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."
What if it's "Sumo-e artist" instead of "Sumi-e"? (Score:3)
Can't imagine how the Sumo-e art would look like, tho ...
Re: (Score:2)
The same. Just a lot bigger.
You do know western companies design computers? (Score:3)
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 wor
The future is already here ... (Score:2)
It was rewarded... (Score:3)
...what was the reward? Human flesh?
Re:It was rewarded... (Score:5, Funny)
...what was the reward? Human flesh?
Nah.
It got a byte to eat.
Re: (Score:2)
It got a byte to eat.
Word!
Re: (Score:1)
But ll it wanted was a nibble.
Re: (Score:2)
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!
Re: (Score:2)
Re: (Score:3)
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 desir
Re: (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.
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.
Re: (Score:2)
Still, not too shabby. Check out the photo conversions on page 7.
Re:It only did the strokes, not the art (Score:4, 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 [i-programmer.info] 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 [betterphoto.com] bird, which was photoshopped by DeviantArt user mohamedraoof to look like a "Natural Angry Bird [deviantart.com]". All three images, the original photo, the deviation, and the sumi-e version look very nice in their own way.
Operant conditioning (Score:1)
angry bird pic (Score:3)
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/ [funnyzela.com]
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? :).
Re: (Score:2)
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.
Re: (Score:2)
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.
That's easy (Score:2)
RACIST. (Score:1)
We call it ASIAN these days, you racists.
Re: (Score:2)
The *people* are Asian. The *products* and *styles* are oriental.
Re: (Score:1)
The *people* are Asian. [Therefore] the *products* and *styles* are Japanese.
FTFY - from the point-of-view of most Western people.
Alright, but now.. (Score:1)
Has anyone bothered to ask, (Score:1)
no it doesn't (Score:3)
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).
Why bother? (Score:3)
Can the strokes have spirit? (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
Artists will be outsourced soon! (Score:2)
Oh great, our art skills are being outsourced to computers. :P