Noise Test

Taras — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 22:41:27 +0000

While attempting to build a sample video wall for my Flash video test drive, for loading all the video previews in a 9×9 grid I wanted to simulate that good old “no signal” image and noise you get from a tube.

Here is a sample:

Click on the image and mouse over the noise animation to hear that “no signal” sound effect. You can also View Source and download the tiny bit of code that generates this effect.

As I am sure you already know it’s generated with BitmapData.noise() function.

A while back I came across Keith Peters’s NoiseExplorer that was really handy to pick the color channel settings and other parameters of the bitmapData.noise() function to get that no signal image. The only part that nagged me was to click on the Render button every time I changed noise function parameters.

This sparked my interest in bitmapdata api and prompted me to explore Flex HSlider UI control capabilities, timers and sound effects. Before I knew it, I got too carried away and created an Interactive BitmapData Noise Explorer of my own to test those Flex features and find some use for Doug’s ResizableWrapper container at the time.

Here is my Interactive BitmapData Noise Explorer:

It provides informative tooltips for all the toggles. So, click on the image to pay with it. You can also view or download the source code.

What can you do with this?

I don’t think there are many practical applications of bitmapdata.noise() function. Video preloads and maybe some image transitions with alpha channel turned on is probably all you’d use this function for.

BitmapData.perlinNoise() on another hand is a powerful tool to generate natural textures and environments and will be the topic of my next blog post.

P.S.: unfortunately, I don’t recall where I got that nosingnal.mp3 anymore.

Random Fractals» no signal

Noise Test

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