Generating multimedia content with cellular automata

Researchers have long used cellular automata (CA), and in general parallel generative devices such as Lindenmayer systems, to produce images, fractals, growth, patterns in two dimensions, and sound. They usually implement these models on special-purpose architectures that often depend on the type of presentation being generated. This paper discusses the developed prototype for generating content, called extended cellular automata with pluggable multimedia elements (ExcapeMe). This prototype acts as an open environment that lets users execute CA in three dimensions and manage simultaneous rendering of CA using different forms of presentation. In principle, we can attach any type of multimedia presentation as a plug-in. The environment already supports ID, 2D, 2.5D, and 3D presentations, and we can apply sound rendering to CA of any dimension. The environment also supports interactively denning, editing, and executing CA as well as defining the mapping between the CA configurations and their actual rendering.