A robot that does outlines of portraits
The artists are used to to be full personalities of colour. But in this case it treats of a very good artist, precise and metallic, that is it all less extravagant. It is not any wonder: it treats of an industrial robot. But his artistic genius only appears when somebody seats in a taburete placed in front of the robot and does of model: first the camera of the robot registers the image of the model; afterwards, the robot takes out suddenly a pencil and traces in the caballete a portrait of the individual. Passed ten minutes, takes the work and presents it proudly in front of his public. The installation of this robot has been developed by the group Robotlab, in the Arts centre and Technology Mediática (ZKM) in Karlsruhe, Germany and some of his members are now employees of the Institute Fraunhofer of Optrónica, Technologies of System and Exploitation of Images (IOSB) of Karlsruhe.
But, how facilitates this technical production the renderización authentic of the facial expressesions of a person? “We have used a process of evaluation of images that fundamentally endows to the robot of the sense of the sight”, explains Martina Richter, scientist in the IOSB. “There is a camera mounted in the arm of the robot and this is the one who uses first to take out him a photo to the person”. The software of treatment of edges looks for the contrasts in the image and transmits them to the robot in shape of coordinates: the arm of the robot moves .
For the researchers and artists the most difficult was to adjust the algorithm for the treatment of the image, so that the image abocetada seemed a portrait. Like this, this artist of high technology would not collect the small crease, but would follow representing the eyes. “We give big importance to the artistic part of the drawings that obtain , but on the other hand, also have instrumented the robot with an automatic system that allows him llevar all the steps by himself same. With this installation have created an interface between the art, the science and the technology ”, Richter is convinced of this.
However, the daily routine of the robot is less artistic: the scientists of the IOSB are used to it use to analyse the properties of the optics by reflection in diverse materials. They direct the light to an object in several steerings, for example, a reflector like the one of that carry the boys in his rucksacks or jackets. The arm of the robot surrounds the sample of material in a hemispherical pattern, measuring how the object reflects the light. The experts designate it characteristics of space reflection of the material. This helps to design different objects as, for example, reflectors that give back the light of a form the most compact possible to the same sense from which has come, in this case the light is given back to the driver of a vehicle. To continuation the reflector issues a light destellante that does that the driver direct his attention to the boy. The aim is different when it treats of the effects that has on painting in the own surface of the car: in this case the aim is to show different tonalities depending of the point from which looks .
