Synthesis of an Electronic Thermometer

 

(A Human-Competitive Result Produced by Genetic Programming)

 

The Result

Genetic programming evolved an electronic thermometer as described in Section 49.3 of Genetic Programming III: Darwinian Invention and Problem Solving (Koza, Bennett, Andre, and Keane 1999).

BBB574

Basis for Claim of Human-Competitiveness

The design of a zero-input electronic thermometer is a problem of recognized difficulty. At least two dozen temperature-sensing circuits have been patented, including ones by Massey (1970) and Haeusler (1976). Sidney Darlington received a patent for a temperature-compensated transistor amplifier in 1959 (Darlington 1959).

Referring to the eight criteria in chapter 1 of Genetic Programming III: Darwinian Invention and Problem Solving (Koza, Bennett, Andre, and Keane 1999) for establishing that an automatically created result is competitive with a human-produced result, the automatic synthesis of a voltage gain stage for an electronic thermometer satisfies the following two criteria:

(A) The result was patented as an invention in the past, is an improvement over a patented invention, or would qualify today as a patentable new invention.

(G) The result solves a problem of indisputable difficulty in its field.

References

Darlington, Sidney. 1959. Temperature Compensated Transistor Amplifier. U.S. Patent 2,885,494. Filed September 26, 1952. Issued May 5, 1959.

Haeusler, Jochen, 1976. Arrangement for Measuring Temperatures. U.S. Patent 3,943,434. Filed February 6, 1974. Issued March 9, 1976.

Koza, John R., Bennett III, Forrest H, Andre, David, and Keane, Martin A. 1999a. Genetic Programming III: Darwinian Invention and Problem Solving. San Francisco, CA: Morgan Kaufmann.

Massey, John. 1970. Compensated Resistance Bridge-Type Electrical Thermometer. U.S. Patent 3,541,857. Filed November 27, 1968. Issued November 24, 1970.


· The home page of Genetic Programming Inc. at www.genetic-programming.com.

· For information about the field of genetic programming and the field of genetic and evolutionary computation, visit www.genetic-programming.org

· The home page of John R. Koza at Genetic Programming Inc. (including online versions of most published papers) and the home page of John R. Koza at Stanford University

· For information about John Koza’s course on genetic algorithms and genetic programming at Stanford University

· Information about the 1992 book Genetic Programming: On the Programming of Computers by Means of Natural Selection, the 1994 book Genetic Programming II: Automatic Discovery of Reusable Programs, the 1999 book Genetic Programming III: Darwinian Invention and Problem Solving, and the 2003 book Genetic Programming IV: Routine Human-Competitive Machine Intelligence. Click here to read chapter 1 of Genetic Programming IV book in PDF format.

· 3,440 published papers on genetic programming (as of November 28, 2003) in a searchable bibliography (with many on-line versions of papers) by over 880 authors maintained by William Langdon’s and Steven M. Gustafson.

· For information on the Genetic Programming and Evolvable Machines journal published by Kluwer Academic Publishers

· For information on the Genetic Programming book series from Kluwer Academic Publishers, see the Call For Book Proposals

· For information about the annual Genetic and Evolutionary Computation (GECCO) conference (which includes the annual GP conference) to be held on June 26–30, 2004 (Saturday – Wednesday) in Seattle and its sponsoring organization, the International Society for Genetic and Evolutionary Computation (ISGEC). For information about the annual Euro-Genetic-Programming Conference to be held on April 5-7, 2004 (Monday – Wednesday) at the University of Coimbra in Coimbra Portugal. For information about the 2003 and 2004 Genetic Programming Theory and Practice (GPTP) workshops held at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor. For information about Asia-Pacific Workshop on Genetic Programming (ASPGP03) held in Canberra, Australia on December 8, 2003. For information about the annual NASA/DoD Conference on Evolvable Hardware Conference (EH) to be held on June 24-26 (Thursday-Saturday), 2004 in Seattle.


Last updated on December 28, 2003