Simbrain / News: Recent posts

Simbrain development is now being hosted at http://code.google.com/p/simbrain/

Simbrain is slowly being migrated back to sourceforge. Of course, help is always welcome!

The Simbrain project has been moved to www.simbrain.net. A new, vastly improved release (2.0) is available there.

This is an interim release, to make recent changes available prior to beginning work on the next iteration, which will involve a major redesign and integration with Snarli (http://snarli.sourceforge.net/)

Primary areas of improvement in 1.0.5 are as follows: (1) complete rewrite of the world component, which now allows worlds to be edited in the GUI and includes more sophisticated objects, (2) complete rewrite of the gauges, which have been separately released as the program "HiSee" (http://hisee.sourceforge.net/), (3) updates to the network interface, right-click popup menus in particular, (4) a documentation rewrite. Other improvements include: recurrent connections show in the GUI, improved control over input and output nodes, ability to round off activation values and set precision, new simulations and organization to simulation directory, new documentation viewer, and numerous bug fixes.... read more

Simbrain 1.0.4 has been released. This is a maintenance release which fixes several bugs, including a major issue with update order. The operation of the network is now fairly stable and predictable. Other fixes and new features include: improved auto-zoom, improved threading (the "play" button), some control over input and output nodes, up-down keys control activation (shift-arrow nudges), new networks, and a new random-weight option. Please report bugs to jyoshimi-at-ucsd.edu. Thanks, Jeff.

I have finally fixed the problem with update ordering. The networks now behave MUCH more nicely. The changes have been checked into cvs, so if you download by anonymous cvs you can get the new version. I will probably wait a few days before making a new release.

- For Unix users, you will have to change the execute permissions of the installer after you download it.

-If the program does not start, the problem is most likely that you don't have java 1.4 or greater installed. To check, go to a command line and enter >>java -version.

- For source code use anonymous cvs

- There remains a problem with update order in the network. If you get strange behavior, it may be an artifact of the order in which nodes are updated. Until some formal method of update-order is implemented, you can manually change the update order of weights and nodes simply by changing their order in the .net file. The order in which nodes and weights are there listed is the order in which they will be updated.... read more

Simbrain 1.0.3 has just been released. To get a sense of the new features, see the screenshots at http://simbrain.sourceforge.net/Screenshots/Screenshots103.html. This release features a complete rewrite of the neural network component, easy-to-use installers, new documentation (user manual and api--see the web-site), user preferences, cvs, and many bug fixes. Your feedback is welcome (jeffyoshimi-at-yahoo.com), as Simbrain continues to be actively developed. In particular the Gauge component is currently being rewritten, and there are plans for a new environment component as well.

Simbrain 1.x has been added to the cvs repository. Version 1.0.3 is now available for checkout. The new version, with docs, etc. should be available by week's end.

A new version of Simbrain is actively being developed. The main new features concern the network component. The network has been separated from the Piccolo GUI and its functionality expanded. It will be possible to double-click on neurons and weights to set them individually. Easier installs will also be made available using InstalllAnywhere, as will an ant build. And CVS will finally be up for Simbrain 1.x. Stay tuned!

This release incorporates copy and paste, nudge, and a redesign of the interface.

Simbrain 1.0 has finally been released. In addition to lots of minor bug-fixes and enhancements, Simbrain 1.0 incorporates the Piccolo graphics frameworks. This makes it possible to zoom in on networks, pan around them, and lasso individual nodes and weights. This makes it MUCH easier to build and edit networks.

The sample simulations are also new, and were built with the help of the new features. The default network, for example, will partition activation space into two clusters, one for each object. Try "smelling" the cheese and flower by moving the mouse around each.... read more

A slightly updated iteration of Simbrain has been released and changes have been checked in to cvs. The main changes involve improvements to the gauge component (so the "active dot" is always on top). Simbrain version 2, with radical changes to the graphics system, should be released next month.

A new version of Simbrain with an updated network editor is coming soon, thanks to help from Mai Ngoc Thang. So far lasso, zoom, and pan have been implemented. This will greatly facilitate the creation of networks and make it possible to build more complex networks. Various features like selective clamping, clearing, deletion, and randomization of nodes will also be added. A layers framework and new learning algorithms should be forthcoming after that (help from neural network experts would be greatly appreciated in this next phase!). JDK 1.4 will be required, as the new version takes advantage of the Piccolo graphics library (see http://www.cs.umd.edu/hcil/jazz/\).

The web page has been given a facelift, a new "overview" doc has been added, and many other documents on the web page have been revised.

Documentation has been updated on the site (simbrain.sourceforge.net), but not yet in the docs packaged with the app. Help at all levels continues to be welcome.