Angela M. Coxe, Clifford A. Reiter, Fuzzy Hexagonal Automata and Snowflakes, Computers & Graphics, 27 (2003) 447-454.

There is a common perception that snowflakes are 6-sided and a common quip that "no two snowflakes are alike". The 6-fold symmetry suggests that the growth is deterministic, while the differences suggest the growth is so sensitive to conditions that remarkable variety appears. We investigate fuzzy automata that give a great diversity of growth patterns, have sensitivity to background conditions, and which maintain the symmetry of snowflakes.

See also: · Paper [Preprint] · Some Images and animations related to the paper [Images, and Animations] · Some Boolean versions [Abstract] [Images, and Animations] · A threshold/averaging model for snow crystal growth [Abstract] · A threshold/averaging model on quasicrystals [Abstract] · A 3-dimensional model [Abstract] · Gravner-Griffeath Snowflakes