Lecture, four hours; outside study, eight hours. Enforced requisite: course 174A. Recommended: course 161. Investigation of important role that concepts from artificial life, emerging discipline that spans computational and biological sciences, can play in construction of advanced computer graphics and vision models for virtual reality, animation, interactive games, active vision, visual sensor networks, medical image analysis, etc. Focus on comprehensive models that can realistically emulate variety of living things (plants and animals) from lower animals to humans. Exposure to effective computational modeling of natural phenomena of life and their incorporation into sophisticated, self-animating graphical entities. Specific topics include modeling plants using L-systems, biomechanical simulation and control, behavioral animation, reinforcement and neural-network learning of locomotion, cognitive modeling, artificial animals and humans, human facial animation, and artificial evolution. Letter grading.
