ADM Blog

“An artificial neural network (ANN), usually called “neural network” (NN), is a mathematical model or computational model that tries to simulate the structure and/or functional aspects of biological neural networks. It consists of an interconnected group of artificial neurons and processes information using a connectionist approach to computation. In most cases an ANN is an adaptive system that changes its structure based on external or internal information that flows through the network during the learning phase. Neural networks are non-linear statistical data modeling tools. They can be used to model complex relationships between inputs and outputs or to find patterns in data.” (Wikipedia)

So, repetition is the mother of all learning they say. You damn right it is. And you can do it in AS3 of course. Not the fastest choice out there but that’s not the point. NN’s are usually not that fast but they’re useful in so many ways.

So, here is my implementation of a neural network multi-layer-perceptron made in AS3, set to learn a simple XOR problem. It uses 2 inputs neurons , 2 hidden layers, each having 2 neurons and one output neuron. It takes about 2 seconds to train it using 10.000 epochs, but then you can save a snapshot of the NN memory as a byteArray, save it to the server and load it back again in an instant without requiring a new training.  I didn’t take the time to thoroughly document the classes just yet but I’m sure you’ll find them pretty easy to use.

Some reading material:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Artificial_neural_network
http://fbim.fh-regensburg.de/~saj39122/jfroehl/diplom/e-index.html (this is great)
http://www.ai-junkie.com/ann/evolved/nnt1.html

Sources and Download

Flex / ActionScript, Programming actionscript3, ai, artificial, flash, flex, intelligence, networks, neural

Just brilliant. By molleindustria

Stuff flash, game, molleindustria

For those of you who tried but didn’t succed, I found some straigthforward instructions for this.

Setup Hell:

Install cygwin to “c:\cygwin” – make sure to check boxes to install Perl, “Archive” (ZIP), and Devel/gcc:g++ (3.4.4.3 presumably) (is Perl necessary?)
Copy the alchemy directory to: c:\cygwin\home\Lee
Copy the flex sdk bin dir from c:\program files\etc to “c:\flex” (to avoid paths with spaces in it!)
Run the alchemy config script once:

   run cygwin
   cd alchemy
   ./config

Edit the textfile “C:\cygwin\home\Lee\alchemy\alchemy-setup” and uncomment and edit line 22 to: add “export ADL=c:\flex\adl.exe”

Edit .bashrc (in C:\cygwin\home\Lee)

   echo "LEE PROFILE"
   export FLEX_HOME=~/flex
   export ALCHEMY_HOME=~/alchemy
 
   # "This should be added before your PATH is modified" !!
   source /home/Lee/alchemy/alchemy-setup 
 
   PATH=$ALCHEMY_HOME/achacks:/home/Lee/flex:$PATH
   export PATH
 
   alc-on

Do this (just once, I think):

   cd $ALCHEMY_HOME/bin
   ln -s llvm-stub llvm-stub.exe

Compiling a SW:

CD to the directory with the source
Always do “alc-on” before compiling, cuz it doesn’t work without it even though i added it to the startup (dunno)

    gcc stringecho.c -O3 -Wall -swc -o stringecho.swc 
    -- should give you a swc.

Import the swc into your flex builder 4 project and make sure compiler targets SDK v4

Shortcuts

alc-home – takes you to the Alchemy install folder.
alc-on – puts Alchemy gcc toolchain replacements at the front of your path.
alc-off – restores original path.
alc-util – shows you various Alchemy-related environment vars

USEFUL TO KNOW

which gcc – tells you which gcc it will use (should be the one in the achacks dir)
ln – links shit
rm – deletes links as well as files

Ugh: Make sure to do “alc-on” and “alchemy-setup” even though you put it in the startup script (?)

…

Objects:
AS3_Val
AS3_ArrayValue

Methods:
AS3_Release
AS3_LibInit

Flex / ActionScript, How To's, Programming actionscript3, alchemy, as3, C#, flash, flex, library

I’ve just started working on a set of Flex components which I call Flex Components Pack. I’ve only managed to make 11 components till now but I’m still working and have a lot of ideas on my to-do list. If any one of you is willing to help I would be very glad to get an extra brain in here. Just drop me a comment or something and I’ll share the road-map and SVN path with you.

I’ve made a page where I will add tutorials, code examples and runnable demos as soon as possible, so check back soon. Till then, you can download the library and take a look.

Update:

(13/06/2009) – Added 5 more components. A simple but nice led light switch and 4 visualisation effects (EQTunnel, EQLine, EQWave, EQBars – winamp style). Just drag and drop the EQ on your app and it will animate any running sound inside your flash.

Flex / ActionScript, Programming actionscript3, as3, components, flash, flex, library, swc

For a project I needed to clone an object of unknown type. And by clone I mean to create a new instance of that same type and then fill out all its properties (including getters and setters) to mirror the original object.

Thanks to a friend, I discovered the describeType function in AS3. But this alone will only take care of the copying part. To create an object of the same type as another one we use getDefinitionByName.

Although Flash reflection is pretty basic, with a little work it will do the trick.

Get the application files.

Here’s the code:

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< ?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<mx :Application xmlns:mx="http://www.adobe.com/2006/mxml" layout="absolute" xmlns:local="*" creationComplete="init()">
</mx><mx :Script>
 < ![CDATA[
 
     import mx.controls.Alert;
 
     private var source:DataObject = new DataObject();
     private var cloneObject:DataObject;
 
 
     private function init():void {
 
         source.name = 'John Doe';
         source.howMany = 4.5;
         source.when = new Date(0);
         source.complexProp = new DataObject();
         source.complexProp.name = 'Name in sub-object';
 
         cloneObject = UtilFunctions.clone(source) as DataObject;
 
         Alert.show("Clone:\nname = " + cloneObject.name + "\nhowMany = " + cloneObject.howMany + "\nwhen = " + cloneObject.when + "\ncomplexProp.name = " + cloneObject.complexProp.name);
     }
 
     /**
 
      * describeType will produce this (for a DataObject instance):
      *
      * <type name="DataObject" base="Object" isDynamic="false" isFinal="false" isStatic="false">
 
           <extendsclass type="Object"/>
           <accessor name="isHandicap" access="writeonly" type="Boolean" declaredBy="DataObject"/>
 
           <variable name="howMany" type="Number"/>
           <accessor name="complexProp" access="readwrite" type="DataObject" declaredBy="DataObject"/>
 
           <variable name="name" type="String"/>
           <variable name="when" type="Date"/>
 
 
      *
      * */
 
 ]]>
 
</mx>

And the UtilFunctions.as file:

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package
{
 import flash.utils.describeType;
 import flash.utils.getDefinitionByName;
 import flash.utils.getQualifiedClassName;
 
 public class UtilFunctions
 {
 
 
     public static function newSibling(sourceObj:Object):* {
         if(sourceObj) {
 
             var objSibling:*;
             try {
                 var classOfSourceObj:Class = getDefinitionByName(getQualifiedClassName(sourceObj)) as Class;
                 objSibling = new classOfSourceObj();
             }
 
             catch(e:Object) {}
 
             return objSibling;
         }
         return null;
     }
 
     public static function clone(source:Object):Object {
 
         var clone:Object;
         if(source) {
             clone = newSibling(source);
 
             if(clone) {
                 copyData(source, clone);
             }
         }
 
         return clone;
     }
 
     public static function copyData(source:Object, destination:Object):void {
 
         //copies data from commonly named properties and getter/setter pairs
         if((source) && (destination)) {
 
             try {
                 var sourceInfo:XML = describeType(source);
                 var prop:XML;
 
                 for each(prop in sourceInfo.variable) {
 
                     if(destination.hasOwnProperty(prop.@name)) {
                         destination[prop.@name] = source[prop.@name];
                     }
 
                 }
 
                 for each(prop in sourceInfo.accessor) {
                     if(prop.@access == "readwrite") {
                         if(destination.hasOwnProperty(prop.@name)) {
                             destination[prop.@name] = source[prop.@name];
                         }
 
                     }
                 }
             }
             catch (err:Object) {
                 ;
             }
         }
     }
 }
}

by Evolvernie

Flex / ActionScript, How To's, Programming actionscript, as3, clone, flash, flex