Shape as Memory Storage - Ambient Intelligence for Scientific Discovery - page 100

Fig. 20. Application of the Process-Grammar to computer-aided design by Pernot et
al [10].

Let us now turn to an application by Pernot et al. [10] to the manipulation of
free-form features in computer-aided design. Pernot's method begins by defining
a limiting line for a feature as well as a target line. For example, the first surface
in Fig 20 has a feature, a bump, with a limiting line given by its oval boundary
on the surface, and its target line given by the ridge line along the top of the
bump. The Process-Grammar is then used to manipulate the limiting line of
the feature. Thus, applying the first operation of the grammar to the left-hand
squashing process

+ in the surface, this squashing continues till it indents in
the second surface shown in Fig 20. With this method, the designer is given
considerable control over the surface to produce a large variety of free-form
features.
A profound point can be made by turning to the medical applications for
illustration. Let us consider the nature of medicine. A basic goal of medicine is
diagnosis . In this, the doctor is presented with the current state of, let's say, a
tumor, and tries to recover the causal history which lead to the current state.
Using the terminology of my topics, the doctor is trying to convert the tumor
into a memory store. Generally, I argue:

m

Medicine is the conversion of biological objects
into memory stores.

Thus one can understand why the Process-Grammar has been used extensively
in medical applications.
It is also instructive to look at the application of the Process-Grammar to
chemical engineering by Lee [2]. Here the grammar was used to model molecular