A start-up has designed software based on the latest artificial intelligence techniques to create portraits like Leonardo da Vinci. With the deep learning and more than 500 million parameters to train the generative neural network, it produces Renaissance master-style portraits from any photo of a human face.
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Every day, some 30,000 people come to admire Mona Lisa at the Louvre. Many are certainly wondering what they would look like under the brush of Leonardo DeVinci. The Da Vinci Face platform answers their questions by generating portraits in the style of the Italian painter, thanks to Artificial Intelligence.
Just register at Da Vinci Face by entering his email address to be able to deposit the photography that we would like to transform into a portrait of the Renaissance. Be careful, however, not to use just any cliché! The platform recommends choosing one where you strike a pose alone, in front of a backdrop of color neutral. Also be careful not to smile in the photograph. Prefer one where you wear a pout as enigmatic as that of Mona Lisa. Researchers at the University of Amsterdam determined in 2005 that his to smile translated 83% happiness, 9% disdain, 6% fear and 2% anger.
Your selfie and 500 million settings
The Da Vinci Face platform then takes care of transforming your selfie into a portrait worthy of Leonardo DeVinci. To achieve this feat, it relies on the deep learninga learning technology based on networks of neurons artificial. Algorithms analyze 500 million parameters to isolate the main characteristics of the person posing. They regenerate them to stick as well as possible to the techniques used by Leonardo DeVinci during the Renaissance.
This platform was created by Mathema, a technology start-up based in Florence. ” We have decided to revive the splendor of the Italian Renaissance, recreating The portraits in the style of the great masters of the past thanks to the artificial intelligence technologies latest and most sophisticated. We decided to start with the most famous polymath genius in history: Leonardo Da Vinci Mathema spokesperson Massimiliano Bellini told The Art Newspaper.
The company recently received funding from some cultural associations in Vinci, the Tuscan town where Leonardo da Vinci was born. It is looking for other sources of funding to perfect its algorithms and continue to offer art lovers to transform their photos into masterpieces, in a few clicks.
The automobile of the Codex Atlanticus This Leonardo da Vinci machine is a kind of precursor to automobiles. Gears connected to the wheels are set in motion by the elastic energy accumulated in crossbows. Simpler and less aesthetic versions of this machine can be found among some engineers and predecessors of Leonardo da Vinci, in the Middle Ages and during the Renaissance. The drawings on the left in the background are taken from the Codex Atlanticus, a collection of drawings and notes by Leonardo da Vinci kept at the Ambrosian Library in Milan. © Crochet.david, CC by-sa 3.0
Leonardo da Vinci, one of the parachute pioneers It is difficult to say if Leonardo da Vinci was the first to invent the parachute, but he is certainly one of the pioneers of this concept from a scientific point of view. The drawing in the background is taken from the Codex Atlanticus, a collection of drawings and notes by Leonardo da Vinci kept at the Ambrosian Library in Milan. The drawing was probably made between 1485 and 1502. © Nevit Dilmen, CC by-sa 3.0
Leonardo da Vinci revisited the catapult Although condemning war, Leonardo da Vinci spent a lot of time designing and drawing weapons. As evidenced by the Codex Atlanticus, he was particularly fascinated by catapults. Here, a representation of one of the drawings he made about it. It is in no way an invention because these weapons had been known since Antiquity, but Leonardo brought his characteristic aesthetic touch to them. © Catalogo collezioni, CC by-sa 4.0
Did Leonardo da Vinci invent the bicycle? Did Leonardo da Vinci invent the bicycle? This realization is taken from a controversial drawing discovered during the 1960s by separating two sheets of the Codex Atlanticus which had been glued together. The document is dated 1493 by Leonardo’s own hand, but some believe that the drawing is a fake. However, we find in the Codex Madrid, another collection of drawings by Leonardo da Vinci which has come down to us, the description of a chain resembling in all respects the bicycle chain appearing on the bicycle of the Codex Atlanticus. The mystery remains. © (Eloquence), DP
Leonardo da Vinci’s tank Very well known, Leonardo da Vinci’s tank is not, however, a total novelty; the concept was latent as early as the mobile combat towers of Roman times. This tank moves thanks to the eight men who are inside. Leonardo thought that horses would not bear to be locked up in this “tank”. Its conical shape is intended to deflect projectiles, cannonballs or blocks of rock launched by a catapult. It is thought to have been reinforced with metal plates, according to Leonardo’s design. As with the vast majority of his inventions, it was never made during his lifetime. © Erik Möller, CCO
The Archimedean screw and hydraulic engineering Leonardo da Vinci was passionate about hydraulic engineering and the works of Archimedes. So we see here an Archimedean screw rotated by hand and which could be used as a pump to bring water up. © Crochet.david, CC by-sa 3.0
Leonardo da Vinci: machine gun or ribaudequin Here is an invention that illustrates Leonardo da Vinci’s passion for weapons. Let us not forget that he presented himself to the Duke of Milan as a military engineer as well as an artist. We see here one of its machine guns, still called “ribaudequins” at the time of the development of firearms in Europe. © Semhur GFDL
Leonardo da Vinci and his flying machines This is one of Leonardo da Vinci’s flying machines. It seems more like a glider than inventions designed for flapping flight. Leonardo da Vinci was limited by the energy sources available in his day. He seems to have understood over time that he had to move towards this type of machine imitating birds in gliding flight. The goal ? Fulfill one of man’s oldest dreams: to fly. © Diagram Lajard, DP
Leonardo da Vinci: the ring platform crane Here is an example of one of the lifting machines designed by engineer Leonardo da Vinci. It is a ring platform crane. Leonardo da Vinci was probably inspired here by the creations of the engineers of the time who were used to build palaces and domes such as that of Florence. © Catalogo collezioni, CC by-sa 4.0
Leonardo da Vinci’s diving suit No known drawing by Leonardo da Vinci looks exactly like this image of a spacesuit. However, there are some that have some similar elements. Let’s not forget that Leonardo’s inventions are improvements of ideas that were already fashionable among his contemporaries. Moreover, ways to go under water were already examined in the Middle Ages with sketches of a solution. Leonardo seems to have imagined here a diving suit equipped with a mask, itself connected to the surface by pipes bringing air to the diver. Unfortunately, this system does not allow diving below a few meters because the lungs have to work against the pressure of the water. © Catalogo collezioni, CC by-sa 4.0
Leonardo da Vinci’s Ornithopter It is, it seems, one of the first drawings that Leonardo da Vinci devoted to his flying machines. It foreshadows other versions of the ornithopter, this aircraft whose lift is ensured by flapping wings following the principle of bird flight. A lever system transforms alternate movements of the feet and hands into flapping wings. The drawing is taken from the Codex Atlanticus. © Special Collections Toronto Public Library, CC by-nc 2.0
The Vitruvian Man, the compass and the proportions The Vitruvian Man is probably Leonardo da Vinci’s most iconic drawing. It is the symbol of the ideals of the Renaissance and of humanism, this cultural current where art, science and philosophy were one and where Man was at the center of the universe. Annotated and produced around 1490, this drawing is done in pen, ink and wash. The artist was inspired here by his reading of the theories set out by Vitruvius in his treatise on architecture. Vitruvius was a Roman engineer and architect living during the time of Emperor Augustus. Leonardo’s drawing is meant to depict perfect proportions of an ideal human body. These proportions are based on mathematical structures and symbolize the harmony of the universe. The Vitruvian Man is associated here with a compass, a facsimile made from folio 696r of the Codex Atlanticus by Leonardo da Vinci (1514-1515). © Caroline Lena Becker, CC0 1.0
The hydraulic saw and its bucket wheel This machine is a hydraulic saw inspired by a drawing taken from the Codex Atlanticus, a collection of drawings and notes by Leonardo da Vinci kept at the Ambrosian Library in Milan. The saw is driven by a bucket wheel which turns thanks to the water and whose rotational movement is transformed into vertical movement. Several of Leonardo’s machines draw their energy from the movements of water. © Alessandro Nassiri, CC by-sa 4.0
The aerial screw, which foreshadows the helicopter The aerial screw is one of the most famous machines imagined by Leonardo da Vinci; it foreshadows the helicopter in a certain way. The drawing you see dates from the years 1487-1490. It illustrates once again Leonardo’s obsession with flight. Its principle is inspired by Archimedes’ screw, which can be used to pump water and which greatly interested Leonardo. This one made a comparison between air and water, and it was very fair since it is indeed about two fluids. © Catalogo collezioni, CC by-sa 4.0
Leonardo da Vinci and his vision of the paddle steamer Leonardo da Vinci was not the inventor of the concept of the paddle steamer: it can already be found in the works of the Roman engineer and architect Vitruvius, but also in treatises dating from the Middle Ages and even among the Chinese, there is over 1,000 years old. However, as always, Leonardo makes inimitable aesthetic illustrations of them. © Crochet.david, CC by-sa 3.0
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