Create a Robot Image from any text string • Hacker News Board

Re: Create a Robot Image from any text string

#71

Post by donpark » Fri, Jul 08, 2011, 7:47 PM UTC

donpark wrote: post #68

e1ven wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Identicons are a great idea, I really love them.. They're a good solution to a gut-check "Something is wrong here.." Sort of like a SSH-fingerprint. The problem I've had with them is that they're generate not all that memorable. Was that triangles pointing left, then up, or up then left? This is my attempt at addressing that problem for my own new project, but I'd love to see what you build! If you want to use these…

Re 'not all that memorable', that's because identicons were originally designed for 'distinguishing' and 'matching' data, not 'memorizing'. Abstract geometric identicons like my original implementation as well as variations used at Wordpress and StackOverflow are, while nearly impossible to remember, distinguishable in a pile which comes in handy when distinguishing the 'voice' of individuals in a long thread of comm…

[didn't find a reply link to your more recent comment so I'll reply here]

I think an interesting way to apply identicon to certs is to map each cert attributes to an 'attribute' of identicon, visualizing attributes.

Re: Create a Robot Image from any text string

#72

Post by e1ven » Fri, Jul 08, 2011, 7:57 PM UTC

Luc wrote: post #67

Very very nice. This has convinced me to use this technique for non-player characters in a game I am working on. I see you licensed the artwork from three artists. Did you have it especially drawn for you, or was it already released under some CC license?

I had it drawn for the project at 99designs.

Re: Create a Robot Image from any text string

#73

Post by e1ven » Fri, Jul 08, 2011, 7:59 PM UTC

rhdoenges wrote: post #63

I love some of the alt-text on the robots. Very polished.

That was my favorite part. There are a few fun bits scattered around the webpage.

Re: Create a Robot Image from any text string

#74

Post by tomatohs » Fri, Jul 08, 2011, 8:02 PM UTC

An easy way to flip the images left and right would be great. I love the first set of robots, but I wouldn't use them in my website as they'd be placed on the far left of the browser window, looking away from the page.

Re: Create a Robot Image from any text string

#75

Post by melvinmt » Fri, Jul 08, 2011, 8:04 PM UTC

e1ven wrote: post #54

carbocation wrote: post #52

If/when you debut the [robohash] watermark in the image, it would be great if you would also debut a paid plan without the watermark. Plus, paid plans give people confidence that your service will continue to exist.

I think it would be pretty silly to add a paid plan to a weekend project. ;) I'll only do that, with the watermark, if it goes over what my bottom-rung Linode+CDN can deliver.

It's not silly for people who are actually using this. I'd rather pay for the service than living with the uncertainty of getting a banner because you can't pay your CDN bills. That's really the only thing that prohibits me from using this service in anything useful anyway. It looks very nice so that clearly would be a waste.

Re: Create a Robot Image from any text string

#76

Post by aquark » Fri, Jul 08, 2011, 8:09 PM UTC

This is brilliant.

We have a stress testing tool that uses little images of various robots in its UI to represent different test patterns ... now I can automate them!

Re: Create a Robot Image from any text string

#77

Post by ayanb » Fri, Jul 08, 2011, 8:09 PM UTC

The Html source has a random robot as part of the author signature. This is neat!

Re: Create a Robot Image from any text string

#78

Post by melvinmt » Fri, Jul 08, 2011, 8:10 PM UTC

andrewcooke wrote: post #5

this is cute. if anyone is looking for a more abstract approach i threw some code together a year ago that generates colourful "mosaics" - http://www.acooke.org/hash-icons.html (i really need to improve the page and release the code...)

Wow, this looks indeed way better than identicons. I'll email you to enquire about the code.

Re: Create a Robot Image from any text string

#79

Post by rhdoenges » Fri, Jul 08, 2011, 8:13 PM UTC

e1ven wrote: post #73

rhdoenges wrote: post #63

I love some of the alt-text on the robots. Very polished.

That was my favorite part. There are a few fun bits scattered around the webpage.

also the robots in the source code!

Re: Create a Robot Image from any text string

#80

Post by JoshRu » Fri, Jul 08, 2011, 8:42 PM UTC

tomatohs wrote: post #74

An easy way to flip the images left and right would be great. I love the first set of robots, but I wouldn't use them in my website as they'd be placed on the far left of the browser window, looking away from the page.

you could always use css: http://css-tricks.com/snippets/css/flip-an-image/