Lab 15: Processing with Neurons

1. We're going to play with my neural net simulator, CANT.
2. An old tutorial might be worth a look.
3. There's probably a better way to do this, but...
   1. In Eclipse Open up a new java project names CANT23. Make sure that the execution JRE is JavaSE-1.6 (others may work).
   2. Grab CANT3939.zip and stick it somewhere.
   3. From the Eclpse File menu, import the archive file.
   4. Move all the src files up to CANT23/src/defaultpackage
   5. Move param.xml up to CANT23
4. Now run the base class CANT23.
5. You should get a window with a blue matrix and 400 cells.
6. Each cell represents a neuron.
7. If you widen the window, you can step or start.
8. Try to get the neurons to persistently fire without external activation, by setting parameters.
9. Get the default 10x10 network running.
10. Change the param.xml file so that you have 4 patterns with 5 neurons each.
11. Add connections from those neurons to other neurons
    • In CANT23 modify makeNewSystem to call a function in CANTNet that sets up synapses.
    • You might want to look at Iris3CANT to do this.
    • Make a function stop in CANTNet with a print to assure it's called.
    • Now add connections (using the addConnection function), from the input neurons (the ones from the pattern) to other neurons.
    • Make the weights large enough, or have enough connections to make those to neurons fire.
12. Make connections to make the toNeurons fire persistently. Make the first pattern turn on one CA.
13. Make the second pattern, in conjunction with the persistent CA, turn on a second CA.
14. Make the second CA, turn off the first. You can have negative weights.
15. Parse 3 sentences.