Interface Code Font
Posted: Tue Mar 12, 2013 9:18 am
Text is for reading by humans.
QR codes are for reading by computers.
I wondered if it would be possible to have images that could be read by both humans and computers.
I am experimenting with trying to produce images that are in some ways similar to QR codes yet in many ways different from QR codes such that they could be read by both humans and computers.
I have produced a font to support this experimentation.
Here is the current version.
I have used the font at a 36 point size in the Microsoft Paint program so as to produce the following images. The corner structures are produced using [] for three of them and () for one of them. The horizontal clock pulses are produced using h and the vertical clock pulses using v. An unused cell is filled using a g, which produces a symbol similar to a Greek capital Gamma.
The experimental system started with the idea to encode a sequence of one or more Unicode characters. A Unicode character is indicated by a u followed by a sequence of 1 or more hexadecimal characters.
As each cell that carries data information is 3 cell units wide and 7 cell units tall, with each glyph all in one black piece and filling the width and the height of the cell and there always being a black cell unit in the top left corner of the cell, there were some problems in depicting characters uniquely. Thus the designs for hexadecimal B, using key b with the font, and hexadecimal D, using key d with the font are somewhat unusual. The glyph for B needed to be clearly distinguishable from the glyphs for 6 and 8. The glyph for D needed to have a black cell unit in the top left corner of the cell.
The examples shown have no error checking facilities. I am researching on that using a sequence starting by keying s. I want to have a system that is good yet easy for an end user to calculate when producing a design for an interface code using basic facilities.
Although intended originally as a way to input single characters or short sequences of characters, the system has facilities, started by keying n, for encoding values for base 10 numbers and complex numbers, quaternions and matrices of each of them.
I am experimenting with encoding a virtual world in the system as well.
At the moment of writing this article there is no decoder for a computer to read the interface codes.
William Overington
12 March 2013
QR codes are for reading by computers.
I wondered if it would be possible to have images that could be read by both humans and computers.
I am experimenting with trying to produce images that are in some ways similar to QR codes yet in many ways different from QR codes such that they could be read by both humans and computers.
I have produced a font to support this experimentation.
Here is the current version.
I have used the font at a 36 point size in the Microsoft Paint program so as to produce the following images. The corner structures are produced using [] for three of them and () for one of them. The horizontal clock pulses are produced using h and the vertical clock pulses using v. An unused cell is filled using a g, which produces a symbol similar to a Greek capital Gamma.
The experimental system started with the idea to encode a sequence of one or more Unicode characters. A Unicode character is indicated by a u followed by a sequence of 1 or more hexadecimal characters.
As each cell that carries data information is 3 cell units wide and 7 cell units tall, with each glyph all in one black piece and filling the width and the height of the cell and there always being a black cell unit in the top left corner of the cell, there were some problems in depicting characters uniquely. Thus the designs for hexadecimal B, using key b with the font, and hexadecimal D, using key d with the font are somewhat unusual. The glyph for B needed to be clearly distinguishable from the glyphs for 6 and 8. The glyph for D needed to have a black cell unit in the top left corner of the cell.
The examples shown have no error checking facilities. I am researching on that using a sequence starting by keying s. I want to have a system that is good yet easy for an end user to calculate when producing a design for an interface code using basic facilities.
Although intended originally as a way to input single characters or short sequences of characters, the system has facilities, started by keying n, for encoding values for base 10 numbers and complex numbers, quaternions and matrices of each of them.
I am experimenting with encoding a virtual world in the system as well.
At the moment of writing this article there is no decoder for a computer to read the interface codes.
William Overington
12 March 2013