Self-Portrait Machine Forces Your Hands Into Drawing A Pretty Picture

Kinda sad...

SAfiftyseven

I can see the brainwave idea being useful in the workplace, particularly for the police department.

Say for instance someone got mugged, and the cops ask for a description of the perpetrator. The wanted pictures they draw are based on description, and while they're still pretty good, it'd be better if you can tap right into the victim's brainwaves to get a photographic shot of the perp.

mix this robot with an evil processor and you got a terminator in the making.

ridgecity

@PN - Artest->Ariza: hey i take offense to that, i can code. just kidding. i agree though, it may make them have a false sense of artistic ability. i think if it could use brainwaves (as mentioned in the post) then it would be very useful.

@Wibble: i don't think that is art. but, that's for you to decide, i guess.

@Hello Mister Walrus: exactly. this IS photography, and to a certain extent, as jason houle says, it uses the human as the rendering 'medium'. so, if anyone wants to argue artistic merit, i would say that the image produced would hold little artistic value in and of itself, if it were not for the 'artistic' reversal of producer/medium that the machine enacts.

Id still consider it art if the Original piece was created by the artist and then programmed into the machine. Its actually more in tune with a digital artist than lets say if they were to simply print it. Digital art is a great relatively new medium.

morin333.deviantart.com

My hand is on my inkjet = I'm an artist!

dumb.

nbolmer

@Hello Mister Walrus: I am guessing that you are not a graphic designer or photographer.
As someone who has done both jobs professionally before and after the digital singularity, I can tell you the advantages that adding a computer to the mix are not nearly as great as you would think. The main advantages are the speed in which you can see a polished version of the final image, do variations, and the ability to save all those variations. Professionally this is a mixed blessing because clients want to see results instantly and not in a few days, so there is less time to think and come up with new/better solutions.

Thinking that a computer makes design easy is like thinking that having a word processor makes writing easy.
The hardest part of design is the decision making and ideas, the physical part of traditional photography and design becomes automatic and easy after a few weeks of practice.

On the other hand, I imagine that being an accountant or statistician is made substantially easier by having a computer, but I know nothing about either one, so I could be wrong.

macrumpton

@Pi-face: That sounds like the opinion of someone who knows very little about any of those subjects.

macrumpton

@Pi-face:
I wish I could hate you to death. I know you're trolling, but goddamn.

@Pi-face: Classic Philistinism. What, did you take a design or photography class in college and flub it because of your pinchingly narrow.........views?

@czetie: Don't feed the trolls.

@Pi-face: You don't know much about photography, do you? www.bellavistaphotography.com

czetie

@Wibble: That sir, Is a fantastic link.

knails

So this is some kind of 'line printer'? :) I thought they were through with that technology!

I don't think so. Muscle memory is constructed strictly by brain instructing certain parts of the body how to operate. And repeating those steps over oand over again.

Driving in a rally car as a passenger does not make you a good driver ;)

As someone who has been spending days on his first digital painting of himself, I am offended. lol

Why do the guys arms need to be strapped to the machine? If you want "mind-generated" images, you can just attach sensors to your head, and have the pencil attached to a robotic printer, or robot arm with a pencil. There is absolutely no reason for the person's arms to be involved.

Hello Mister Walrus

@Pi-face: Photography or computer-aided graphic design can qualify as art, but they are generally held to a higher standard than drawing or painting, since the medium is easier to work with. For instance, if I paint a realistic portrait of a person, that might qualify as art. However, photographs have to be pretty spectacular images to merit artistry.

With that being said, the machine above is really just a photocopier. Machines that draw with a pencil after scanning pictures are not new. It doesn't make any difference that this is strapped to some guy's hands.

Hello Mister Walrus

Did we not put the video in the article because it's boring? I wonder if they debated at all when they decided not to make public any videos of the machine drawing without a human strapped into it.

jacobestes

Machines forcing humans to draw? NEVER!

Imagine what that thing could do combined with my skill. . . A stick figure with hair!

Me and my buddy loved watching the vinyl cutter in shop class for this exact reason: we laughed at how cool it would be to one day draw that precisely.

That was directed toward @Pi-face. I don't know why it says undefined.

Jason Houle

@undefined: With photography and graphic design the camera and computer are a tool to create the art. With this, the human is the tool and the computer is creating the art. There is no comparison between the two.

Jason Houle

Excuse me, but I need further explanation on the need of this one small component on this setup: The human.

Bokusatsu_Tenshi

@Pi-face: I'm slowly filling with rage and hate.

@Dallifornia: No, it lets those of us who have trouble translating pretty/terrible/pornographic pictures into pretty/terrible/pornographic pictures. It takes a picture and draws a picture of it, dragging your hands along for the ride. Imagine a combination inkjet/pillory.

[en.wikipedia.org]

CaseyG

@Pi-face:

[www.clarklittlephotography.com]

Go on - tell me that ain't art.

And apparently McLovin is a fan of this technology.

@NicleT: I mean «imagine»

@Willzyx: Ha ha ha! "Lart" for Lards.

We can already see some "nasty" usage :/

@Pi-face:
You wouldn't be dissing photography, would you?

Naw! I know you would never do that.

That would be wrong.

ImTheGarbageman

@Lazarou:
Yes, but unfortunately not WITH them.

ImTheGarbageman

I wonder if this could be used to help develop muscle memory and enable people to draw/write better.

I'd say that it's art just about as much as photography/graphic design is.

Pi-face

It has merit in the way that it can train you to perform the right pen/brush/pencil strokes. I wonder if it can mimic different artistic styles.

I can't wait to hook this up to myself while I sleep when they come out with a brainwave reading version. Anybody want to buy some disturbing art?

Rotnmeat

Can it draw my large talons?

@PN - Long time reader, new commenter.: Or, it lets those of us who have trouble translating thoughts to art into pretty/terrible/pornographic pictures.

Dallifornia

@Willzyx: lol "lart." Sounds like it belongs on a t-shirt.

gotcheeze5793

Although its cool:

1. Its pretty much useless

2. It takes away a lot of the artisticness (not a word) of art. In gizmodo readers speak: Imagine if prep/jocks could code.

It'd still be pretty cool if you can control the pen while it's guiding your arm. Adjust the angle and make the image imperfect. As long as there's human intervention, I'd say it's still art. Lazy art. Lart.

Willzyx