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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."

11 of 53 comments (clear)

  1. 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 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.'"
  2. 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 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
  3. 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? :).

    --
  4. 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 !
  5. 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.

  6. 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).

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

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

  8. 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.