Using machine learning to name colors
Michael A. Alcorn
A lot of the color names were nonsensical (i.e., not actual words), and the pairings between the generated names and the colors seemed pretty random, so it wasn’t clear whether the model was actually learning a meaningful function to map colors to language. I wondered whether the idea could be improved, so, exclusively using open source software, I built a model to play around with; the code for the project can be found on my GitHub. Using these word embeddings, I built two different models: one that maps a name to a color, and one that maps a color to a name. For example, when providing RGB values of 161, 85, and 130 (a fuchsia-like color) as input to the model, it generates the following: opensource.com Word #1 candidates roses_hydrangeas lacy_foliage tussie sweetly_fragrant coppery_pink grevillea oriental_poppies maidenhair_ferns oak_leaf_hydrangea blue_hydrangeas Word #2 candidates violet lavender_flowers wonderfully_fragrant fuchsia anise_hyssop monarda purple purple_blooms cornflowers hibiscuses Word #3 candidates purple pink violet fuchsia roses purple_blooms lavender_flowers lavender Asiatic_lilies monarda Word #4 candidates roses purple pink red violet fuchsia violets Asiatic_lilies purple_blooms flowers I personally like sweetly fragrant fuchsia. Anyway, it seems like the word embeddings allow the model to learn pretty interesting relationships between colors and language.