Domino computer

A domino computer is a mechanical computer built using dominoes to represent mechanical amplification or logic gating of digital signals. Because of the existence of multiple schemes, domino computer will be used in this article as a collective noun, denoting any particular scheme that uses the mentioned base phenomenon (of domino sequences) for building machines equivalent to a computer. This choice of terminology may be somewhat arbitrary, because only few resources write on this topic.

Sequences of standing dominoes (so that each topples the next one) can be arranged to demonstrate digital concepts such as amplification and digital signals. It is some digital information that is conducted by a string of dominoes, thus this effect differs from phenomena where:

The Domino Day event shows many constructs, mainly with purpose of entertainment. Some constructs may remind people of digital circuits. Some of them suggest that not only telegraph-like tools can be shown, but also simple information processing modules can be built.

It is possible to use this phenomenon for constructing unconventional computing tools. The base phenomenon is sufficient to achieve this goal, but also sophisticated “mechanical synapses” can be used (see online ), to the analogy of electrical synapses or chemical synapses.

The logic gate OR is very natural in dominoes. The problem is which gate we should add to OR, and obtain a functionally complete set. Note that no domino gate can produce output 1 with all inputs 0, so we cannot make NOT, therefore we cannot even make IMPLIES without an external 'power source' sequence. Once we admit it, NOT is realized and we have a complete set.

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