Update - This weeks work

Ok, I've been researching my topic a bit more this week in an attempt to try and come up with at least a few possibilities for a research question. While I haven't come up with any yet, my research has thrown up some promising leads that I'll be investigating over the coming days with the aim off narrowing down the elusive question.

I have come across the issue of "artificial life" which seems to be potentially useful to my research. Below are some pictures and a short video of "self animating" fish.

These fish "learn" the best way to carry out tasks based on there own inate characteristics and the results of enviromental factors forcing them to develop new actions, for example a predator approaches, the fishes will form schools to try and protect themselves.

It is a version of this that I hope to create where a virtual pet can be trained by a user to carry out certain tasks or actions, like training a dog to roll over or play dead, whilst at the same time, the pet being able to use its own judgement to carry out neccesary tasks, like eating, going to the toilet or sleeping.

I will continue to research areas within this topic to try to come up with a suitable research question within the next few days, leaving me time to effectivly research this in greater detail. I have requested a meeting with my technical supervisor which will also hopefully aide me in my search.