A language for another kind of reader
Squiggle Reader.
Write in tangled pendulum trails. Let your camera find the words.
Pendulum XOR · principle demonstration
A six-arm pendulum supplies a changing trail mask for each symbol. Black and black cancel to white; black and white become black. The borders stay untouched: square boxes in letter mode, circles in legacy byte mode.
Both devices need the same alphabet, format and page label. Change the label to start another mask stream. Without a shared secret, this is a public demonstration. This prototype reuses a stream when the label is reused.
First symbol: original XOR pendulum mask = printed result
01 / Leave a message
One square box per uppercase letter or numeral. A small public strip carries the message check.
Show the page on a second screen or print it. Keep all four corner squares visible in the photograph.
What is inside a squiggle?
A recorded trail from a three- or four-arm pendulum. Character mode uses one squiggle per uppercase letter or numeral 0–9. UTF-8 byte mode uses two symbols per byte. Every new message includes a check that helps detect reading mistakes.
Your page
02 / Find the words
Point a camera at the unfamiliar.
Choose the matching Write / Read format above. Take a photo or choose a saved card image from Photos or Files. Include all four black corner squares. Keep the page upright and avoid strong glare.
Your photo stays on this device.
Tap the centers of the squares: top left, top right, bottom right, bottom left.
03 / Daily squiggle Cryptoquip
Two layers. One quip.
First, use the Bombe to recover the secret. Each letter occurrence has its own squiggle, so repeated letters are hidden. Solve the secret and place the symbols to uncover the letter substitution underneath.
Tap a symbol to guess its meaning. Spaces and punctuation are visible. Symbols may be rotated or mirrored; all eight orientations mean the same letter. You can solve by eye, or send a selected symbol to the search machine. On a phone, use Send to machine; dragging works too.
An alternate route
The squiggle search machine
Your symbol
Current six-arm trial
The machine runs at full speed.
Tap Test ding to check the sound. Run machine also plays a starting ding.
Load a puzzle symbol to begin.
The machine replays the daily sequence of six-arm trials and compares all eight rotations and reflections. Correlation measures ink similarity, not the probability of a correct clue. The machine dings at high correlation and keeps running. Stop it, then use Previous/Next to position it at 100%. Press Get secret letter to claim an exact match. Each position in the puzzle earns one letter, even when its symbol repeats. The position changes the trial order. Confirmed letters appear in anagram order; repeated scans of the same position earn nothing extra.
Your secret letters
Build the reader card
Drag a daily alphabet symbol onto a matching position in the original puzzle, or tap the symbol and then the position. If no alphabet symbol matches, choose Mark repetition and tap that position. Rotations and reflections count as matches. Resolve every position to enable the reader card.
Your unlocked alphabet reference
Compare two symbols
Drag an alphabet symbol into the left box and a puzzle symbol into the right box. On a phone, tap an alphabet symbol, then tap a puzzle position. Flip or rotate the right symbol to check the alignment.
Daily alphabet
Original puzzle
Your working
Choose Play to generate the daily alphabet.
Clues and the previous answer
These cards are written for your phone reader. Save a card and choose it in Read, or photograph it on a second screen or printout. Include all four corner squares.
In Read, choose One character · square boxes. Generate a shared alphabet with secret Hewmorist (capital H) and leave the shared label blank.
The previous answer will appear after the next daily puzzle is published.
Generating the default alphabet…