Giant and awesome dice-rolling machine

The Dice-O-Matic is a giant rube-goldberg random number generator used on Games-By-Email in lieu of a cheaper, less-physical, less-cool software dice-roller.

The Dice-O-Matic is 7 feet tall, 18 inches wide and 18 inches deep. It has an aluminum frame covered with Plexiglas panels. A 6x4 inch square Plexiglas tube runs vertically up the middle almost the entire height. Inside this tube a bucket elevator carries dice from a hopper at the bottom, past a camera, and tosses them onto a ramp at the top. The ramp spirals down between the tube and the outer walls. The camera and synchronizing disk are near the top, the computer, relay board, elevator motor and power supplies are at the bottom.
The dice start the cycle at the top of the ramp, toward the rear of the machine. The ramp is comprised of ten steps, each at about a 20 degree incline, with a right hand thread through two and a half spirals. Two layers of cloth covered foam (car headliner) keep the noise down. Felt covered foam quarter-obelisks are at each corner, sewn to the side padding. It took a few tries to get the pitch just right. Too shallow and the dice stopped tumbling, too steep and they would start banging against the Plexiglas. Now they roll very well, sometimes stopping and then getting knocked back into the stream. Perfect.
The hopper at the bottom of the ramp is pure seething violence. I am sure there is a better way to load the dice into the buckets (vibrating tables and all that) but not in the budget and footprint I have. Instead, buckets come up through the bottom of the hopper, smashing their way through the accumulated pile of dice and scooping some up. It is rather hard on the dice, much of the paint gets chipped from the edges of the pips. The buckets are close enough together that dice cannot slip through the bottom.

As Schneier notes, "As someone who has designed random number generators professionally, I find this to be an overly complex hardware solution to a relatively straightforward software problem. But the sheer beauty of the machine cannot be denied."

May thy dice chip and shatter

Previously:

Discussion

Take a look at this

#1 posted by Anonymous, May 27, 2009 5:43 AM

I love this comment on Schneier's blog:

What a dinosaur.
Our data center would be first in line to buy a quad + load balancer, but we would need it to support all Dx modes.
The deal-breaker for us is no D20 support, but D4, 8 and 12 support is not much lower of a priority.
Sorry, that's just how we roll.

http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2009/05/automatic_dice.html#c374946

#2 posted by eagleapex, May 27, 2009 6:00 AM

Aww, but it runs windows.
This also reminds me of Newton's Dream kinetic sculpture in the Franklin Institute: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6S_w12asOxk

#3 posted by technogeek, May 27, 2009 6:12 AM

Software will be, at best, pseudorandom. This machine incorporates true randomness. It may be physically biased (though with this many dice I'd hope not) but there's no chance of someone predicting exact sequences.

Of course a noise diode is also a hardware solution, and much smaller, quieter, and easier to build.

But heck, this was worth doing just as kinetic sculpture.

#4 posted by Anonymous, May 27, 2009 6:25 AM

Now I just need to program it to stop when it rolls a set of six 18s and my plan for D+D domination is complete....

#5 posted by Blaine, May 27, 2009 6:34 AM

If I've learned anything from reading The Knights of The Dinner Table, it's "you can have my dice when you pry them from my cold, dead hand".

I have no doubts, what-so-ever, that whatever material and labor costs that went into building it will be offset by gamers who insist on using dice.

#6 posted by Anonymous, May 27, 2009 6:46 AM

Needs to use D20s for full awesomeness

#7 posted by airship, May 27, 2009 6:55 AM

Gamers have an unhealthy obsession with dice towers. Some old games like 'The Inventors' garner unreasonable eBay prices not because they are good games, but simply because they include a Rube-Goldberg-like dice tower.

#8 posted by Lazlo Panaflex, May 27, 2009 7:13 AM

I really need to see this miraculous machine filmed with a high speed camera with a slow spiral pan down the corkscrew ramp. Maybe some matrix style "pause and pan" action would be good too.
This device would be great on a smaller scale for our perpetual RISK 2210 games that me and my friends play. There are constant verbal exchanges regarding improper rolling technique and "dice calling" that would be eliminated with such a device.

#9 posted by cinemajay, May 27, 2009 7:26 AM

Reminds me of Col. Zocchi's video on how he makes his Game Science dice. The lesson? Tumbling dice is a machine = bad!

He has a totally different reason behind his speech, but like I said, just made me think of it.

It's a great video if you get a chance to check it out: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bR2fxoNHIuU

#10 posted by cinemajay, May 27, 2009 7:36 AM

Ack! in that first sentence above is = in.

#11 posted by imag, May 27, 2009 8:15 AM

#6 - nice video, thanks for the link!

#12 posted by unklstuart, May 27, 2009 11:44 AM

I can barely see what is happening in this video but the Col. Zocchi reference by # 6 is most excellent. I second #8's opinion.

#13 posted by unklstuart, May 27, 2009 12:02 PM

I meant I second #11's opinion about #6's post. This machine is a good representation of how my mind works.