Puzzle #4 - Color Code

Also here is the image, split into separate color channels and even/odd scanlines, and made into greyscale. It's a monochrome GIF, so the numbers are the exact same as in the source image; you can use it as a reference -- unless I screwed something up! I've also zoomed it 2x (without filtering!) to make it easier to see.

post by Ian McLean

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the remapped colors you put up look almost like a dna strand. perhaps it's someting about dna?

reply to post by BannedForLife

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Maybe! 47 something, that's for sure!

Here's something interesting I just noticed: the speckled-dot pattern, which I'm guessing (technically) is due to diffusion-dithering color reduction, only appears on the even scanlines!

I'm guessing the 'money' data is on the odd scanlines, and the gradients on the even scanlines are just inexact distraction. To see some really interesting things, try swapping out the color map on that grayscale image I just posted -- certain vertical bars are 'highlighted', almost!

did some decrypting got random words like already fourth and space

www.abovetopsecret.com...

www.abovetopsecret.com...

reply to post by Ian McLean

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its interesting how the resolution is so high for simple picture... hmmmm

Question. This is the first one I even tried to figure out so you guys will know better than me. But would it really be that complicated? Tricky and difficult, sure, but not everyone is going to have access to all the necessary tools to manipulate the image in order to find the code. That is, if they even knew how to use the features of the programs if they owned them.

Color codes I can see being used but such extreme image manipulation doesn't make a lot of sense as most members won't have the programs and even less would know how to use them.

It's complicated surely but would it be as complicated as we are making it out to be?

[edit on 8/9/2008 by AshleyD]

reply to post by AshleyD

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Good point. Probably not. I have a feeling that the steps to get the answer will be as simple as something like: open the image in paint, sample the colors at points x,y = {some pattern}, add 23, look the numbers up in the 'character map' program to make letters.

But getting to those instructions, and finding what the possible patterns might be... eeyyghhh...

Hint to everyone: mangling the image all around in attempt to see patterns is fine, but here's my rule of thumb: don't add or remove data. For example, don't scale the image down, apply a sharpen filter 10 times, and then expect to see significant results...

Maybe it could just be a bar code in Pink, like a UPC, and the horizontal marks are just to indicate the start and stop codes ? Anyone have a bar code reader ? It's sort of like asking "why paint the tower red" and "why paint the tower" ? The correct answer would be to prevent rust, but as soon as color comes in people tend to thing there are other reasons. The color could just be a wild goose.

Does the 2-D matrix below have anything to do with it ? Like maybe a key ?

I was playing around in paint and I did some things with the bucket tool and converting the image with black and white. This is what I got. I don't know if it means anything or if I just did something stupid in paint. (I don't really remember what all I did).

It looks like 3 symbols followed by a square.

i523.photobucket.com...

Edit: I also thought it looked originally like a spectrum reading and that maybe we had to adjust for a doppler shift, and I noticed the bar code thing, but I think both of those may be coincidence.

[edit on 9-8-2008 by realpsych22]

this is what I got in a crypt solver

ESTULDAHH RXCJFI FOURTH ALREADY SUJZXPLLS SPACE

from

RJEGQIAHH FVBKNW NOGFEH AQFRAIC JGKDVLQQJ JLABR



hey is this anything

8uhnbsgt62bs???

[edit on 9-8-2008 by ragster]

The "fourth already" thing is interesting because that's what I'm thinking. This is the first puzzle I've seen since the game started, but it's labeled as puzzle four. Did I miss something because I started late today?

As far as the number 47 goes, it's the 15th prime number, and if you take only the prime numbers in the sequence you get green values of:

66 61 6D 5D 62 5E 00 6B 64 5D 5F 72 66 66 6E

Turning this directly into ASCII didn't do much good, as some of those are symbols instead of letters, so I just converted it to a cryptogram, where you get:

ABCDEF GHDIJAAK (assuming 00 is a space)

Using a cryptogram-solver, there are at least some legible answers, but nothing that really seemed to scream "answer."

One possible solution is "LIVRES FORMALLY," and a search for livres leads to this

Another possible solution to the cryptogram is "LODGER SIGNALLY," which sort of made me think of Masons, with their lodges and symbols and such. But it's not enough information with just those 2 words to find anything.

I don't know if I'm on the right track at all, but at least it's some legible answers for a change as opposed to all the gobbleydygook I was getting when I tried to sort this thing out earlier.

i got

LISBON UMBRELLA

i was able to track down a black umbrella project

has to do with JFK's murder

www.abovetopsecret.com...




just for more randoms
I wonder if this is a barcode ha




it might be possible some letters or whatnot is not used, meant to mess us up in decoding it

[edit on 9-8-2008 by ragster]

For those who don't have a graphics program or the know-how to see the different green values, here's the image converted to just the green channel with the hex values written on each bar. Also, I put a dot on each prime number for good measure. Don't know if this helps anybody, but I'm not making much progress here, so I'll pass on what I've got...




I only staggered them so they're easier to read.

Here is a Hex to ASCII converter, and here is a list of ASCII characters with decimal/hex/oct/binary equivalents.

?

Damn it, I was hoping to sneak off and get some sleep, come back and someone will have solved that monstrosity of an image that seeks to burn out our eyeballs.

Oh well, coffee in hand, I sit down to another day of brain-pain.

reply to post by Ian McLean

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I think this puzzle is a mix of ciphers, the colors, poo, i doubt its anything at all with shifting colors, ceaser ciphers are out there, it must be a mix of these ciphers, like multi layered cipher

reply to post by Ian McLean

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Where is that quote from? Here's some information about a Caesar Shift Cypher: www.trincoll.edu...

Edit to add: Earlier, somebody suggested subtracting the green value from the red/blue and then doing something with that to get a letter. I tried that, converting the numbers to the letter of the alphabet, but one of the numbers was 29, for which there is no letter. With this Caesar cipher thing, however, where you shift it by 3, this could work, since 29 would become 26... I'm going to work it out and see what I find.

[edit on 9-8-2008 by Wintermute]

Here: www.abovetopsecret.com...

could we rotate this picture upside around backwards or whatever and get a new set of numbers and such?

maybe the rotation of this glyph will help us find meaning....