Robin Baumgarten is a game developer interested in “game-related experiments.” Most of his work involves building devices that act as game controllers. Baumgarten recently built an experimental art exhibit sponsored by the Centre for Quantum Engineering at Aalto University and partnered with the University of Turku and the QPlay Project. The Quantum Garden is a system made of 228 door springs that react to users’ touch and display quantum behavior. Shaking the springs will set off the capacitive touch and vibration sensors in the system and a quantum computation takes place.
The fundamental question trying to be solved is the behavior of quantum fluids. Even if people walk by and give the springs a quick flick, their inputs and outputs are still being taken into account and the data added to the body of knowledge. More astute folks might stop and play the game, with the goal of getting a full circle as large as possible in the system.
Baumgarten used Python API and simulators with two Arduino boards to build the installation but also has a smaller portable 36 spring hexagonal version that travels with him. Python was chosen because of his comfort in programming using the language, and he can now use the quantum panel for easy programming of different games. He’s developing arcade style rhythm and football type games while also creating slow experimental games, like the Rainbow Frog game that simulates a light garden moving through different seasons.
The Quantum Garden installation as an engineering / maker project is fantastic, but the idea that the system is taking data for quantum computing makes it a fantastic service project / art / engineering hybrid. Various web searches mentioned scalability of the project but I haven’t seen anything larger than the 228 spring hex pattern yet. I first heard of Robin Baumgarten because of his Line Wobbler game, a one-dimensional dungeon crawler game built with one long string of LEDs and using the same door stop springs as controllers. Experimental game controllers feel like the kind of maker project that could transfer to remote vehicles or even steering automotive or aerospace applications. The current exhibition of the Quantum Garden is at Aalto University shopping center A block, until December 14, 2018.