These images are generalized John Conway's game- of- life, finite automata fractals. A 2 -D digital filter (a discrete finite convolution) acts on an image. Although chaos must obviously be avoided when processing deterministic signals, it can provide quite attractive graphics. Each image is derived recursively from the previous one. Starting images can be (for example) a dot, a square, a hollow square, a cross or a hollow cross.
A 3x3 (or 5x5) mask is applied to the image (the coefficients can be variable). You could, for example, create hexagonal 'snowflakes' by a suitable choice of coefficients. Each pixel colour is replaced by a weighted sum of the neighbouring pixels' colours, taking care not to overwrite pixel values before they are used in all calculations involved. The mask is applied either to all pixels, or to black pixels only- in the latter case, each pixel stays on for a limited number of 'generations' only, but its colour changes in each generation.
The results are normalized back into the availiable colour range in several possible ways. All these variations provide a very large number of output images. "You could create a picture no one has ever seen before!" (But it is also possible simply to enjoy the images without worrying about all that!)
