ofxQuantum is an ongoing practice led investigation into the development of software and hardware for theoretical computing models and to approach the investigation of one such model from the perspective of a media artist. Through this methodology I aimed to create a programming interface between the conceptual and mathematical model of quantum computing with openframeworks (www.openframeworks.cc) a and widely used programming tool for artists.
The aim of this openframeworks addon is to create a bridge between openframeworks which is a tool that is popular amongst artists and quantum computing which is a branch of abstract computing which only exists theoretically at this time but presents a substantial leap in computational power compared with classical computing techniques used in modern computers, laptops and phones. In this way I am providing a tool for the future that may possibly be used one day by artists but at this time is nothing more than an intellectual curiosity.
This project was inspired by my interest in mathematics and computational theory and to develop theoretically and conceptual software and present it to an audience who would not normally be interested in the field of theoretical computing. Programming and software design can be very practical and is mostly put to non poetic or practical creative uses so I wanted to make software that is more conceptual and artistic but also may have some practical use at some point even if it can't be used for anything practical at the moment. The reason that I choose quantum computing is that I am fascinated with the way that something as random and seemingly uncontrollable such as quantum mechanics can be put into a mathematical logic that can be used for computation.
For further project documentation please see: http://www.jaysonh.com/ofxquantum.htm
Quantum comping is an area of computing first formulated by several computer theorists in the early 1980s. Quantum computing which uses the effects of quantum mechanics to perform computational tasks. While classical computing uses a binary 1/0 bit quantum computing uses a Qubit which holds a superposition of states between 1 and 0 and works within a world that is filled with probabilities rather than solid deterministic type variables. This allows a quantum computer to work with bits that hold the probability of the bit being in a state of 1 or 0 and with some clever algorithm design can compute the results across all posssible solutions to a problem. Another interesting feature of quantum computing is that quantum bits exist in a probability of being in a certain state until the bit is measured. This allows for the use of quantum computing to solve problems that are currently too coputationally heavy to solve on a classical computer.
In a way quantum computing is a fitting embodiement of Konrad Zuse's concept of the Rechnender Raum which is the idea that the universe itself is a giant computing device. This concept is becoming more and more aparent as scientists unravel the mysterious behind dna, quantum physics, and other physical processes all of which are structured around computationally driven processes.
This addon is a quantum computing simulator and provides an interface between openframeworks and quantum computing. Some of the code is based on Matthew Haywards work on developing C code to implement quantum RSA decryption: https://quantum-algorithms.herokuapp.com/ Also the shaders used to render these visualisations were put together from various pieces of code I took from shadertoy examples so if you see something that is yours then let me know and I can credit you.
To use the quantum simulator you must first create an ofxQuantum object, then create a quantum register and link them together. Once this is done you can do operations on your quantum register.
ofxQuantum quantumSim;
ofxQuantumRegister * quantumReg;
// Initialise the quantum simulator
quantumSim.init();
// Create our register with one qubit and link it to the quantum simulator
quantumReg =new ofxQuantumRegister( 1, &quantumSim );
// Apply the hadamard gate which puts the qubit in a superposition states
// This means that it has an equal chance of being a 1 or a 0 when it is measured
quantumReg->applyGateHad(0);
This addon requires that the ofxCv addon is included https://github.com/kylemcdonald/ofxCv
#contact ☯ Jayson Haebich ☯ www.jaysonh.com ☯ [email protected] ☯
