A Program Learns Oriental Ink Painting 53
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."
It only did the strokes, not the art (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.