This week we were told to bring in broken electronics and I chose an old bike computer to sacrifice. It was both old and obsolete. First I took apart the casing revealing an LCD screen and two silver contacts/buttons. The circuit board consisted of lots of little resistors,a capacitor, the silver cylinder of mystery and contacts that connected to the LCD screen. Out of all these pieces the LCD screen had the most potential for repurposing.

The LCD screen consists of two pieces of glass with the liquid crystals sandwiched in between.  when voltage is applied, the crystals are activated in such a way that they go dark/opaque.  Somehow, they are controlled in such a way that specific numbers/letters or pictures are consistently created when the appropriate voltage is applied in the appropriate spot.  THe LCD screen even reacted to the static on people's hands, but did not maintain its activated state for very long. 

I hooked up the LCD screen as the output of a google board and had it be activated by a sound sensor.  With a loud clap (or shout), seemingly random numbers would flash on the screen.  I decided that the parts of the bike computer has been turned into a cryptic version of a Magic Eight Ball. If you ask it a question and then clap, the answer to you question will appear.  It is not the fault of the divining device if the user cannot correctly interpret its message.  For example, 42 flashed on the screen briefly. It is unfortunate that I do not know which question was asked.