Playpen: Relation Unit Demo
Purpose
This demo illustrates relation units (RUs), clusters of
five processing units designed to represent micro-relations.
Each RU connects (potentially) to other RUs on its RU interface
and (potentially) to OUs on its OU interface. Each interface
consists of two OUs, representing the "arms" (or roles) of the
relation. An RU is activated to the extent that the input along
the arms of an interface is out-of-phase. A bias unit within
the RU prevents it from turning on unless there is sufficient
input along the two arms. There are four connections joining
pairs of RUs, but only two weights, one for the corresponding
arms and one for the opposing arms.
The demo illustrates how pairs of out-of-phase OUs can
activated RUs and also how one activated RU can activate
another.
The Network
The network consists of a layer of two OUs and a layer of two
RUs. It begins with hard-wired weights.
The two OUs are connected only to one of the RUs (the one appearing
on the left in the RU window); each OU has a positive connection to
one of the RU arms and a connection with a weight of 0 to the other.
The two RUs are also connected to each other. There is a
positive weight on the connections joining opposing arms and a
weight of 0 on the connections joining corresponding arms.
The weights from the OUs are strong enough to activate the RU on
the left, but only if the two OUs are highly activated and
out-of-phase. When the RU is activated (when the arms of both
of its interfaces are active, that is), it activates the other RU.
What You Will See
- When you do "Random activate" and allow the network to
settle, the two OUs and two RUs will normally all be
activated. Notice how the phase angles align in accordance
with the weights joining the units.
- There are test patterns:
- One of the OUs is activated and clamped.
- Both of the OUs are activated and clamped, with the
same phase angle.
- Both of the OUs are activated and clamped, with
opposing phase angles.
- The RU on the right is activated and clamped.
The first two patterns activate one or both arms of the OU
interface of the RU on the left, but fail to activate its RU
interface. The third pattern, on the other hand, eventually
activates the RU interface of the RU as well because the
input from the two OUs is out-of-phase. The fourth pattern
causes both interfaces of the RU on the left to be
activated, and this in turn leads to the activation of the
two OUs.
Return to Playpen Technical Report 1
Michael
Gasser
Last modified: Tue Jun 24 01:24:10 EST