Fleeting States + Measured Values

Fleeting States & Measured Values – the two worlds of quantum computing is a project that aims to explain concepts of quantum computing through a physical interactive installation.

Our approach to explaining quantum computing was a two-world concept which shows the invisible aspects of quantum computing as well as the visible. Science often operates on a level so small that it is inconceivable by the human eye. This project was aimed at explaining the science behind some of these invisible forces of the world which appear as the quantum concepts of superposition and entanglement. These concepts are explained through different forms of human interactions.

The separation of the worlds is analytical. On the one hand, we have values we can measure and probabilistic results in units. It is how we are trained/used to interact with phenomena. Superposition and entanglement on the other hand are neither accessible to our senses nor measurement. How can we sense these phenomena to explain what they mean was a key question we were thinking about during this project.

The project has two components – an interface and some LED mapped qubits. In the world of fleeting states, we show a set of qubits that react to interactions with the interface in the form of light and sound changes. On the interface users can operate gates to manipulate the qubits. The interface explains quantum concepts such as qubits, entanglement, superposition and rotation by the addition of gates on qubits. A qubit essentially being the basic unit of information in quantum computing. By the addition of gates we meddle with the state the qubit exists in.

While these changes are immediately observable as the changes in colours, intensity and movement of lights in the fleeting states or the visible world. In the hidden world, on the interface they can only be seen as statistical probability and only after measuring. When something is measured we get a classical probability of the values. Users can playfully gain insights on quantum principles, just by exploring the interface and interacting with this physical installation in real time.

To create this physical installation, there is a node.js server based communication established between the arduino components and the interface website. The interface is coded using HTML/ css and javascript. There are visual and sound changes on dragging and dropping different quantum gates on qubits.