Information Processing by Chemical Reaction-Diffusion Media: From Computing to Vision

Introduction

A lot of proposals have been considered during the past decades how to practically implement unique information processing mechanisms inherent in biological entities (see first ten items in reference list). And first of all, their capabilities to efficiently deal with complex logical problems that could hardly be effectively solved by contemporary digital computers in spite of tremendous progress in this field. One of the most promising attempts was information processing by distributed molecular and bio-molecular media. Nonlinear dynamics inherent in these media determines high logical complexity of primitive operations performed by the medium. It is this fundamental attribute, not the level of microminiaturization or high clock frequency typical of the contemporary digital computers, that leads to high computational power determined by high logical complexity of primitive operations performed by the medium. This unique feature together with large scale parallelism makes molecular and bio-molecular media attractive material for constructing information processing means. Because of biological roots they should be capable of effective solving artificial intellect problems that were during several last decades and are now of great importance for the understanding and control of complex dynamic systems. These systems - of biological, sociological, economic nature and many other important for the modern society, determine the everyday life of modern society.

Experimental investigations and numerical simulations of information processing capabilities of distributed systems have been performed beginning from the early seventies of the last century. They enabled to elucidate general principles and possible ways of its implementation. However this understanding has been changing during the several last years. Two basic points were responsible for these changes:

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  elaboration of powerful wave theory of information processing (Serra, 1986; Young, 2002),

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  tremendous increase in experimental technique for distributed chemical and biochemical media investigation.

This paper is designed to discuss information processing capabilities of chemical Belousov-Zhabotinsky type media based on new experimental results obtained lately and principles of mathematical morphology.