5 ms·
Programmable Water
- jonsen 13y agoThe air version, Pneumatic logic: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pneumatics#Pneumatic_logic http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pneumatics#Pneumatic_logic
- TeMPOraL 13y agoI guess this adds a whole new meaning to the phrase "bit bucket" :).
- andrewcooke 13y agoit's taken me a good 5 minutes to convince myself a single device can be both AND and XOR. that's weird stuff. is there any way to get AND, XOR and NOR in a single device "for free"? after all, they don't overlap (only one is 1 for any given pair of inputs). also, how do you build a practical system when the flow rate is not constant (AND doubles the flow here, for example)?
- gizmo686 13y ago>also, how do you build a practical system when the flow rate is not constant (AND doubles the flow here, for example)? You could probably make it constant. In this case, at the output of the AND gate, put a pressure regulator valve, that will allow the extra pressure to leak out of the system (or into a return pipe). A similar problem would be duplicating the signal. The simplest solution I can see is a device that has two always pressurized inputs, and one control input. When the control is pressurized, it leverages a spring loaded switch to allow the two always on streams through.
- zeckalpha 13y agoThat is a transistor.
- jonsen 13y agoa single device can be both AND and XOR. that's weird stuff. I'd say it depends on how you would define "single device". Imagine the possible complexity of such water devices build with a 3D printer and still it's just a lump of uniform material, albeit structured.
- gizmo686 13y agoI think that a distinction can be made here. Consider the device as an XOR gate. There is no element within the device that is not a fundamental part of the XOR system. The AND gate arises as a natural result of constructing the XOR gate. This feels fundamentally different from constructing an XOR gate, and then adding an AND gate. On a meta-level, in writing the above comment, I feel as if we are missing some critical vocabulary that would make this entire question seem trivial. Any ideas on what this vocab. is?
- verbin217 13y agoIf you combined the output hoses you'd get an OR. So you have AND, OR, and XOR in one device. You can make a NOT from the same device using the XOR and connecting an input to the water source.
- rcthompson 13y agoIt can be both AND and XOR because it has two outputs. You could add a 3rd output for NOR in theory. You would probably add a 3rd always-on stream that drains into the NOR output by default but is deflected away when either or both of the other streams comes through.
- csense 13y agoHow does this story get 56 points and frontpage (as of this writing), yet when I submitted an article on computing with water droplets on superhydrophobic surfaces [1], it didn't get any upvotes at all? Anyone have ideas for reducing the tendency of HN to sometimes ignore high-quality content? I shudder to think about how stressful being ignored must be for startups who try to launch their product or get feedback here... EDIT: Multiple downvotes? Does this mean that people are uncomfortable with the idea that HN may be less than perfect? Or is it merely because my comment's too far off-topic? [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4885419 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4885419
- GuiA 13y agoDon't take it personally dude. It's a human system, therefore an inherently flawed one.
- csense 13y agoI'm not taking it personally. I'm trying to ask all the clever people here to put their hacking hats on, and think up an analysis of this particular flaw, or ideas for technological ways to mitigate this problem. I am a little bitter about the situation, I suppose, and maybe this leaked into my comment. My intention was to set the tone of a matter between adult professionals: "Here's a problem I experienced. Let's try to solve it." Maybe I didn't entirely succeed in setting that tone.
- hayksaakian 13y agoFor the least common denominator of HN visitors a title like "programmable water" is more attractive than what you proposed.
- frogpelt 13y agoThis is a problem that won't be solved with an algorithm. Emotions dictate the actions of humans. It's hard to fix that problem. You sound like someone who checks your watch to figure out whether you're hungry or not.
- AlwaysBCoding 13y agobro, do you even CSS?