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I wrote a telephone number on my hand. A few hours
later the
blurred number gave me some puzzlement. Luckily, I
deduced
the correct digits.
What about 10 very different symbols so that if there is
any
loss or blur, the numbers are still distinguishable. I
thought
the symbols might
be along the lines of play station
symbols
or Zenner symbols.
The symbols would have to be simple for quick
conversion and as individual as possible.
Baked? , useful ?
Zener cards
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zener_cards Designed by perceptual psychologist Karl Zener for use in parapsychological experiments. [jutta, Sep 28 2009]
PlayStation symbols
http://japanesetran...laystation-symbols/ Well, almost - this article is about a set of japanese symbols frequently used to mark things on a scale. The PlayStation has a square instead of a double circle. [jutta, Sep 28 2009]
Zener diode
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zener_diode Completely unrelated, but the word zener gets so little play [normzone, Sep 28 2009]
Margaret Calvert
https://en.wikipedi...ki/Margaret_Calvert Design of road signs [Frankx, Oct 04 2019]
Motorway typeface
https://en.wikipedi...Motorway_(typeface) Designed for readability [Frankx, Oct 04 2019]
DIN 1451 typeface
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DIN_1451 Another typeface designed for readability [Frankx, Oct 04 2019]
Unreliable Numbers
https://royalsociet...1098/rsif.2015.0685 Unreliable numbers: error and harm induced by bad design can be reduced by better design [Frankx, Oct 09 2019]
[link]
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Impractical solution: Prick your hand with needles to cause
welts in the shape of Morse Code. |
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If you had a phone on you, you could enter the number into
contacts instead of using a color-based code to write it on
your hand. |
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coloured pens is a stretch, who carries a multi-
barreled pen. Morse would be a pain if the frame
got smudged. |
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I was thinking that an algorithm could compute
the difference between the simple symbols to
measure their individuality. The more individual,
the more likely a blur won't make them similar. Of
course there will be a level of error that won't help
you no matter how individual the characters are. |
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Actually, the characters above the numbers on the
qwerty keyboard might work well. If 9 was (, zero
could not be ). Too similar. |
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Sorry, on 'my' keyboard 1=!, 2=@, 3=#, 4=$, 5=%, 6=^,
7=&, 8=*, 9=(, 0=) |
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[bigsleep] I thought "wouldn't it be nice" ideas usually
are not practical or not doable. This symbol coding
might not catch on, but then it is amazing what does
become popular. Text word coding for example. |
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This would probably have limited application. I could
have used it for that phone number so not a
WIBNITWSB |
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with a bit of practice you could use the abc def ghj etc to write words |
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I thought black was just the darkest shade of any possible colour, and so, strictly speaking, is not one in it's own right [UnaBubba]? |
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If this could be adjusted so there is no chance of confusing numbers due to different writers even when scribbled or written quickly, not just blurring, this would be a good thing. I once worked on a set of financial books where the prior treasurer wrote their 8s almost exactly how I wrote my 9s. 4 and 8, 7 and 1, and 5 and 6 are also easily confused under different hands. |
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Perhaps a mark could be put on each finger: left-most finger (thumb, palms up) means 1 and count up to the right. Some idea is needed to record the correct order... |
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All colours are shades. Black just happens to be one
of the two extreme shades. |
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[Ling] Maybe crossing toes could be used to indicate
order. |
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[UnaBubba] 6,7,9 are a bit close with the cross at the
top. Zero is just to complicated. |
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How about you convert the phone number to binary (or,
more practically, BCD), and then write it on your skin using
short lines with their angles 90° apart (either horizontal and
vertical lines, or forward slashes and backslashes) to
represent 1 and 0. Or just write ones and zerosthose
already look different enough. |
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The idea is nice [+]. There are people who study
human readability and this kind of thing- famously
Margaret Calvert, [link] British road-sign designer,
and fonts for road and motorway signage. |
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This leads on to the beautiful and interesting field
of Information Design - and also human error
analysis. |
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Is that human {error analysis} or {human error} analysis ? |
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Well, probably human [human error] analysis. |
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Will there be {human errors} in the analysis (performed by humans) of the {human errors} ? |
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I don't know without doing some analysis. Let's see... |
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The result of my human {human{human error}error
analysis}error analysis is Yes, there will be errors. Unless I'm
wrong |
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Fascinating paper about poor design and human error in handling numbers [link] - particularly in safety-critical applications. |
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On the WorldWide Web Consortium's A vocabulary and associated APIs for HTML and XHTML W3C Working Draft: |
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"This code is notable because it is presented by a leading organization with a worldwide impact, but what is presented as a computer program iswe arguein fact a list of vague English instructions, with misleading sophistication and pedantry" |
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To determine that, would require {human {human{human error}error analysis}error analysis} analysis. |
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It might be cheaper and easier to just guess, and hope that noone questions the results. |
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After all, that seems to be the most common approach ... |
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