YOUR holiday snaps can be transformed at the click of a mouse to look as
though they were painted by an old master. Software packages like Adobe
PhotoShop provide numerous filters for adding effects such as embossing or
blurring to your photos, but each filter must be applied separately.
Aaron Hertzmann of New York University wondered if he could make a computer
program analyse the key aspects of a particular artist鈥檚 style and then apply
them to a photo. Working with a team from Microsoft and the University of
Washington in Seattle, Hertzmann has designed software that can transform any
photo into the style of a famous artist in a single operation.
It starts by comparing a simple photograph of some sunflowers, say, with one
of Vincent van Gogh鈥檚 famous paintings. The program analyses the relationship
between the pixels in the photo and the image of the painting to produce a
relationship that can be applied to any other photo. When presented with your
snaps, the software picks out patterns in the pixels that are similar to regions
in the original pair. This allows it to transform the snaps so that they mimic
van Gogh鈥檚 style.
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Currently the process can only be applied to still images, but Hertzmann says
he plans to use a similar analogy-based technique to produce animations. 鈥淵ou
could have an animated movie set in a van Gogh painting,鈥� he says.
The software doesn鈥檛 just give your snaps a classy look. It also gives a
fresh insight into the painter鈥檚 technique. 鈥淭his work gets people thinking
about what constitutes an artist鈥檚 style,鈥� says Eugene Fiume, a computer
scientist at the University of Toronto. 鈥淚t is quite striking how easy it is for
the computer to copy the artist.鈥�
