
Show HN: LifeHash - beautiful hash visualization based on Conway’s Game of Life - wolfsir
http://github.com/wolfmcnally/LifeHash
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wolfsir
A method of hash visualization based on Conway’s Game of Life that creates
beautiful icons that are deterministic, yet distinct and unique given the
input data.

The basic concept is to take a SHA256 hash of the input data (which can be any
data including another hash) and then use the 256-bit digest as a 16x16 pixel
"seed" for running the cellular automata known as Conway’s Game of Life.

After the pattern becomes stable (or begins repeating) the resulting history
is used to compile a grayscale image of all the states from the first to last
generation. Using Game of Life provides visual structure to the resulting
image, even though it was seeded with entropy.

Some bits of the initial hash are then used to deterministically apply
symmetry and color to the icon to add beauty and quick recognizability.

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anotheryou
I love it!

Could one adapt it to smoothlife to get rid of the low-res look?
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJe9H6qS82I](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KJe9H6qS82I)

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wolfsir
Of course, another thing you could do would be to just use bicubic
interpolation when you display the hash.

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anotheryou
But that just makes it blurry, I like the crispiness.

I guess a good supersizing algo would be interesting.

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arainwater
Nice. Looks like, that it could be used for 2D game texture generation

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wolfsir
That would be an interesting experiment!

