The Origin of EVA

I began to work on EVA (Evolutionary Virtual Agent) in the year 2000 while I was experimenting with the LifeDrop virtual ecosystem. The initial idea was to design a virtual creature that was not a simulation like in most artificial life research projects. In other words, I wanted to realize an artificial life rather than to simulate life. The computer is not (only) a tool to simulate and explore, but also an informational universe. The long term goal is to create digital “organisms” in the memories of computers, powered by their processors, evolving in an ecosystem made of operating systems and software applications. Another important idea was that the EVA technology must enable to design real-world applications. The name EVA was chosen because it is an archetypal symbol of sin and transgression against gods. In the Hebraic etymology, Eve (hawwà) is the "mother of all the living". It is also a symbol of freedom to choose liberty and a wish to increase human knowledge, especially technology, to improve the human condition.

Les Créatures Artificielles

Ouf!!! Enfin.... Absent de mon blog pendant plusieurs mois, je refais surface en cette nouvelle année. Il faut dire, qu'entre temps, les projets et le développement de l'Institut ont bien pris mon temps... Mais bientôt tout ce travail se concrêtisera, entre autres, par l'ouverture d'une salle de démonstration multimédia. J'en reparlerai bientôt... En attendant, l'actualité est celle de la publication de mon dernier livre sur l'histoire et les perspectives des créatures artificielles (près de 500 pages!). En guise de "teaser" voici le texte de la quatrième de couverture :
De l’érotique Galatée à l’Ève future, du Golem de glaise au corps rapiécé du monstre de Frankenstein, des robots de Capek au Terminator de Cameron, de l’ordinateur paranoïaque de Kubrick à l’agent Smith de Matrix, les créatures artificielles ont toujours peuplé notre imaginaire et alimenté fascinations et peurs.
Jean-Claude Heudin raconte leur histoire. Sur plus de deux mille ans, il en révèle toutes les dimensions, artistiques et mythiques aussi bien que scientifiques et techniques. Depuis les fresques rupestres et les statues animées antiques, les Jacquemarts et les automates des Lumières jusqu’aux robots-chiens de compagnie, aux héros virtuels des jeux vidéo, aux virus informatiques et aux intelligences artificielles d’aujourd’hui. Explorant aussi les tendances actuelles et les perspectives prochaines, il s'interroge : sommes-nous en passe de créer de la vie? Et laquelle?

Great Time and Science in Erice

Between the 15th and 22nd April, I was at the 6th International Workshop on Data Analysis in Astronomy «Livio Scarsi». The workshop was organized in Erice at the Ettore Majorana Foundation and Centre for Scientific Culture. The conference theme was quite large, Modelling and Simulation in Science, with contribution from three major branches: Astrophysics, Biology and Climatology. With my PhD Student, J.C. Torrel, we presented our works on hierarchical muti-agent approach through two examples: LifeDrop for the study of evolution dynamics and our results in comological simulations. A great time with many interactions, in a delightful medieval ambience and splendid location of Erice located on high ground overlooking the northern coast of western Sicily.

New 3D Biomorphs for LifeDrop

Finally, we have choosen a new 3D design approach for the LifeDrop virtual creatures. Each biomorph is composed of a set of 3D building blocks: segments, head, tail, antenna, eyes, etc. The DNA of a creature includes a structural template thatcan be evolved through mutation, cross-over and natural selection. The set of possible creatures is very big even if not really infinite. As in the previous version of LifeDrop, there are three basic types of creatures: (1) predators haunting any other creatures, and (2) preys eating (3) weeds in the virtual water drop. The software is under development in Java and a realtime 3D engine that will enable to render biomorphs with a higher level of realism compared to the previous versions that were quite minimalistic from this point of view (see preview images). The 3D engine will manage two models for each creature: a "low-polygons" model for the rendering of the ecosystem as a whole, and a "high-polygons" model in a dedicated "magnifying glass" window.

Another goal of this new implementation is to reduce the number of parameters for experiments. This is important in order to have a more precise study of evolution dynamics. With two many parameters, it is quite difficult to analyze which ones are really meaningfull and those which are useless and only add noise in experiments. LifeDrop version 4 is now an on-going project...

Holographic Globular Cluster

The third installation of our exhibition was based on our research about 3D Gravitational agents. The idea was to show some results of our simulations in 3D. We used two big LCD screens to display an introduction on emergent patterns at differents scales in the universe and the evolution of a globular cluster from a random distribution of matter. Pascal Gauchet of the Holographic Lab. in Paris has given us the opportunity to use an holographic station for experiments. The image shows the resulting installation where the user can see an hologram of a globular cluster turning around just in front of his eyes.

Then, with one hand, the user was able to virtually "grap" the hologram and select the image he wanted to see on the left screen by turning the hologram in the desired direction. This sort of "holographic mouse" used a webcam and a simple image processing program to detect the hand movement. It worked quite well when well calibrated. The main prolem with this webcam solution is that a small change in light condition can affect the quality of the resulting behavior. I think that an infrared grid could be a more robust solution...

Eva Virtual Creature Meets the Real World

This is an image of the second EVA installation we have made for the exhibition. This installation is based on the Evolutionary Virtual Agent technology for its Artificial Intelligence part. It basically enables the creature to interact with the user in natural language. In the near future, Eva will be also able to learn about the user and to search information on the web.

The 3D interface was designed by a team of students (see previous posts on thatsubject). Animations like eyes blinks or emotional expressions are realized by simply switching images. A java Applet is responsible for displaying in real-time the face. The talking head is then projected on a physical form, that is a 3D sculpture representing thetop of the body and the face. This 3D model has been simplified and virtually tested to enable most facial animations without image distortion (see image on the right). It is interesting to note that the resulting model may recall some sort of paleolithic venus figurines or ancient egyptian scluptures. Anayway, the resulting effect is amazing. The projection on a physical model gives "life" to the artificial creature. Eva becomes real.

EVA Holographic Ghost

It has been a long time since my last post. We have worked a lot on a multimedia exhibition which takes place at the Leonard de Vinci University until the end of March (www.iim.fr/expo). In the next few posts, I will describe some of the installations we have designed with our students. The first one is an holographic artificial creature based on the EVA design (Evolutionary Virtual Agent). Imagine some sort of woman ghost floating in the air just in front of you. She is dancing slowly in the air. This installation uses a simple but efficient system composed of turning cords and holographic paper. The result is amazing as you can see on the image considering the simplicity of this installation.

This installation has been designed by the french artist Cyril Vachez (http://www.holorapt.com/). This system recalls a number of simple optical devices that were invented in the nineteenth century like the ZooTrope created by William Horner in 1833. The lower picture has been taken at high speed to be able to see the principle of this system. It is mainly composed of two parts. The first part includes a set of holographic cords, an electric engine with a speed variator, and a roller skate wheel fixed on the ceiling. The second part includes a PC computer running the artificial creature movie or program, and a video projector. This "holographic ghost" is used to introduce EVA to the visitor, just before entering the second room where he is able to interact with her. I will describe this other installation in the next post.