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Automaton [iPhone]

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Automaton is an app that displays 8-bit binary cellular automata. For those not familiar with CA, it is a discrete model studied in computability theory, mathematics, theoretical biology and microstructure modeling. It consists of a regular grid of cells, each in one of a finite number of states, “On” and “Off” for example. The grid can be in any finite number of dimensions. For each cell, a set of cells called its neighborhood (usually including the cell itself) is defined relative to the specified cell (wikipedia).

More popular from the 70′s was the two-dimensional cellular automaton named Game of Life became very widely known, particularly among the early computing community. The are a few Game of Life apps in the AppStore but we are very fond of Life 1.0 we wrote about back in October.

Automaton app is the simplest nontrivial CA, one-dimensional, with two possible states per cell, and a cell’s neighbors defined to be the adjacent cells on either side of it. A cell and its two neighbors form a neighborhood of 3 cells, so there are 2³=8 possible patterns for a neighborhood. There are then 28=256 possible rules. The app includes all the rules with ability to include random initial condition with refresh button to apply new random value.

The easiest way to think about cellular automata is a set of conditions/rules for each cell. In this case, cells being pixels on the screen, each one is dependent, ie the on/off result of the adjacent one.

Here are some app features:

- Pinch with your fingers to zoom in and out.
- Random initial conditions option.
- Change background and foreground colors.
- Learn how automata work.
- Create neat wallpapers for your iPod/iPhone.

Putting all the logic and math to one side, the app can generate some wonderful geometric and almost three dimensional images. Hide the menu by double tapping on the screen, adjust the colours and take a screenshot by holding power and home button. Here are a few..

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Platform: iPhone
Version: 1.0
Cost: Free
Developer: KCMA Software
itunes

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