Counting to 7 mechanically

Nico presents the Lego version of the Digicomp, "a mechanical computer sold as a plastic toy in 1963."

The detailed explanation of how it works is an interesting complement to this flawless creation.

The full LEGO Turing Machine Comes True

As Teuk comment in the previous Nxt turing machine post there's a video of a fully mechanical Turing machine made by SeTechnic member Phi with fellow students.

"At the occasion of Alan Turing's centenary, Masters students in fundamental computer sciences of the "Ecole Normale Supérieure", located in Lyon (France), pay homage to him through the building of a Turing machine in Lego."

This "pneumatic" turing machine really stunned me as the Lego digicomp did some years ago.

The Turing Machine Comes True por CNRS

My congratulations for the team! If you are able to  read French (or use google translate) and liked this superb machine is a must read the thread of the creation of this machine in the Setechnic forum

LEGO Turing Machine

Interesting machine, the mother of all the computers we know today:

LEGO Turing Machine from ecalpemos on Vimeo.


"This is a short documentary about the LEGO Turing Machine built by Jeroen van den Bos and Davy Landman at Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica (CWI), Amsterdam (Netherlands). They built it for CWI's exposition "Turings Erfenis" in honor of Alan Turings one hundredth birthday this year.

Alan Turing was a brilliant mathematician who helped define the theoretical model of the computer as we know it today. He was a visionary, one of the few people of his time who recognized the role the computer would play for humanity.

The Turing Machine (1936) is an adequate model of a computer. It can do anything the computers of today or tomorrow can do."

This LEGO Turing machine uses a tape based on a classic interpretation of computer memory: switches. Additionally, it uses a light sensor to determine the value of a switch: if the switch is on, the sensor will  see  the black colour of the switch's surface. But if it is turned off, the sensor will  see  the white colour of the LEGO beam, making it possible to distinguish between the states. Finally, a rotating beam mounted above the tape can flip the switch in both directions.

Alan Turing's original model has an infinite tape, but LEGO had a slight problem supplying infinite bricks. So we chose to fix our tape size to 32 positions.

Via: legoturingmachine.org