QuantumClock

Project for Cruft Fest

The Quantum Clock

This is Heisenberg's clock: reality depends on the perspective of the observer and on the measurement instruments that humans made.

The Quantum Clock is a clock whose hands change speed and behavior in reaction to the environment and the spectator's presence.

Behaviors:

1. audiovisual effects:
   

- intense light = slower time (light sensor) => in the morning time lasts longer
- intense sound = faster time (microphone) => individuals exposed to intense sound sources may lose sense of duration (ex techno parties)

1. weather related:
   

- humidity and cold = faster time (humidity and temperature sensor) => winter is lethargic, the day doesn't last long, humans are tired and cannot make much work
- dry heat = slower time (humidity and temperature sensor) => in summer time dilates, the day feels longer, around 40'(cent) time almost stops

1. social and individual:
   

- proximity sensor?
matt's sensors:

Search for LV-EZ1 arduino

http://www.sparkfun.com/products/639

here is some info:

http://www.arduino.cc/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1238104184

Here is the infra red one:

http://www.sparkfun.com/products/8958

http://www.arduino.cc/cgi-bin/yabb2/YaBB.pl?num=1230387822/6

- electromagnetic field -- teremin
http://www.mechatronicart.ch/diymakeaway/open.theremin.rc
- Galvanic Skin Response?

1. networked

- patchube

http://community.pachube.com/arduino/usb/processing#pachube-output

[interaction to be investigated further]

Technique

flexible time with arduino:

http://blog.makezine.com/archive/2009/06/how-to-control-a-clock-mechanism-wi.html

http://www.cibomahto.com/2008/03/controlling-a-clock-with-an-arduino/

http://www.faludi.com/examples/open-source-arduino-clock/

millis solutions:

http://www.faludi.com/2007/12/18/arduino-millis-rollover-handling/ http://www.arduino.cc/playground/Code/TimingRollover

library called date and time in arduino

physics

Feeding electricity into quartz makes it vibrate (or, if you prefer, oscillate or resonate) through what's sometimes called the reverse piezoelectric effect (where electricity produces vibrations). The oscillator is set up so the quartz vibrates exactly 32768 times a second. But now remember the normal piezoelectric effect: when a piece of quartz vibrates, it generates an electrical voltage. The second circuit on the microchip detects this "output voltage" (fluctuating 32768 times a second) and divides its frequency to produce once-a-second pulses that drive the motor powering the gears.

quartz vibrates at a slightly different frequency at different temperatures and pressures so its timekeeping ability is affected to a tiny degree by the warming, cooling, ever-changing world around us. In theory, if you keep a watch on your wrist all the time (which is at more or less constant temperature), it will keep time better than if you take it on and off (causing quite a dramatic temperature change each time). But even if the quartz crystal could vibrate at a perfectly constant frequency, the way it's mounted in its circuit, tiny imperfections in the gearing, friction, and so on can also introduce minute errors in timekeeping. All these effects are enough to introduce an inaccuracy of up to a second a day in typical quartz clocks and watches (bear in mind that a second lost one day may be compensated by a second gained the next day, so the overall accuracy may be as good as a few seconds a month)

andrews comments

> I could see two approaches, one using various hardware
> sensors as you suggest, the other involving some kind of
> internet-connected data source (e.g. feeds from Pachube, social
> network/news media/web search activity, etc.). The two approaches could
> also be used in combination. One way to do the electromagnetic field
> sensing you mention would be to rig up a theremin (a literal instrument or
> the circuit from it) which detects the proximity of the user to the clock.
> If you don't have a theremin to work with it can be a fair amount of work
> to build, though.
> > For the effect of the project to really come across, the changes should
> probably be perceptible within a few seconds of the user taking some kind
> of action. (It would be hard to detect a very slight deviation from
> constant timing until the difference accumulated over a long period of
> time).

A quantum clock is a type of clock that confines aluminum and beryllium ions together in an electromagnetic trap and cools them by lasers to near absolute zero temperatures. Developed by National Institute of Standards and Technology physicists, the clock is 37 times more precise than the existing international standard.[1] Both the aluminum based Quantum Clock and the mercury based atomic clock keep track of time from the ion vibration at an optical frequency by using a UV laser, that is 100,000 times higher than the microwave frequencies used in NIST-F1 and other similar time standards around the world. Quantum clocks like this are able to divide time into smaller units and can be far more precise than microwave standards.

The clock loses one second every 3.4 billion years, while the current international standard NIST-F1 caesium fountain atomic clock loses a second every 100 million years. Chou's team can't actually measure clock ticks per second because the definition of a second is based on the NIST-F1 which cannot measure a more precise machine. "The aluminum clock is very accurate because it is insensitive to background magnetic and electric fields, and also to temperature".[2]

In February 2010, NIST physicists built a second, enhanced, version of the quantum logic clock using a single aluminum atom. Considered the world's most precise clock, it offers more than twice the precision of the original.[3]