Alt-BEAM Archive
Message #00033
To: beam@corp.sgi.com
From: RoboDR@aol.com
Date: Sat, 30 Jan 1999 01:30:37 EST
Subject: [alt-beam] Re: a question and a comment
<< Yep. what you need is a high-pass filter. You connect a capacitor to the
output from your sensor, and connect the other end to the input of an
inverter. Then get a resistor, and tie the input of the inverter to ground.
What you essentially have is something that looks exactly like a microcore
neuron, but instead of getting its input from another neuron, it gets its
input from a sensor. Changing the time constant of the Resistor/capacitor
will change the lowest frequency that the neuron is capable of receiving.
There is no upper frequency limit in this configuration. >>
So this circuit will ignor a rise in Voltage from, say, 0 to 10V that
occurs over several seconds, but if the voltage rises from, say, 1 to 4V in a
split second it will trigger? And it could there for be used to give a robot a
startled reaction. For example, if we hear a gradual rise in noise we don't
react even if the final noise level is very high. But if we hear an abrupt
rise in noise level, even if the highest level of noise is relatively quiet,
we have a tendency to be startled. Instead of having a fixed trigger voltage,
it looks foor the abbrupt rise in voltage.
The startle reaction could be used as a defense mechanism. If the robot
is startled, it might trigger a photophobic reaction which would lead it to a
hiding place out of harms way.
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