USB Hourglass random number generator

By at 10:19 am Wednesday, Dec 23

USB Hourglass from alwynallan on Vimeo.


Over at Make: Online, John Park posted this video of a gadget that generates random numbers by watching sand fall through an hourglass.

It watches falling sand in an hourglass with an optical sensor. That data is sent via the Arduino USB output to the PC where it's analyzed. This entropy is useful for all your random number needs. My favorite part: when the hourglass runs dry a servo motor flips it over and it starts again.
USB Hourglass random number generator

Read more 

Mark Frauenfelder

My latest book, Made by Hand, now in paperback. Follow me on Twitter.

Where not otherwise specified, this work is licensed under a Creative Commons License permitting non-commercial sharing with attribution. Boing Boing is a trademark of Happy Mutants LLC in the United States and other countries.