these strokes look like under high magnification?

    Is an image w/o spirit art?

    --
    Sphinx of black quartz, judge my vow.
  20. Artists will be outsourced soon! by antdude · · Score: 1

    Oh great, our art skills are being outsourced to computers. :P

    --
    Ant(Dude) @ Quality Foraged Links (AQFL.net) & The Ant Farm (antfarm.ma.cx / antfarm.home.dhs.org).
  21. so now you can by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    pixellate all the genitals in your collection?