View previous topic :: View next topic |
Author |
Message |
Ken Ramos

Joined: 27 Jul 2006 Posts: 7058 Location: lat=35.4005&lon=-81.9841
|
Posted: Sun Dec 03, 2006 6:06 pm Post subject: Slime Molds, did you know... |
|
|
that they have been used in the application of making video games! Read about it here , last paragraph at the bottom of the page.  |
|
Back to top |
|
 |
rjlittlefield Site Admin

Joined: 01 Aug 2006 Posts: 18698 Location: Richland, Washington State, USA
|
Posted: Sun Dec 03, 2006 6:55 pm Post subject: |
|
|
Hhmm... I remember reading flock-of-bird equations when they were first published, about 30 years ago, and it's odd but I can't recall a thing about slime molds in those articles. Ah well, I forget so much these days...
However, I have no doubt that the equations are the same, and the story does make a nice position of prominence for the myxo's, even if it is a bit apocryphal.
--Rik |
|
Back to top |
|
 |
Bill D

Joined: 27 Nov 2006 Posts: 118 Location: Raleigh, NC
|
Posted: Sun Dec 03, 2006 7:33 pm Post subject: |
|
|
That would explain my son's bedroom... it must have escaped! _________________ Bill |
|
Back to top |
|
 |
rjlittlefield Site Admin

Joined: 01 Aug 2006 Posts: 18698 Location: Richland, Washington State, USA
|
Posted: Sun Dec 03, 2006 7:44 pm Post subject: |
|
|
I did a bit more tracking down, and it seems that the story is correct. See http://www.simonsays.com/content/book.cfm?tab=1&pid=410897&agid=2 , which says that Segel and Keller published a seminal paper on modeling slime mold in 1969. That would be just a few years before I first saw flock-of-birds animation at a SIGGRAPH conference.
Cool! I can hardly wait to tell my gaming friends about some of the origins of their amusement.
--Rik |
|
Back to top |
|
 |
Ken Ramos

Joined: 27 Jul 2006 Posts: 7058 Location: lat=35.4005&lon=-81.9841
|
Posted: Sun Dec 03, 2006 7:57 pm Post subject: |
|
|
A very informative piece there Rik, a very good and interesting read indeed. That really makes my interest in these creatures to grow even more. To think something like the lowely slime mold may hold a myrid of technological possibilites for the future. Biomathmatics, never realized such a thing existed but then again... I never have been good at math...of any kind . |
|
Back to top |
|
 |
Mike B in OKlahoma

Joined: 04 Aug 2006 Posts: 1048 Location: Oklahoma City
|
Posted: Sun Dec 03, 2006 8:01 pm Post subject: |
|
|
I remember reading about the bird stuff around 1977 or so...Interesting that it applies to other things as well. _________________ Mike Broderick
Oklahoma City, OK, USA
Constructive critiques of my pictures, and reposts in this forum for purposes of critique are welcome
"I must obey the inscrutable exhortations of my soul....My mandate includes weird bugs."
--Calvin |
|
Back to top |
|
 |
Carl_Constantine

Joined: 01 Aug 2006 Posts: 304 Location: Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
|
Posted: Sun Dec 03, 2006 9:30 pm Post subject: |
|
|
isn't it essentially "game of life" type equations which should work in this case. _________________ Carl B. Constantine |
|
Back to top |
|
 |
|