cVert MIDI Generates True Random Numbers with a Geiger Counter

There are lots of reasons why you may want to generate a true random number, but doing so digitally is difficult. You can use all of the fancy algorithms you want, but if the seed isn’t random then the result is still deterministic, meaning it’s ultimately predictable and isn’t actually random. The solution is usually to take a reading from a sensor that fluctuates, but that still only seems random. Danny Walker’s cVert device, however, generates true random numbers with the help of a Geiger counter.

Walker designed the cVert as a MIDI controller for creating generative electronic music. The idea is that the device plays a musical note every time a radioactive decay is detected in ambient background radiation. We can philosophize all day about whether even that is truly random — or if the concept of “random” is even possible — but using a Geiger counter is one of the best known methods for generating what appear to be random numbers. It’s a technique often used in cryptography, and which Walker has adapted for artistic purposes.

The cVert is built on an Arduino Pro Micro, which connects to a computer as a generic USB MIDI device. It has a built-in LCD screen for displaying information, and a dial and button for setting the scale and other functions. The Geiger counter module is a cheap model that Walker got from a Chinese marketplace site. It’s not particularly high-quality, but does the job here. That’s all packaged up in an enclosure made from a combination of 3D-printed and laser-cut parts. The result is a MIDI controller perfect for generative music made from true random numbers.