Identicon
Encyclopedia
An Identicon is a visual representation of a hash value, usually of the IP address
IP address
An Internet Protocol address is a numerical label assigned to each device participating in a computer network that uses the Internet Protocol for communication. An IP address serves two principal functions: host or network interface identification and location addressing...

, serving to identify a user of a computer system; compare avatars
Avatar (computing)
In computing, an avatar is the graphical representation of the user or the user's alter ego or character. It may take either a three-dimensional form, as in games or virtual worlds, or a two-dimensional form as an icon in Internet forums and other online communities. It can also refer to a text...

. The original Identicon is a 9-block graphic, which has been extended to other graphic forms by third parties, some of whom have used MD5
MD5
The MD5 Message-Digest Algorithm is a widely used cryptographic hash function that produces a 128-bit hash value. Specified in RFC 1321, MD5 has been employed in a wide variety of security applications, and is also commonly used to check data integrity...

 instead of the IP address as the identifier. In summary, an Identicon is a privacy protecting derivative of each user's IP address built into a 9-block image and displayed next to the user's name. A visual representation is thought to be easier to compare than one which uses only numbers, and more importantly, it maintains the person's privacy. The Identicon graphic is relatively unique since it's based on the user's IP, but it is not possible to recover the IP by looking at the Identicon.

Invention

Don Park came up with the Identicon idea on January 18, 2007. Don says, "I originally came up with this idea to be used as an easy means of visually distinguishing multiple units of information, anything that can be reduced to bits. It's not just IPs but also people, places, and things. IMHO, too much of the web what we read are textual or numeric information which are not easy to distinguish at a glance when they are jumbled up together. So I think adding visual identifiers will make the user experience much more enjoyable."

Releases

The original Identicon source package 0.1 was server-side Java
Java (programming language)
Java is a programming language originally developed by James Gosling at Sun Microsystems and released in 1995 as a core component of Sun Microsystems' Java platform. The language derives much of its syntax from C and C++ but has a simpler object model and fewer low-level facilities...

. Version 0.2 was cleaned up, added some documentation, fixed a color bug, added a cache, and a runtime jar. Version 0.3 included client-side Canvas tags. The current version is 0.5.

Other similar applications have been created. The Vash is a visual hash generator dual-licensed with Affero and proprietary licenses.

Applications

  • One use is embedding them in wiki pages and blog
    Blog
    A blog is a type of website or part of a website supposed to be updated with new content from time to time. Blogs are usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in...

    comments to identify authors. The thought includes protecting an author from someone else using his name to comment. It would be obvious because, in those cases where the ISPs provide unique instead of dynamic IPs, the IP addresses would generate different Identicons.
  • Third-party software is available to generate identicons for the purposes of identifying eBay sellers.
  • The original Identicon idea has been expanded to include a couple of new, simple yet very effective, anti-phishing protection schemes. One of them requires client-side support; Park is interested in talking to browser vendors regarding its incorporation. He calls this expansion "Gemini."

External links

The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
x
OK