LightBox Online
Discovery Project made by FD98 Carl Ellingsen
How do screens work?
Well there is a basic explanation. Each pixel has three channels, a red, green, and blue one. Each channel controls a small LED or light that is positioned next to two others of different channels. By changing the brightness of each channel, millions of colors are made.
But is there actually millions?
Each channel is controlled by and 8-bit integer. The 8 bits are either a 0 or 1. The total number of colors on channel can produce is calculated as 2^8 (2*2*2*2*2*2*2*2) which equals 256. With each channel having 256 colors, and since they are independently controlled, the total number of colors is 256^3 = 16,777,216. So yes, there are millions of colors.
How to use this model
First, you need to select a pixel by choosing which column it sits in. Click the "Next" button at the bottom to go into column select mode. Then you click on the 8 red buttons to select which column # to use. Once you have a number, click "Next" to select the row. After that you choose the red, then green, then blue channels. If you want white, then make all three channels equal.
Converting to Binary
Binary is a numbering system that uses only 2 digits, instead of our common 10. The two digits are 0 or 1. Numbers are made by adding the value of each numbers position. The first to the left marks the 1's spot. If it is a "1" then the number is "1". Next is the 2's. If the binary number is 01, then there is a 2, but no 1, so the final number is 2. To make three, both the 1 and 2 spots must be 1's, which looks like 11. The next value over is the 4's spot. Then 8, then 16, 32, 64, 128. If the number is 11111111, all ones, then it is 128+64+32+16+8+4+2+1, or 255