In response to Ben Goertzel's question about obtaining 3D data by an optical method and processing it in an artificial "visual cortex."
Here is a web site of suppliers of devices that measure 3D data. http://www.simple3d.com/ Polhemus is widely recognised as the market leader in position sensing so, if you have $20K to burn, check out http://www.polhemus.com/fastscan.htm Alternatively "structured light" is a cheaper option than "laser scanning". Google also gives good hits with "3D scanners." However, I have no particular advice to give about which device would be most suitable for you. If you do buy a device you are certainly going to want integrated software that returns a triangular mesh for the measured surface. But if you want to connect meshes up into 2D manifolds to model the 2D surface of a 3D object, then you are going to have to work quite hard at joining all the surfaces up so that there are no gaps. You will also have to cut out self-intersecting parts of the mesh. All of this is quite a lot of topology for a programmer or a "visual cortex" to do. But there is an easier way. I am a fan of simplifying things. I would supply each triangle of the mesh with a vertex in depth, making a model using individual tetrahedra. Just adding tetrahedra together, even with gaps and self-intersections, still gives a topological valid result with no processing. It looks good too, but risks using far more tetrahedra than a manifold. If you think that the human brain uses masses of memory and simple computations then my suggestion might put you on a good path. It will certainly save you many sleepless nights of programming. I hope this helps, and I am sorry I was too busy to answer earlier. James Anderson ------- To unsubscribe, change your address, or temporarily deactivate your subscription, please go to http://v2.listbox.com/member/[EMAIL PROTECTED]
