Ten years ago I wrote a graphics engine as a personal project, perhaps one of the first to want to access the Holy Grail of computer-generated imagery: real-time ray tracing.
To learn this extraordinary news that is the awarding of the Nobel Prize in Physics to Mr Alain Aspect sounded like a reminder. It's been a while that I wanted to integrate in one way or another a little quantum in my work, the opportunity to get started was too good.
Quantum coincidence or not, I work in Geneva and the company ID Quantique happens to have its premises in Carouge, a 30-minute walk from my home. This company designs, produces and markets a random number generator based on the quantum properties of photons, and my graphics engine is in dire need of random numbers.
Better, it is the quality of the randomness which determines the beauty of the final image. What could be better than asking the best experts, the photons themselves, to help me transport light correctly in this virtual world?
The complete source code of the graphics engine is online, and available to everyone but I am still waiting for the Quantum device provider to allow me to make the code public. In the meantime, run it, modify it and improve it. The beauty of science is endless, it's up to you to bring it to light! (As if light could play a role in this world 😉 )
https://github.com/favreau/Sol-R
If it is still impossible for me to visualize the quantum world, perhaps it is given me now to be able to contemplate the random it creates.
