A 17×17 physical Conway's Game of Life built with 289 tactile switches
Conway's Game of Life in real life
An engineer builds a physical Conway's Game of Life using a 17×17 matrix of illuminated push-button switches, each cell toggled by hand. The custom PCB and firmware drive the LEDs with multiplexed rows and columns, pushing 150 mA per diode while keeping the duty cycle safe. A potentiometer controls simulation speed, and a watchdog timer prevents crashes. The result is a tactile, interactive art piece that brings the classic cellular automaton into the real world.
Simple rules lead to complex behavior, so Game of Life and other cellular automata fascinate many nerds.
- felooboolooomba
There's probably a way of making these switches for less, if you're willing to trade money for toil and strife. Wind up toys have a very long roll of "wind up spring". 3D print a jig to bend a short piece of that into shape. Use somewhat translucent filament to print the switch. Or use a diffuser/matte thingy from a LCD monitor. I don't know. It'll probably be more expensive in the end but you'll feel good that you did it.
- jasonpeacock
I’ve always wanted to do something similar, but with screen printed capacitive sensors on a pcb with a matching led in each sensor.
Much more scalable in cost.
- ynac
Anyone else expecting (fearing) some sort of Stephen King sci-fi game show? Whew - just light bulbs...