i hate computer geek jokes. so shut up.
evolutionary art.
this is the big one really. it was my final year project at birmingham uni and it got me a well high first.. which i think was well deserved considering the amount of time i put into it. that isnt surprising when it was worth a quarter of my degree and i actually enjoyed doing it. anyway. it basically uses a complicated form of genetic programming to allow you to evolve aesthetically pleasing images. you pick the images that you like and these 'breed' to create a new set of images. i dont really want to go into all the technical stuff but if youre really interested then you can read an edited version of my dissertation (if that doesnt work then try here). i did a short website about my project for the birmingham computer science website that may explain some stuff. when they put that up ill slot the address in here. ive also got an online results page that is located somewhere that contains a lot of different images and gives a good indication of what my program can do. more locally theres fourteen really good images on my computer graphics page ..but for an even quicker fix heres a few more recent images that i think look good together:
on top of my project work i also programmed this dudey thing that continually animates the images at random. i hate to say this but it is really cool. im trying my hardest to get it appletised and running but for some asshole reason i cant get any applets working anymore. what am i doing wrong? maybe you can tell me. have a look. when it is up and running its gonna be really slow.. but youd get the generally idea. im currently working with someone else on a very similar project that will hopefully result in a small box that you can plug into your tv or plasma screen to the same effect. dont tell mathmos tho. haha.
if you wanna have a play with my project then you can download the class files below. im afraid that means youve gotta have jdk installed (i use 1.4 but it probably doesnt matter) which you can download from here somewhere. i guess it also means you have to know what youre kinda doing. but nevermind. i was going to let you download all the raw java code but i dont really feel comfortable with it. im all for open code and everything and it pisses me off to have to sound arrogant but its my little baby and i think its worth something. i dont mind other people benefitting but not in a way in which i lose out or dont get recognition.. which is way too possible when it comes to code. i know people who its happened to. so. there. etc. i just dont wanna get ripped off. the other thing is if you do use my program and get some really good images then youre obliged to email me the saved genotypes. all the necessary infomation should be in the zip file. which you can download here or try here if geocities says it isnt there.
phil
i did an intelligent robotics module in my final year at birmingham and this was the result. phil. um. a lego head. no really he was quite groovy. he was featured on the midlands news and (get this) childrens bbc. thats a national kids tv thing. i would have been really proud had he not had stage fright. but nevermind. to cut a medium story really short he has an emotional model coded in his brain thingy. this model takes input from his sensors (in his eyes and ears) and produces a physical response to portray his mood. different moods are distinguishable by different facial expressions. so if you start to talk to him hell start getting happy and will start to smile. if you stop talking to him then over time hell get more bored. shout at him and hell quickly react. if something moves quickly towards him hell shut his eyes. etc. you get the point. mike also did this dudey algorithm that enables him to track objects moving left to right with his eyes by monitoring the change in light levels. it was dead good. he was the only robot in the group that consitently worked in all conditions. if youve ever tried to built a robot (especially out of lego) then youll know how hard it is. but yeah. he was a bit of kismet ripoff. kismet is a robot head they did at mit. kismet is quite cool but im sure they could have done a lot better. theres a few phil websites. check out this one that was done for when we were on cbbc. then theres this one that i did as part of the project write up.
a virtual world
another one of my final year modules was vitual reality. i guess i quite enjoyed it and i did quite well. i think my project was at least in the top twenty for my year. anyway. the project was to create a virtual world and was very open ended. a good (and quite popular) option seemed to be an art gallery. i did it because i could keep adding in random stuff as exhibitions. i had a slide puzzle and gyroscope and stuff. this really obscure game thing.. and these weird evolutionary sculptures that are based on dawkins biomorphs:
