a commission from the NMEC,
With grateful support from Professor Igor
Aleksander
and ICON Consultants Ltd. of Imperial College.
Neural Net Starfish
Conceived, Designed and Produced by Richard Brown.
creative-programmers:
Jonathan Mackenzie and Gavin Baily
(C) R.D.Brown, NMEC
1999
The Neural Net Starfish is
a virtual creature, projected onto a large circular table.
It reacts to visitors hand gestures in a life-like manner,
slowly extending a tentacle towards a gently moving hand,
or receding rapidly in an impulsive manner if the gesture is too
strong.
The green dots indicate the
position of hands, showing the seeking tentacles;
the light-red bands are produced from the underlying responses of the
neural net.
IMAGE TAKEN AT THE DOME
(courtesy of Cohnwolfe)
What the Press have
been saying!!
"The exhibits will certainly confound you. But it's still worth checking out the wonderful recoiling starfish made by Richard Brown."
Independent on Sunday, 26th December, 1999.
"The Mind Zone does contain the
best bit of the entire dome: the Neural Net Starfish.
A-larger-than-life, gold, 3-D starfish has been somehow incorporated
into a marble table top.
It is incredibly lifelike and responds to human contact by retracting
disdainfully
or stretching out a tentacle in friendship when a hand
approaches"
The Times, Saturday, 8th January, 2000.