Quantum Dice @quantumdice - Tumblr Blog

Orders are now placed for the PCBs via Newbury Electronics 1 day service...

Rapid prototyping provides a new home for a hermit crab

#3D Printing

3D printing (Rapid Prototyping) provides a dice housing that will roll

#STL #3D Printing

The components for the dice are arriving

#AutoCAD #Dice #LEDs #LiPoly

The Smart Sand project from MIT is also exploring dice-like concepts

not-maida

The concept for the dice casing. The wood is cut via a CO2 laser, and delivered mail order from the people at Ponoko. This has the advantage that if anyone wanted to reproduce the casing independently, the designs could be repeat-ordered.

#Dice #3D Printing #CO2 Laser

A sketch of the dice. The design calls for six circuit boards, one USB dongle, one accelerometer, one battery pack and 42 LEDs.

The Quantum Nano-Science Logo. (Concept generously loaned to us by Douglas Hofstadter)

#3D Printing #Make #Hofstadter

The brains of the quantum dice from DIY Embedded at $25 a throw. The processing power of these USB keys is roughly equivalent to a ZX81 or a BBC micro from the mid 80's; (likewise the desktop computer of the early 2000's is now a single-board computer). The largest component is the USB plug. The processor (black square) and 2.4 GHz RF antenna (blue lozenge) are roughly the same size.

#USB #Microcontroller #RF #8051 #Embedded

Putting numbers on the dice faces

We translate an integer from 0-6 into a pattern of LEDs to light using binary encoding.

Currently, I'm using the assignments:

__1 ___ __2 __4 __8 _16 _32 ___ _64

Then to display the figure "3" we need to light the LEDs with values 1 + 8 + 64 = 73, etc. The LEDs translate as:

"One" "Two" "Three" "Four" ___ ___ ___ __1 ___ ___ __1 ___ ___ __1 ___ __4 ___ __8 ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ __8 ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ ___ _64 ___ ___ _64 _32 ___ _64

#Binary #Displays #Dice

The development machine

I'm always surprised at the quality pieces of software that are available to carry out design work, at an amazing discount (i.e. free) to people who are in education and schools.

Given all this stuff is available, I'm interested to find out whether the quantum dice project could be accomplished without spending a penny on computer software (other than pre-installed software such as Windows). I'm agnostic as to which operating system to use; we'll use it if does the job at zero (or minimal) additional cost, and in fact I'm going to end up polytheistic by worshiping at the altars of both Windows and Linux.

Quantum Dice - the concept

Quantum mechanics includes some pretty mind-blowing effects which are all-too-frequently buried beneath a patina of mathematics. Why do people think the predictions of quantum mechanics are in any way bizarre? - Perhaps because people first encounter quantum mechanics as adults, after "classical" ideas have taken root and coloured perceptions of how the world should work.

What would happen if we presented the essential features of quantum mechanics in an intuitively obvious format, accessible to young children and adults alike? What would someone who had lived their entire life experiencing quantum mechanics as "normal" do when they got to University? What new insights would occur to someone who regarded every quantum effect as natural, and had learnt the essence of quantum mechanics at the same time as learning to walk and learning to speak?

Trending Blogs

Recently Viewed Blogs

Quantum Dice