title: Design for a brain revisited: the neuromorphic design and functionality of the interactive space 'Ada'.
abstract: While much is now known about the operation and organisation of the brain at the neuronal and microcircuit level, we are still some way from understanding it as a complete system from the lowest to the highest levels of description. One way to gain such an integrative understanding of neural systems is to construct them. We have built the largest neuromorphic system yet known, an interactive space called 'Ada' that is able to interact with many people simultaneously using a wide variety of sensory and behavioural modalities. 'She' received 553,700 visitors over 5 months during the Swiss Expo.02 in 2002. In this paper we present the broad motivations, design and technologies behind Ada, and discuss the construction and analysis of the system.
authors.affiliation: Institute of Neuroinformatics, University/ETHZurich, Switzerland. kynan@ini.phys.ethz.ch
authors.forename: Kynan
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Eng
authors.forename: David
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Klein
authors.forename: Andreas
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Bäbler
authors.forename: Ulysses
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Bernardet
authors.forename: Mark
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Blanchard
authors.forename: Marcio
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Costa
authors.forename: Tobi
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Delbrück
authors.forename: Rodney J
authors.initials: RJ
authors.lastname: Douglas
authors.forename: Klaus
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Hepp
authors.forename: Jonatas
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Manzolli
authors.forename: Matti
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Mintz
authors.forename: Fabian
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Roth
authors.forename: Ueli
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Rutishauser
authors.forename: Klaus
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Wassermann
authors.forename: Adrian M
authors.initials: AM
authors.lastname: Whatley
authors.forename: Aaron
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Wittmann
authors.forename: Reto
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Wyss
authors.forename: Paul F M J
authors.initials: PF
authors.lastname: Verschure
mesh_terms: D001519:Behavior / Q000502:physiology; D001921:Brain / Q000166:cytology / Q000502:physiology; D003201:Computers; D006801:Humans; D008959:Models, Neurological; D016571:Neural Networks, Computer; D009474:Neurons / Q000166:cytology* / Q000502:physiology; D009488:Neurosciences / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods; D017711:Nonlinear Dynamics; D011639:Public Opinion; D015203:Reproducibility of Results; D012371:Robotics / Q000379:methods*; D012985:Software Design