Colourful web app turns doodles into 3D visuals

Google is doing some incredibly creative things with artificial intelligence at the moment. We've already drawn your attention to AutoDraw, its online app that can turn your doodle art into crisp images. And there's Quick, Draw!, a high-speed Pictionary-style game that not only tries to guess what you're drawing, but also uses your scribbles to improve the effectiveness of AutoDraw.

Now someone's used Google's technology to create a delightful piece of online doodling fun. Inspired by his two-year-old daughter's love of drawing – which she calls "no-ni no-ni",  Google UX engineer Jongmin Kim has made NONI NONI, a website that turns your doodles into 3D structures made up of colourful balls.

Simply scrawl a shape or a letter, and NONI NONI uses Google's machine learning tools to guess what it is, and then takes illustrations from AutoDraw, and also from artist Sanghee Cho, that it then turns into colourful 3D visualisations. It makes multiple suggestions, so you can choose your favourites.

You can spin around and zoom in and out of the finished results either using the mouse wheel or two fingers on a touchscreen. You can then clear the image and start again either by holding down your mouse button for a couple of seconds, or by shaking your device, Etch a Sketch-style.

It's perfect for kids (and we've had quite a bit of fun with it as well), and it's all done in HTML5 with SVG, WebGL and the Canvas element. You should definitely take a look at the site's About page, too, as it features a lovely psychedelic animated backdrop that we could watch for ages.

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• Doodle art: 52 great examples