Computing with Liquid Crystal Fingers: Models of geometric and logical computation

TL;DR

This paper explores how cholesteric liquid crystal fingers can be used for geometric, logical, and arithmetic computations through simulation, demonstrating their potential for collision-based computing and geometric problem solving.

Contribution

It introduces models of liquid crystal fingers for computation, showing how they can solve geometric problems and implement logical circuits like a half-adder.

Findings

Fingers approximate Voronoi diagrams

Non-branching fingers create convex subdivisions

Collision-based half-adder demonstrated in simulation

Abstract

When a voltage is applied across a thin layer of cholesteric liquid crystal, fingers of cholesteric alignment can form and propagate in the layer. In computer simulation, based on experimental laboratory results, we demonstrate that these cholesteric fingers can solve selected problems of computational geometry, logic and arithmetics. We show that branching fingers approximate a planar Voronoi diagram, and non-branching fingers produce a convex subdivision of concave polygons. We also provide a detailed blue-print and simulation of a one-bit half-adder functioning on the principles of collision-based computing, where the implementation is via collision of liquid crystal fingers with obstacles and other fingers.