So, I'm interested in learning how to detect patterns in a set of images and then use those patterns to create a new image of similar style. For example, say there is a group of 20~ish images (hopefully a large enough sample) with some interesting characteristics and one wished to produce a new image of a set size with such characteristics for an application's background. The catch is that the background should be different each time it is loaded, so it must be generated - not produced in an image editing software.
Now, once I've the base concepts down, I should be able to write something genetic to spit out images until I like the results, but I'm not sure how to start researching this one. I can't really use fractal algorithms because I want to avoid the repeating behavior. So, which metrics do you think I should obtain, and do you know of any good resources for using said metrics to create new images that incorporate the patterns/tendencies of an image set?