BIT STRING DECODING (of interstellar messages)
originally written for Dave Theison's course "The Science in Science Fiction" (HONR259M)
at the University of MD, College Park
by Erik Dickelman
To ENCODE a message:
open the Encoding application by clicking the button to the left
chose the dimensions of your graph
use your mouse to draw in the area provided
click the "Show String" button when you are finished
optionally, click the "Submit String", to send us your example!
To DECODE a message:
open the Decoding application by clicking the button to the left.
enter a bit string (ones and zeros) in the text area provided (do not hit SPACE or ENTER)
to decode click one of the Decode buttons:
"Decode IMAGE" - this option will generate downloadable images of your message
"Decode JAVA" - this option will decode in a Java Applet
"Decode TEXT" - this option will decode with plain text
the results will be graphs of the bit string in every possible set of dimesions,
so just look at the possibilities for any recognizable patterns!
optionally, click "Submit String", to send us your example!
Note: The Java applications are designed to work with Internet Explorer. Other browsers including Opera, as of version 5, do not support the type of scripting required.