THE ATREE ADAPTIVE LOGIC NETWORK SIMULATION PACKAGE The atree adaptive logic network (ALN) simulation package, atree release 2.7, is available via anonymous ftp from menaik.cs.ualberta.ca [129.128.4.241] in pub/atree/atre27.exe (ftp in binary mode). It runs on IBM PCs and compatibles under Windows 3.x. (Another version runs under Unix -- see below.) Included is documentation and ON-LINE HELP explaining the basic principles of adaptive logic networks, the atree source code and the examples. All C and C++ source code is provided. The atree package is not a toy, despite the fact that it is used for demonstration purposes, and is non-commercial. Experimenters are using it on challenging problems of medicine, physics and the environment. It has been used to grade beef based on ultrasound images, design hardware to discriminate particles produced by a high-energy accelerator, help to design walking prostheses for spinal cord damaged patients and measure the composition of tarsands from spectral data. It is possible to use inexpensive, off-the-shelf programmable logic devices to realize trained ALNs in high-speed hardware, though those facilities are not in the atree 2.7 software. Please read the license, and the warranty (that protects the developers, not the users). All neural networks which are "black boxes" are possibly unsafe, i.e. unexpected outputs can occur at some untested places in the domain of the neural net's mapping. The current atree package is no exception; however ALNs can be made safe by forcing the learned mappings to be piecewise monotonic according to the developer's a priori knowledge of the problem. A commercial version of atree is planned which will support a safe design methodology. (Update as of July 93 -- it's running and works as expected, but it still requires improvement before we let others try it.) Atree release 2.7 is available in either of two files in pub/atree/ on menaik: atre27.exe and a27exe.exe. The file atre27.exe contains the full C and C++ sources for those who want to study or modify them. The code was developed using Borland C++ 3.1 and Application Frameworks. The other, smaller file contains just the executables. The sources help the user understand the adaptive algorithm in detail (see ALN Technical Notes/The Learning Algorithm in the On-Line Help). Everyone should have a look at the OCR demo! It has been referred to as "quite impressive" even by experts in the OCR area. Test yourself against the trained ALNs, and scribble in your own characters (similar to the A, L, or N; or pick any language, any alphabet and then train) to see how noisy and distorted the characters can be, yet still be recognized by the logic networks. The demo can be obtained without the rest in pub/atree/a27ocr.exe. To set up your software on the PC under Windows 3.x, it is recommended that you execute atre27.exe in your main directory, whereupon it will create a subdirectory atree_27 and extract everything into it. Running "setup" in the latter directory will create a group of icons you can use to invoke demos and the facilities for programming adaptive logic network applications in the lf language. The "Open" command gives you access to numerous instructive examples. Clicking on the Help button gives you access to explanations of theory and code. The Unix version, atree release 2.0, is in C, and has been ported to Macintosh, Amiga, and other machines. Windows NT will eventually offer another way to use atree on various platforms. There is an electronic mailing list for discussions of ALNs. Mail to alnl-request@cs.ualberta.ca to subscribe or cancel. Your comments on ALN subjects can be emailed to all other subscribers to the list by mailing to alnl@cs.ualberta.ca. Welcome to the world of adaptive logic networks! RECOMMENDED PUBLICATIONS ON ADAPTIVE LOGIC NETWORKS W. Armstrong, Adaptive Boolean Logic Element, U. S. Patent 3934231, Feb. 28, 1974 (filings in various countries), assigned to Dendronic Decisions Limited, 3624 - 108 Street, Edmonton, Alberta, T6J 1B4, Tel. (403) 438-1103. N. B. EXPIRED JANUARY 1993, THUS PUTTING DESIGNS FOR HIGH-SPEED ALN ADAPTIVE HARDWARE INTO THE PUBLIC DOMAIN. G. v. Bochmann, W. Armstrong, Properties of Boolean Functions with a Tree Decomposition, BIT 13, 1974. pp. 1-13. W. Armstrong, Gilles Godbout: Use of Boolean Tree Functions to Perform High-Speed Pattern Classification and Related Tasks, Dept. d'IRO, Universite de Montreal, Doc. de Travail #53, 1974. (unpublished, except in summary form as follows:) W. Armstrong and G. Godbout, Properties of Binary Trees of Flexible Elements Useful in Pattern Recognition, IEEE 1975 International Conf. on Cybernetics and Society, San Francisco, 1975, IEEE Cat. No. 75 CHO 997-7 SMC, pp. 447-449. W. Armstrong and J. Gecsei, Architecture of a Tree-based Image Processor, 12th Asilomar Conf. on Circuits, Systems and Computers, Pacific Grove, Calif., 1978, pp. 345-349. W. Armstrong and J. Gecsei, Adaptation Algorithms for Binary Tree Networks, IEEE Trans. on Systems, Man and Cybernetics, 9, 1979, pp. 276-285. W. Armstrong, J.-D. Liang, D. Lin, S. Reynolds, Experiments Using Parsimonious Adaptive Logic, Tech. Rept. TR 90-30, Department of Computing Science, University of Alberta, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, T6G 2H1. This is now available in a revised form via anonymous FTP from menaik.cs.ualberta.ca [129.128.4.241] in pub/atree/atree2.ps.Z (the title of the revised document is Some Results concerning Adaptive Logic Networks). W. Armstrong, A. Dwelly, J.-D. Liang, D. Lin, S. Reynolds, Learning and Generalization in Adaptive Logic Networks, in Artificial Neural Networks, Proceedings of the 1991 International Conference on Artificial Neural Networks ( ICANN'91), Espoo, Finland, June 24-28, 1991, T. Kohonen, K.Makisara, O. Simula, J. Kangas eds. Elsevier Science Publishing Co. Inc. N. Y. 1991, vol. 2, pp. 1173-1176. Allen G. Supynuk, William W. Armstrong, Adaptive Logic Networks and Robot Control, Proc. Vision Interface Conference '92, also called AI/VI/GI '92, Vancouver B. C., May 11-15, 1992, pp. 181 - 186. R. B. Stein, A. Kostov, M. Belanger, W. W. Armstrong and D. B. Popovic, Methods to Control Functional Electrical Stimulation in Walking, First International FES Symposium, Sendai, Japan, July 23 - 25, 1992, pp. 135 - 140. Aleksandar Kostov, Richard B. Stein, William W. Armstrong, Monroe Thomas, Evaluation of Adaptive Logic Networks for Control of Walking in Paralyzed Patients, 14th Ann. Int'l Conf. IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, Paris, France, Oct. 29 - Nov. 1, 1992 vol.4, pp. 1332 - 1334. Ian Parsons, W. W. Armstrong: The Use of Adaptive Logic Nets to Quantify Tar Sands Feed (Draft), available via anonymous ftp from menaik.cs.ualberta.cs [129.128.4.241] in pub/atree/alntarsands.ps.Z. W.W. Armstrong, R. B. Stein, A. Kostov, M. Thomas, P. Baudin, P. Gervais, D. Popovic, Application of adaptive logic networks and dynamics to study and control of human movement, Second Int'l Symp. on 3D Analysis of Human Movement, Poitiers, June 30 - July 3, 1993 pp. 81 - 84. In case you have difficulty in obtaining the above documents or the atree release 2.0 software for Unix or release 2.7 for IBM-PC and compatibles under Windows, the software and all of the above documents prior to 1991 can be obtained from the University of Alberta for a media fee to cover the costs of copying and mailing of $150 (Canadian), made payable to the University of Alberta. Two 3 1/2" diskettes are normally included but an attempt will be made to satisfy needs for other media, e.g. tapes. Orders can be sent to the following address: Prof. William W. Armstrong, Computing Science Dept. University of Alberta; Edmonton, Alberta, Canada T6G 2H1 arms@cs.ualberta.ca Tel(403)492 2374 FAX 492 1071 Anyone interested in the commercial version should contact Dendronic Decisions Limited, 3624 - 108 Street, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada, T6J 1B4, Tel. (403) 438 8285.