My friend and I tried to use this method while scuba diving to communicate how much air we had left. It seems perfect- 1 quick flash of 5 fingers can display any number between 0 and 31, which in this system would be 0 to 3100 PSI.
(Scuba air in the US is measured in PSI and scuba tanks cap out at 4500 PSI, and since you never care about accurately communicating your air level unless its down past 50% or so, the upper limit of 3100 is sufficient)
Unfortunately, since thinking in binary doesn't come naturally to us, we would have to convert the binary into decimal in our head, which is difficult, error prone, and ultimately more work than just using one of the tried and true methods for communicating how much air you have left. We went back to the normal way after a few dives.
What kind of tanks were you diving with at 4500psi? I worked for a scuba shop for a couple years and we never did even a hot fill past 3400 on an aluminum tank, never mind steel tanks.
(Scuba air in the US is measured in PSI and scuba tanks cap out at 4500 PSI, and since you never care about accurately communicating your air level unless its down past 50% or so, the upper limit of 3100 is sufficient)
Unfortunately, since thinking in binary doesn't come naturally to us, we would have to convert the binary into decimal in our head, which is difficult, error prone, and ultimately more work than just using one of the tried and true methods for communicating how much air you have left. We went back to the normal way after a few dives.
I think with practice though it could work.