alt Hacker NewsCompressing a Flag to 11 Bits
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Loved the title. I was like "that's 10 bits too many for a flag!" Haha
There are exactly 64 flags excluded for having custom glyphs/seals/symbols/icons, which is crying out for an “appendix” lookup table to complete the encoding. The positions look very regular too, you could probably fit the positioning in the remaining 2 bits of a u8.
This reminds me of a great series on YouTube called "Can You Draw Every Flag in Powerpoint?"[1] and the guy does his darnedest to do it precisely, and in the process you learn just how specific (and sometimes non-specific) flags are!
[1] Part 1: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w5QSVhgrqVE
A jack is a flag flown from a jackstaff, wot is found at the back of a ship or boat.
The UK flag is called the Union Flag (it's a flag and it is a union of various flags and possibly nations too!) but let's face it, given how many people think its called the Union Jack, it doesn't really matter.
If your flag pole at home is somewhat canted then I think you can call it a jackstaff, with a similar justification to the Royal Navy managing to designate their shore bases as ships. For example just up the road is HMS Heron (His Majesty's Ship: Heron).
The Union Flag/Jack is only the flag of the UK by convention and not law. It's a bit wooley, just like our Constitution but it still all works.
My point is that whilst I do enjoy this encoding scheme and it is jolly clever, reality is way more complicated. The UK's flag is pretty complicated but not alone. I'm pretty sure several flags have tassels, which I suppose strays into the coat of arms territory.
How hard do you want to squint!
If you're on Windows (where Microsoft famously chose they would not get involved with flags and show country codes instead), execute this in dev tools or save it as a javascript bookmarklet to make the emoji flags show up:
javascript:(function(){if(!document.getElementById('twemoji-styles')){const s=document.createElement('style');s.id='twemoji-styles';s.textContent='img.emoji{height:1em!important;width:1em!important;margin:0 .05em 0 .1em!important;vertical-align:-0.1em!important;display:inline!important;}';document.head.appendChild(s)}const r=()=>{const o={folder:'svg',ext:'.svg'};twemoji.parse(document.body,o);if(!window.__twemojiObserver){let t;const ob=new MutationObserver(()=>{clearTimeout(t);t=setTimeout(()=>{ob.disconnect();twemoji.parse(document.body,o);ob.observe(document.body,{childList:true,subtree:true});},300);});ob.observe(document.body,{childList:true,subtree:true});window.__twemojiObserver=ob;}};if(window.twemoji){r();}else{const sc=document.createElement('script');sc.src='https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/npm/@twemoji/api@latest/dist/twemoji.min.js';sc.crossOrigin='anonymous';sc.onload=r;document.head.appendChild(sc);}})();Surprised this didn’t mention heraldry, which has what’s basically a DSL for coats-of-arms:
Spoiler: after all this work only 128 flags were encoded to some degree, 67 left out. Dunno that I’d call an encoding scheme that can only represent 66% of its target set (and even so, with self admitted limitations) successful in any way.
Nobody? Okay then: "Fun with flags!". There, I said it.
Cool idea. The author's AI failed to encode flags for approximately 35% of the world's population. Approximately 3 billion people. At least that's why my AI tells me. India contributes a lot to this but I'm probably salty because my own country's simple (?) flag is also in the "unencodable" group. Lol.
I applaud the author holding aspect ratio as a priority to encode. It's jarring to see an otherwise "correct" and familiar flag stretched or squished into an incorrect shape when flown or shown.
Nice work! I wonder if you could (or did?) choose a more median shade for each color, especially blue? It seems, going by the comparison page, that most flags actually call for a less royal, more sky shade of blue, so you could use the median (on a linear RGB scale, or XYZ) shade instead as the designated representative for that color?
I noticed Rwanda seems to have the wrong aspect ratio, though you are able to encode that arbitrarily, no?
With all the attention on the link between compression and intelligence lately it is neat to have this example of how creating a encoding scheme naturally allows you to create new (likely) never before seen flags.
Cool idea. Interesting that Indonesia, Poland and Monaco with very similar two-stripe designs have different compression rates (11, 14 and 17 respectively). Probably the aspect ratio that also gets encoded.
Fun fact: Constitution of Nepal has chapter about format of The Flag and it reads as geometry textbook problem (starred one, for advanced students).
Cool project and results! https://vantezzen.github.io/miniflags/
This reminds me of the old joke[0]:
There are 10 kinds of people in the world.
Those who understand binary and those who don't.
> Some kind of custom rectangle happening in the top left
I believe that is a "canton": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canton_(flag)
> In vexillography, the canton is a rectangular emblem usually placed in the upper hoist of a flag, usually occupying up to a quarter of a flag's area. The canton of a flag may be a flag in its own right. For instance, British ensigns have the Union Jack as their canton, as do their derivatives such as the national flags of Australia and New Zealand.
They say it's in the "upper hoist" because it's not per se the top left - If the flag is flying and you're seeing it from behind, it may be the top right. Either way it is the side closer to the flag pole, or whatever it's flying from. When shown on a computer screen or in print, usually it is the top left. Some flag codes require flags to be mirrored on the right side of vehicles or uniforms so that it always appears to be flying from the vehicle or person as they move forward.
you couldn't dedicate one of those bit patterns to nepal?
fun stuff
In case anyone else was curious about using a lookup table: there are there are fewer than 256 recognized countries or territories [1], so 8 bits should be enough for a key.
This would be superior to the 11-bit encoding presented here because it handles complexities such as coats of arms. It would also handle bizarre situations such as two countries having almost identical flags [2].
[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_and_territor...
[2] https://www.worldatlas.com/articles/country-flags-that-resem...