LED Box running Conway's 'Game of Life'

This is my LED project which I thought I'd try running Conway's 'Game of Life' on.

It's a game which uses a set of simple rules to create complex patterns. Each LED represents a cell which can be living (on) or dead (off). Every cell interacts with its surrounding eight neighbours as follows: 1. Any live cell with fewer than two live neighbours dies, as if caused by underpopulation.
2. Any live cell with more than three live neighbours dies, as if by overcrowding.
3. Any live cell with two or three live neighbours lives on to the next generation.
4. Any dead cell with exactly three live neighbours becomes a live cell.

My version picks a random speed and LED colour. It also restarts after a set time, as often the game will reach an equilibrium and the patterns stop. I guess I should really be cleverer about this and detect when the patterns stop and then introduce new cells.

In the multi colour version the cells change colour depending on how old they are - red being the youngest and white being are the oldest. There are actually 7 colours but it's hard to see them all in the video.

The box itself uses 4 LED Matrices from Sparkfun driven by an Arduino.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• Conways
• Life
• LED
• leds
• Sparkfun
• lights
• code
• cell
• Arduino
• Make
• maker
• programming
• diode
• rgb
• simulation

[VengeMusic]

Awesome! where did you get those parts?

[mrnick1234567]

@VengeMusic Sparkfun Electronics.

[mrnick1234567]

It was for another sketch where I had the box running tweets and getting time / temperature from the net

[iPodiNsanity]

How does it choose the starting formation? Is it randomly generated or is there logic to the randomization of the starting configuration? Very nice by the way.

[mrnick1234567]

@iPodiNsanity it's just a bunch of random pixels to start with. If you turn enough on a pattern will evolve from them.

[dennismoore56]

super fast compared to the last vid i saw of this. it was on minecraft :P

[domokun92]

This is ridiculously awesome, I want one! It would be super-sweet to have some sort of start/stop switch and made every light a button that would turn that light either on or off.

I know how hard this would be but I can dream…

[keosambath]

is it hard to do?? pls give a tutorial :))

I want to say I LOVE YOU to the right woman I meet

[mrnick1234567]

@Peanutz75 yeah exactly that

[Peanutz75]

@mrnick1234567 Do you have colors fitting the number of generations a given cell survived ?

[harmfullMachinima]

dear santa.....

[chrisderwicht]

@iPodiNsanity

It's the "Game of Life", as the title says.

"This game became widely known when it was mentioned in an article published by Scientific American in 1970. It consists of a collection of cells which, based on a few mathematical rules, can live, die or multiply. Depending on the initial conditions, the cells form various patterns throughout the course of the game."

[pinholh]

2:34 lol

[drEmue]

wooow, beautyfull, you are a genious!!