[Avery Andrews 931015.1639]
(Bill Powers, Bruce Nevin, 931015)
Here's maybe a way that obstacle avoidance might look more intelligent
without too much violence to the analog machinery.
Suppose that there was a `Proximity Boost Factor', whereby the
contribution of an object to perceived proximity (for CROWD person
obstacle avoidance) would be boosted when the object is (a) in the
direction of travel (b) intervening between the CROWD person and the
goal. This ought to (he says, not having modelled it) lead to the
CROWD person turning off a course where an obstacle intervenes between
the person and the goal, and is sufficiently large (we don't change our
path on basis of a single tree 50 yds away, or a house 399 yds away).
This assumes some sophisticated perceptual functions, as in fact do
standard CROWD people.
For social situations, an independent parameter might be how dense a
crowd has to before it is perceived as an obstacle by this system,
although I'm rreally thinking about things like walls that are
continuous, not groups that might be walked thru.
Incidentally, you don't need a mouse to run CROWD,
Avery.Andrews@anu.edu.au