Unlock the secrets to creating random mazes! Whether you're a game developer, an algorithm connoisseur, or simply in search of a new puzzle, you're about to level up. Learn algorithms to randomly generate mazes in a variety of shapes, sizes, and dimensions. Bend them into Moebius strips, fold them into cubes, and wrap them around spheres. Stretch them into other dimensions, squeeze them into arbitrary outlines, and tile them in a dizzying variety of ways. From twelve little algorithms, you'll discover a vast reservoir of ideas and inspiration. From video games to movies, mazes are ubiquitous. Explore a dozen algorithms for generating these puzzles randomly, from Binary Tree to Eller's, each copiously illustrated and accompanied by working implementations in Ruby. You'll learn their pros and cons, and how to choose the right one for the job. You'll start by learning six maze algorithms and transition from making mazes on paper to writing programs that generate and draw them. You'll be introduced to Dijkstra's algorithm and see how it can help solve, analyze, and visualize mazes. Part 2 shows you how to constrain your mazes to different shapes and outlines, such as text, circles, hex and triangle grids, and more. You'll learn techniques for culling dead-ends, and for making your passages weave over and under each other. Part 3 looks at six more algorithms, taking it all to the next level. You'll learn how to build your mazes in multiple dimensions, and even on curved surfaces. Through it all, you'll discover yourself brimming with ideas, the best medicine for programmer's block, burn-out, and the grayest of days. By the time you're done, you'll be energized and full of maze-related possibilities! What You Need: The example code requires version 2 of the Ruby programming language. Some examples depend on the ChunkyPNG library to generate PNG images, and one chapter uses POV-Ray version 3.7 to render 3D graphics.

This book is for the smart and curious mind at any age like yours. It should also go a long way to improve performance of young minds—in higher Schools, Colleges and Work environments. It contains hand-picked 50 brain teasers and the solutions. None of the puzzles are too easy or for that matter too difficult that you won't be able to solve. The puzzles are of mixed variety - intriguing riddles, logic puzzles, river crossing puzzles, and ball weighing puzzles. Most of the puzzles are uncommon but all are interesting. No math puzzles, you don't need any prior knowledge to solve the puzzles. Puzzle solutions are hand-crafted using innovative problem solving techniques. The new methods used for solving the puzzles will surprise and enrich you. To add value to the work, a few of the Innovative problem solving techniques used in solutions, namely, Working backwards, End state analysis, Property change analysis, Question Analysis Answer are collected in brief as Appendix. These are general problem solving techniques you may use for solving not just puzzles, but other types of problems also. It is a book of 50 puzzles that you will enjoy solving. It also is the book that will show you new ways to solve problems.

Infinite broken night. Milky alien moons. Wavering demons of gold. Held in this jail of immortal threats are three perfect sisters...Maze of the Blue Medusa is a dungeon. Maze of the Blue Medusa is art. Maze of the Blue Medusa works with your favorite fantasy tabletop RPGs. And Maze of the Blue Medusa is the madly innovative game book from the award-winning Zak Sabbath of A Red & Pleasant Land and Patrick Stuart of Deep Carbon Observatory. Lethal gardens, soul-rending art galleries, infernal machines--Maze of the Blue Medusa reads like the poetic nightmare of civilizations rotted to time, and plays like a puzzle-box built from risk and weird spectacle.Praise for Zak Sabbath:"Zak is not just imaginative, he's bold. Which means that while he recognizes the value of fantasy traditions, he doesn't hesitate for a moment to throw out anything that's become tired or dull."-- Monte Cook, author of NumeneraPraise for Patrick Stuart's Fire on the Velvet Horizon:"Superpositioning with strange panache, Velvet Horizon is an (outstanding) indie role-playing-game supplement, and an (outstanding) example of experimental quasi-/meta-/sur-/kata-fiction. Also a work of art. Easily one of my standout books of 2015."-- China Miéville, author of Perdido Street Station

Neuroergonomics: The Brain at Work and in Everyday Life details the methodologies that are useful for keeping an ideal human-machine system up-to-date, along with information on how to prevent potential overload and minimize errors. It discusses neural measures and the proper methods and technologies to maximize performance, thus providing a resource for neuroscientists who want to learn more about the technologies and real-time tools that can help them assess cognitive and motivational states of human operators and close the loop for advanced human-machine interaction. With the advent of new and improved tools that allow monitoring of brain activity in the field and better identification of neurophysiological markers that can index impending overload or fatigue, this book is a timely resource on the topic. - Includes neurobiological models to better understand risky decision-making and cognitive countermeasures, augmented cognition, and brain stimulations to enhance performance and mitigate human error - Features innovative methodologies and protocols using psychophysiological measurements and brain imaging techniques in realistic operational settings - Discusses numerous topics, including cognitive performance in psychological and neurological disorders, brain computer interfaces (BCI), and human performance monitoring in ecological conditions, virtual reality, and serious gaming

No fewer than 1001 mind-bending puzzles have been specially created for this book. From quick puzzles that will take a couple of minutes to logic problems that will need hours of work, each puzzle is graded into three levels of difficulty. Attractively presented in full color, the book includes picture puzzles, mazes, math tests, lateral thinking and visual reasoning puzzles, plus spatial problems. This is a cornucopia of conundrums that includes a special selection of tsunami puzzles by a famous japanese puzzle constructor that will have you racking your brain for hours.

The term "artificial life" describes research into synthetic systems that possess some of the essential properties of life. This interdisciplinary field includes biologists, computer scientists, physicists, chemists, geneticists, and others. Artificial life may be viewed as an attempt to understand high-level behavior from low-level rules—for example, how the simple interactions between ants and their environment lead to complex trail-following behavior. An understanding of such relationships in particular systems can suggest novel solutions to complex real-world problems such as disease prevention, stock-market prediction, and data mining on the Internet. Since their inception in 1987, the Artificial Life meetings have grown from small workshops to truly international conferences, reflecting the field's increasing appeal to researchers in all areas of science.

The 3x+1 problem is one of the most (in)famous problems in mathematics today. The problem is simple to explain, but in its 83 years of existence, no-one has come close to solving it. This book presents new patterns within the 3x+1 problem, which to some extend can be graphed in the 3x+1 maze. This allows a new interpretation of the problem, still open for further research. Any reader with some academic mathematical knowledge will be able to read this book, although it may require some self-study. New theory and known literature are structured such that the reader can directly connect the results and understand their context. Formal proofs are only given in the final chapter, and provide many details. If you are curious about the 3x+1 problem, this book provides a rich theory from which you can start your own research. And who knows what you will find?