afaik this technique was first implemented in the early 90s:
http://draves.org/fuse/
[1] http://www.logarithmic.net/pfh-files/thesis/dissertation.pdf
There's an oldish plugin for the GIMP called Resynthesizer, but there are better algorithms out now. G'MIC has one called "inpainting". http://gmic.eu/repository.shtml