Embedded Files
We can appreciate the sheer scale of data contained in image files by using PixelSpreadsheet, an awesome utility. One of the powerful ideas in media computation is data abstraction: that visible manipulations of pictures are made by changing low-level, almost unseen objects - pixels. Pixel Spreadsheet allows you to load images, extract the pixel data and save it to a spreadsheet. From here, you can apply simple formula to manipulate the values. Setting one colour's values to 0 will tint the picture, for example. Subtracting each value from 255 creates a negative image and averaging the 3 colours will render greyscale. Once reloaded, the new values can be rendered as a new image and compared with the original.
Using this utility, you will immediately see how simple Photoshop effects can be achieved.
Challenges to test our ability to express data manipulations as formulae within a spreadsheet
Try rotating or flipping an image
How file compression works - How Stuff works
Article: Everything you need to know about image compression
Incredible interactive images
London, from above: Record-breaking 320-gigapixel interactive picture of the capital that lets you zoom in on streets and buildings 20 MILES away - Daily Mail 21 Feb 2013
Four billion pixel image of Mount Everest - Daily Mail 19 Dec 2012
Fly through Manhattan from your sofa - Daily Mail 10 Jan 2013
Photo or Computer Generated?
Think you have a good eye? Can you tell the difference between a real photo and a computer generated object? Try the Fake or Photo Quiz
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