Artistic image processing with cellular automata and evolutionary algorithms

Scientists and artists have been dedicate themselves to combine science and art together for decades, especially in the realm of computer science and digital technology. Nowadays, there are commercial software packages providing artistic image effect filters and processors. These functionalities are usually designed for certain specific purposes, such as blur, sketch, and the like. In this study, we make our attempt to develop a mechanism which is able to generate many different kinds of artistic effects, many of which are probably difficult to describe. The proposed mechanism combines cellular automata and pixel painting to process a given image with the involvement of an evolutionary algorithm. Interesting and/or unexpected results are obtained via the use of the evolutionary algorithm on the objective functions presented in this paper.