Flash on the Beach ‘06 – Chris Curzon

Ever wonder how to simulate flocking behavior of birds? Or why it is that ants can act in unison without any awareness of the group as a whole? At Flash on the Beach ’06, Chris Curzon gave an insightful talk on just that (and more). With a title like Artificially Intelligent ActionScript, you might have expected a talk more on the dry side with lots of math and really smart but unintelligible sentences…

…well, Chris’ talk had lots of really smart in it, and just a tad of math, yet on top of that he was engaging and quite understandable, even for listeners who haven’t done any AI (I’m the proof ;)). His slides (pdf) are available at the Flash on the Beach site. If you’re interested in flocking birds (or fish or thugs or whatever), check out another resource he recommends: Boids.

You had to be there to experience the entertaining examples of football thugs in full flock, but you might be able to appreciate other examples of his ActionScript work at Kerb – Viral Flash Games.