Document:Q10298

IPicons are unique visual avatars for every internet protocol address on the planet. The goal of the project is to give people a visual representation of their net presence that can be easily identifiable by themselves and others. Their appearance is a direct abstraction from the numeric values in their IP address. Each time someone visits the project, an icon is made and added to the collection.
Each segment of an IP address pertains to a certain property of its corresponding icon. Since each segments numeric value is between 0 and 255, it is an 8-bit byte. This is the same range of values used to describe color to a computer. The first segment is red, the second segment is green, and the third segment is blue. This establishes the color of the icon.
The fourth segment is the byte that determines the pattern for the given icon. Since the segment is an 8-bit number, it can be translated into its binary equivalent, which is a series of eight 0’s and 1’s. This pattern is used to draw lines of color vertically and horizontally, giving the icon its woven textile appearance. Since each 8x8 pixel image represents 4 bytes of information, it’s possible to create 4,294,967,296 unique icons; the same number of possible IP addresses.