Splashery
Perceptron, a still.

Family III, AI and Computing

Plate 30

Perceptron

A perceptron is the simplest artificial neuron, described by Frank Rosenblatt in 1958.

Playground

Origin
Raised from a recipe
Habit
Diurnal: kept on the page
Voice
Yes, with the sound on
Hands-on
Yes
Licenses
Own work (made in the page)

How to play

Tap it to try an example. Hands-on: tap an input lamp to switch it; the output updates.

Notes

It takes a few inputs, multiplies each by a weight (how much that input counts), and adds them up. If the sum passes a threshold, it fires: its answer is 1, otherwise 0. It learns by nudging its weights each time it gets an answer wrong.

Tap it: inputs X1 and X3 light up and send pulses along wires as thick as their weights. The sum fills the gauge but stays under the threshold line, so the lamp flashes red. The two live wires thicken, the pulses go again, the gauge passes the line and the lamp lights gold. Pick the flat poster or a 3D model in the Splash tab. This repeats a scripted learning example; it does not keep training on your taps. With ✋ Hands-on on, tap an input lamp to switch it on or off: the sum, the gauge and the output lamp show the perceptron's answer at once, with its learned weights.

Its controls

ControlKindRangeStart
Try an exampleTap
TryButton
FlipButton
ViewList2 choicesPoster (2D)

Details

Splats
Opens at 200,000 at Mid Detail, 120,000 at Low, and up to 710,000 at Max

Is it right?

The weighted sum and threshold example are consistent with a perceptron. The weight change is a prepared learning example, and tapping does not train a new model.

  1. Correct

    A perceptron sums weighted inputs and applies a threshold.1

    Inputs 1, 0, 1 give sums 0.35 before and 1.35 after, with threshold 1.

  2. Simplified

    The weight change illustrates a learning update.1

    Adding 0.5 times each active input gives the stored second weight set, but the update is not calculated from a live training example.

  3. Correct

    Rosenblatt described the perceptron in 1958.1

    The About text now dates the published description, instead of asserting a precise invention year.

  1. 1The perceptron (1958), Frank Rosenblatt, Psychological Review
Simplified
Three fixed inputs and two stored weight sets repeat on each tap. There is no training dataset, learned bias, or ongoing optimizer.

Sources and credits

Made in Splashery. Its code is MIT.

Share it

This link opens it in the Playground. To put it on your own page, add the element and one script tag. Every option.

https://splashery.app/play/?toy=perceptron<script type="module" src="https://splashery.app/play/src/element.js"></script> <splashery-toy toy="perceptron"></splashery-toy>

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