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KIP-BW1 - Reactive Systems

The installation The BLINDs WORLD I [BW1] is defined as Phase I of the Knowbotic Interface Project [KIP] of the Institute for New Media [INM] and it is a real prototype, i.e. BW1 includes already all main features of a Knowbotic Interface [KInt], but in a first `sketchy' way; it is the ground to build on.

The knowbots of BW1 are mainly purely reactive systems, but nevertheless they have emotions, some learning due to a first simple memory, and they have a first language module being able to combine words with objects and to learn commands. The perceptual system of a knowbot in BW1 receives stimuli from hearing, smelling, touching and tasting. Furthermore there are body-states functioning as drives or emotions, e.g. to be `hungry', to be `thirsty', to be `tired', to have `fear', to have `pain', to have `aggressions', to have `sexdrive', to have the `inclination to speak', to have the `inclination to execute an external command' under certain conditions, or the simple desire to `play around'.

The memory builds up simple objects on the basis of the perceptual stimuli. These objects contain among other things information about the sense-related properties of an object (how it feels at the hands, how it smells etc.) and also information about possible reactions on the body (wether it decreased the feeling of being hungry, of being thirsty etc.).

The action module is reactive and memory sensitive. `Reactive' means here that the behavior in the cases of the basic drives and emotions is `pre-wired' in a sense analogue to the biological phenomenon of `instinctive behavior'. There are basic reactions which do not have to be learned explicitely; they are part of the `structure of the organism'. Thus, the knowbot is, in principle, able to survive without explicit learning. The only non-reactive moment in its action-module is the connection to the memory; if it has learned something about the objects in its environment it can use this knowledge with regard to the position of these objects and their relation to its desires and emotions.

Contrary to the action-module the language module is completely adaptive, i.e. based on learning. The basic learning process consists of the construction of a lexicon, where the system sets up hypothetical relationships between possible objects including their contexts and words. This learning is sensitive to hearing and to articulation. If a knowbot hears words in its environment it tries to incorporate these heared words in its lexicon, but not in any case. Also if it senses certain situations |including its own `internal' body states| it tries to find words to `encode' these states. Insofar as a knowbot speaks about its own actions, one can use these words to transmit commands to a knowbot.

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