Real-time interactive sequence generation and control with Recurrent Neural Network ensembles

Abstract: Recurrent Neural Networks (RNN), particularly Long Short Term Memory (LSTM) RNNs, are a popular and very successful method for learning and generating sequences. However, current generative RNN techniques do not allow real-time interactive control of the sequence generation process, thus aren't well suited for live creative expression. We propose a method of real-time continuous control and 'steering' of sequence generation using an ensemble of RNNs and dynamically altering the mixture weights of the models. We demonstrate the method using character based LSTM networks and a gestural interface allowing users to 'conduct' the generation of text.