Google is turning scribble to art with 'Quick Draw'

Using your finger or mouse to draw on your smartphone, tablet or computer can be slow and very difficult. In order to address this little, yet much needed issue, Google created and now debuted AutoDraw. The new web-based tool pairs machine learning with drawings created by talented artists to help you draw. Pretty similar to what a swipe keyboard or handwriting recognition can do, AutoDraw can intelligently identify what you wish to draw from a simple scribble to perfect art.

When you scribble an outline of something that you want to draw, the machine learning incorporated artificial intelligence senses an appropriate drawing and places it on the screen. It also asks you if you actually drew what you did or did you mean something different, similar to what an autocorrect algorithm does on a smartphone keyboard. For example, if you draw a jagged line from top to bottom, the AI senses that you could be drawing a flash and places it on screen and also asks you if you meant something different and puts it into a small bar on top of the drawing screen. Or if you drew two circles with a stroked line, it asks you if you wanted to draw a spectacle frame or a bicycle. AutoDraw’s suggestion tool uses the same technology from an earlier launched project ‘Quick Draw’ to guess what you’re trying to draw. Quick Draw only tries to guess what you drew.

The best part of AutoDraw — it’s completely free and works on your smartphone, tablet and even your desktop PC or laptop. So next time you want to create your own greeting card, make sure you give AutoDraw a try. The new AI drawing portal is fun and kids can adopt it well for learning and entertainment.

Though the algorithm is great and predicts most of what you would want to draw, there are many more items, drawings, figures and more that needs to be added. For example, we did try drawing a regular IC chip and the prediction was off — it detected birthday cake, table, balloon, water drops, chandelier, and what not. Well, we did not expect it to be perfect, but we are sure the tool will definitely make itself better in time.

AutoDraw is developed with the help of artists, designers, illustrators and friends of Google who created original drawings. The hands behind AutoDraw are HAWRAF — Design Studio, Erin Butner — Designer, Julia Melograna — Illustrator, Pei Liew —Designer, Simone Noronha — Designer, Tori Hinn — Designer and Selman Design — Creative Studio.

Google has also invited all users who are interested in submitting their designs and drawings to help take their latest AI experiment AutoDraw to a higher level in order to make drawing fun for everyone and more accessible.

(source)