Apologies for the short notice, but today (Monday) we are joined on Second Nature by Simon Colton from Imperial College’s Department of Computing. For an introduction to his work, over to my colleague Matt Brown:
Computers might be able to spew out facts and tally your accounts, but could they ever make great art? Simon Colton from Imperial’s Department of Computing thinks so. With colleagues Maja Pantic and Michel Valstar he’s created an award-winning system called The Painting Fool , which paints stylised portraits after analysing facial expressions.
If, for example, it sees an angry face, the portrait might incorporate strong brushstrokes in fiery colours, while a depressed person might be rendered in dismal hues.
The results are impressive and last month bagged the team a prestigious award for machine intelligence at a British Computer Society conference.
For more on Simon’s work, read Matt’s full article and then join us on Second Nature for a talk with Simon himself all about his work. All welcome – no specialist knowledge, just an open mind, required!
Speaker: Dr Simon Colton, Imperial College
Date: Monday 3rd March
Time: 9am SLT/PST, Midday EST, 5pm GMT
Location: Second Nature Island