#dollcode

[reversebias]

Barcodes and Signal Recovery

▌▌▖▌▖▘▌▖▖▖▌▖▘▖▖▖▌▘▘▖▖▖▌▖▖▖▘▖▖▌▖▖▘▌▌▌

Last week I ran across an interesting project that caught my attention called dollcode by a GitHub user by the name of v01dlabs.

Of it's own, it's an exceptionally straightforward project: encode numbers and strings using a ternary code based on some simple Unicode characters ▌▖▘. I've long had a fascination with the way barcodes are read and the signal processing that goes with it, so I dug in to the working logistics.

Unfortunately, as I fiddled with it and tried to understand how one might decode it, it became increasingly clear that there were some limitations to the coding being used. For example, the encoding for "x" is "▌▌▌▌‍" and the encoding for the number 120 is also "▌▌▌▌". Similarly, the encoding p is "▘▘▘▘‍", which, if you don't know how tall the barcode is, looks exactly the same as the encoding for "(" which is "▖▖▖▖‍".

So given the seed and some knowledge about signal recovery, I decided to set out to make my own variation of the dollcode signaling method.

In my design, which I ended up calling signalbar, I added several features to constrain the coding, and improve its recovery with flexible optical media (printed paper) as the primary consideration.

Rather than encode data directly, a 4-to-3 encoding would be used; 4 bits of information using 3 trits.

The minimum unit of transfer would be a nibble. This is convenient in the 4-to-3 encoding, but also means that sending data smaller than 4 bits would require the cooperation of a higher level protocol.

Each symbol would actually come from one of three symbol tables based on the last bit of the previous symbol. This would allow for error detection and make use of the unused codes.

Two ▌ trits in a row would never appear outside of control symbols. This would make detecting control signals very easy.

Framing symbols would be added that could be used to detect the beginning and end of transmission. These symbols would be the same in all three encoding tables to simplify implementation. The start symbol would begin with a ▌▌ and the stop symbol would end with ▌▌, ensuring that the edges of the frame would always be max height and even if read backwards would immediately trigger the ▌▌ control sequence detection.

Symbols would be chosen such that no arrangement of the symbols could possibly create an infinitely long run, and symbols would be chosen in a way to minimize the maximum run length. This would aid in both clock recovery and detecting the code height on paper that wasn't flat since you could guarantee that you would see symbols of different sizes in a known and short window.

There are several things I think might be useful, such as frame length encoding and check codes, but those logistics are being left to higher level protocols. This implementation is mostly about the encoder/decoder hardware; so anything beyond what that is beyond the scope of this project for now.

With that said, the signalbar repo itself ended up being a powerful opportunity to do some work with GitHub Actions (I had been using Gitlab CI/CD up till now, and Jenkins before that) so that was interesting, and with some more time, I may add some explicit tests to verify the function of the module. But even without tests, it was a great way to bring pylint and mypy to bear, and made refining the code very nice.

However, this was largely just an amusement since I hadn't done a lot of personal programming over the last few years thanks to work. I don't know if I'll go far enough with this project to truly finish it up. dollcode, and now signalbar, are interesting, but I wouldn't particularly regard either as especially useful; just a neat way of exercising the ol' braincells. Nevertheless, I recommend you go check it out; there are some useful ways to think about signaling that are trapped up in the specific implementation that this toy example should make fairly clear (such as how 8b10b encoding solves the self-clocking issue.)

With that said, I have stuff in the pipeline that is more useful, but that writeup will have to wait for a different day.

[x-neurotoxin-x]

I have to assign every song that references dolls to Dabi bc he's dollcore coded and if i don't I'll die. Do you have any idea how many doll songs are Dabi coded?

[lakesbian]

i'll make all the undersiders in a second but first look at him

[femmefaggot]

doll iz kinda fuckeddd

[marxism-songbirdism]

Cuteness aggression is so real. Sometimes you meet a girl who is so dollcoded and loves ranting about her special interests all adorably and you just want to pet her and kiss her and maybe kick her in the stomach until she's just a crying shaking wreck on the floor in front of you. Just a pathetic, shivering, vulnerable little thing who can't do anything to stop you even if she wanted.

Anyways.

Uhh hi cute weak girls

[charonsferry]

this is my Opinion and should not be held as gospel but combat dolls don't seem like they'd be tacticool operators or w/e to me. i think they'd be regular service troops, with colorful uniforms like soldiers before ww1 and probably fighting with similarly collective tactics

it seems so much more dollcoded to me. looking pretty, rigidly following orders, no individual self-preservation is of concern, dolls love to do things like that. the one problem is how would witches keep up with entire companies of dolls under their tenure

[terminal-doll-theatre]

Coming soon to any given toy or perhaps department store near you!

I was originally gonna do a set with multiple characters but I don't feel like it, so you just get the dollcoded one today

[catgirldiick]

Ayyyyy, fellow mainspring head. Honestly the best fic in the setting imo, but we're a little biased, having gone into it doll pilled.

Its very good!!! Basically my proper introductory fic to hdg and it uh. Rewired my brain chemistry fur sure even if im not too dollcoded mewsually. Id just look cute w a big windup key powering my efurry thought n action ymeow?

I havent read meowch other works yet cos im bad at sitting down n reading things, making my way thru dog of war still, slowly, that ones very good i dummeow if mewve heard of it...? :3c

[shafran-saffron]

I LOVE MY GIRLFRIEND SO MUCH ITS UNREAL she's so sweet and cute and so unbelievably pretty I literally cannot keep my hands off of her!!!! I want to always hold her and pat her head and tell her how good of a girl she is and how much I love her and kiss her and bite her grievously teehee(when she wants that) and hold her by the waist and run my hands along it (by the way she has such a perfect figure omg she's so small and fragile and lowkey dollcoded honestly) and and and-

I want her to always fall asleep in and always wake up in my arms, I want her to always read books or prepare for tests(she's a straight(ish) A student btw she's so smart omg) while her head is laying on my lap, I want to always hold her hand when she's walking outside(and I want to always help her put on her coat), I want to always bridal carry her to bed(she's very light btw) when she's feeling sleepy, I want to hold her tightly when she has to take her painful eyedrop medications, and hug her from behind when she seems stressed when answering a phone call or registering for something. I want to make her always feel safe and comfy and very very loved and for her to always know how pretty she is!! I want her to feel like a princess because she is one<З

[x-neurotoxin-x]

Mawhaha my collection of dollcore dabi songs grows stronger each day. You wish your blorbo was as dollcoded as my blorbo is.

[halotica]

its not adding pronouns to any of its bios or anything bc we like the mystique and interchangeability and the way people can project their desired id onto us. but starting now, its giving 100 points to anyone who refers to halo w the dollcoded it/its. just to put it out there ^_^

[primiera]

you, dollcoded: some esoteric shit

me, dollcoded: i love when you brush my hair

[lakesbian]

one thing about alec (dollcoded character) is that he is a really fun dress up doll (for full body fashion picrews)

[bigcatgirlcock]

im becoming dollcoded btw

[charonsferry]

crazy how whenever i type "ace combat" my phone autocomplete follows with "doll"

now there is certainly a way to connect this. i would totally argue ace combat protags are dollcoded. but i don't know how

[mamabedlamvt]

Need

Need more dollcoded operators in fiction