Re: ANNEvolve Releases ANN with RAM

Every unexplained acronym you use cuts the readership in half.  I counted
four.  That leaves only 1/16 of this news group (which isn't that large to
start with).

Walter.

"zanke" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote in message
news:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> 4play is a new program that performs neuroevolution.  It uses
> simulated genetic evolution in order to optimize an ANN.  4play is
> being developed by the opensource project ANNEvolve.  It is written in
> standard C for all platforms, and may be downloaded from the
> sourceforge website, below.
>
> The motivation for this software is to demonstrate that an ANN can
> store data in memory, and make use of that data.  This is something
> that cannot be done by the most common types of ANNs, such as MLP's.
> Feed-forward ANNs have only the equivalent of ROM; they have no
> writeable memory.  Training or evolving the ANN determines a set of
> weights and biases that can handle a given problem.  This memory is
> analogous to ROM.  It is also analogous to species learning, as done
> by ants or bees, whereby the species as a whole has learned much, but
> the individuals learn little.  In contrast, there are problems that
> require learning after the training or evolution is completed.  In
> principle, an ANN with recurrent connections can act as a RAM and
> store information even with fixed weights & biases.  The challenge was
> to create an ANN that "knows" how to make use of this ability.
> Therefore a problem was chosen in which active, RAM-like, memory was
> central to the solution.  The 4-card puzzle in 4play requires the ANN
> to remember the locations of two cards, and also the identity of those
> cards.  Then it must make correct decisions based on that information.
>
> This puzzle is loosely based on the game of Concentration, where cards
> are spread face down on a table and the players get to turn over two
> cards, trying to form pairs.  Each turn starts with the cards face
> down, since the main point is to remember what cards were exposed, and
> where they are located.
>
> This is the problem to be solved by an ANN: There is a deck of 4
> cards, 2 aces & 2 deuces.  The cards are shuffled and dealt face down
> on the table.  This pattern of 4 face down cards is presented to the
> ANN.  Then one card is exposed and the new pattern is presented to the
> ANN.  A second card, not matching the first, is then exposed, and this
> pattern is presented.  Then the cards are turned face down again, this
> pattern is presented to the ANN, and this time the ANN makes a choice
> of a card to be exposed.  The chosen card is exposed and the 4-card
> pattern presented to the ANN.  It then makes its 2nd choice to
> conclude the game.  If its two choices form a pair, it wins.
> Otherwise it loses.
>
> The goal is to evolve ANNs that are perfect players of this puzzle.
> This has been achieved.  The 4play package includes "chromosomes" that
> create perfect ANNs when read into the evolving population.
>
> Much more information about 4play is included in the downloadable
> files at:
> http://sourceforge.net/projects/annevolve 4play is extensively
> documented.
>
> The Annevolve team is experimenting with the Evolution of Artificial
> Neural Networks (ANNs).  They are combining the two fields of
> Artificial Neural Networks and Evolutionary Computation.  Find out
> more about the other neuroevolution programs at:
> http://annevolve.sourceforge.net