Turn your iPhone images into ART: Microsoft rolls out an update to its AI-powered Pix app to transform your photos into 11 styles

Microsoft has rolled out an update to its AI-powered photo editing app Pix that lets you turn your iPhone images into art.

Pix was originally designed to improve the appearance of photos by tweaking elements such as colour levels and exposure.

But Microsoft's latest update, which bears a striking resemblance to the iOS app Prisma, lets you have a little more fun by turning photos into masterpieces.

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Microsoft has rolled out an update to its AI-powered photo editing app Pix that lets you turn your iPhone images into art. Pictured are examples using some of the 11 available filters

PIX APP UPDATE

Microsoft has rolled out an update to its AI-powered photo editing app Pix that lets you turn your iPhone images into art.

The feature works by using an artificial intelligence approach called deep neural networks, which can be used to train massive datasets.

In this case, troves of paintings were used to teach the AIs to learn the essence of what makes a style of painting recognsiable.

The feature launched worldwide on June 15 with 11 unique artistic style, with more coming soon.

The app is a free download on the App Store. 

Pix uses a suite of intelligent algorithms developed by Microsoft researchers to take the 'guesswork' out of getting great photos.

'These are meant to be fun features,' said Josh Weisberg, a principal programme manager in the Computational Photography Group within Microsoft's research organisation in Redmond, Washington.

'In the past, a lot of our efforts were focused on using AI and deep learning to capture better moments and better image quality.

'This is more about fun. I want to do something cool and artistic with my photos.'

One of the features, Pix Styles, transforms pictures into styles inspired by popular works of art or adds an effect such as making the picture look like it's on fire.

Unlike a filter, which uniformly alters the colours of a photo, applying a Pix Style transfers texture, pattern and tones to the photo, transforming it into a distinct creation, Weisberg added.

Pix Styles launched on June 15 with 11 unique artistic styles - and more will be added in the coming weeks.

The initial filters are called Glass, Petals, Bacau, Charcoal, Heart, Fire, Honolulu, Zing, Pop, Glitter and Ripples.

A second feature, Pix Paintings, creates a time-lapse of the picture being painted in the artistic style selected – allowing users to see their masterpiece come to life.

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Pictured is an image of a cat (left) which has been transformed by a colourful filter (right). Pix Styles works directly on your device, without accessing the cloud to run the calculation

To build the features, the Pix team used an artificial intelligence processing approach called deep neural networks, which can be used to train massive datasets – in this case troves of paintings – to learn the essence of what makes a given style of painting recognisable.

Pictured is Pena Palace in Sintra, Portugal (left) and the image transformed into a work of art using the Bacau filter 

Pena Palace is transformed into two different works of art using the Zing (left) and Glitter (right) filters

This information informs the photo transformation in Pix Styles and the animated redrawing in Pix Paintings.

Pix Styles works directly on your device, without accessing the cloud to run the calculation.

That's part of a broader shift at Microsoft to push AI from the cloud to devices at the 'edge' of the network, according to the company.

A tree is transformed into a colourful masterpiece using the Heart filter (right) on the Microsoft Pix application

The tree is transformed into a yellow and grey masterpiece using the Pop filter (left) and is set ablaze using the Fire filter (right)

It said the benefit is you can turn your photo into a work of art quickly and easily, without using your data plan.

The new features are well-suited for creating unique imagery to share on social media and the best attempts will be shared on Pix’s Instagram.

The app is a free download on the App Store.