Good old analog computers
Conway's Game of Life, in real life
81–90 of 97 posts
Re: Conway's Game of Life, in real life
#82In the seatac airport there used to be a big 'life wall' they did their switches w/ capacitive metal disks
Re: Conway's Game of Life, in real life
#83[flagged]
Re: Conway's Game of Life, in real life
#84This is fantastic. I happen to own a physical pong table. Everyone loves it. [0] There is something magical about material and only-does-one-thing instantiations of digital things. —— I am really looking forward to a flat table top screen consisting of millions of magnetically-controlled vertical-extruding rod pixels, with actual color controlled pixels along their length. For an amazing table display/extrusion of D&…
And optimize for repair when one of the thousands of actuators gets stuck or burns out… Here’s a thought, though: you’ve seen the sand table + kinect projection mapping demo? What about that, plus a two-axis moving magnet sand mandala marble drawing table? The actuator could draw the path /sculpt the terrain, then release the marble and grab the figurines?
the trick it to be able to actuate the rods without placing a linear actuator on every one, but it's a complicated problem. Magnetism? hydraulic shafts fed and drained by a series of gates making a matrix? acoustic levitation?
I'm reminded of the old BERG London pixel track display that used a little cart with a vertical array of solenoids that would travel the length of the display flipping each individual pixel on an off physically. https://www.designboom.com/technology/pixel-track-berg-cloud... It's on my list of'next time i'm unemployed' projects to pick up and open source a design for.
Re: Conway's Game of Life, in real life
#85I wonder is there a version GoL where every bit on a computer-display or LCD TV is one cell? How does it look?
How many bits per pixel are you assuming, and are you imagining the red pixels are vertical neighbors with corresponding red pixels above and below, etc.? Should be easy to do on my phone: https://itch.io/post/15723528
Good point to explore
Re: Conway's Game of Life, in real life
#86I wonder is there a version GoL where every bit on a computer-display or LCD TV is one cell? How does it look?
Conversely, it'd be cool to play it on an large empty office building. One window = one pixel.
Right but what if every window was an outward pointing LCD screen each having their own node-per-pixel GoL !:_)
Re: Conway's Game of Life, in real life
#87> Can it be made for less?
Would you be able to use the LEDs as light sensors and eliminate the switch component entirely? Maybe a tubular shield over each LED so it doesn't interact with others around it then covering it with your finger could be read as toggling the state?
Re: Conway's Game of Life, in real life
#88> To bring the idea to life, I started with rigorous budgeting: I figured out what would be a reasonable amount to spend on the project and then multiplied that by 10.
Lol, this is the way to do hobbies
Re: Conway's Game of Life, in real life
#89I've always wanted something like this board, buttons which can light up (preferably a few colours), to use to make games. Anyone ever found such a board which is hackable / programmable?
Aliexpress has a lot of cheap "smart gomoku board" now, they are cheap rgb-lighted membrane button grids O(13x13) with firmware playing games like Go, Reversi etc. (https://he.aliexpress.com/item/1005010089221164.html, https://he.aliexpress.com/item/1005011840606955.html ...). These proved to be surprisingly fun with children, the tactile interface is neat, and they're a good middle ground that helps learn the rules of games (has 1-on-1 modes + solo against several levels of "AI") but not as brain-rot distracting like a tablet.
I haven't tried reverse-engineering one yet, I hope at least some of these are hackable? Conway's life would certainly be one fun use, but custom games are totally something I'd want to make too!
Are these actually membrane or are there some switches there? I assume membrane, if only based on the dirt-cheap price. Anyway in combination with lighting up + sound the feedback feels immersive enough, it's definitely more fun than poking a tablet.
Re: Conway's Game of Life, in real life
#90> Can it be made for less? Would you be able to use the LEDs as light sensors and eliminate the switch component entirely? Maybe a tubular shield over each LED so it doesn't interact with others around it then covering it with your finger could be read as toggling the state?
The rest of your hand is not transparent and will cover a lot of other buttons while you’re only trying to push one.