—Have you ever wondered how computers can make graphics or even regular numbers when they only "think in ones and zeroes?" —This project aims to bridge that gap a little; to show how binary numbers can be abstracted into more complex ideas. —Toggle individual bits to see what they represent as a decimal number, RGB colors, or ASCII formatted characters. 8 bits = 1 byte Each byte stores 256 different values for each color channel. With these three bytes, we can create 256 * 256 * 256 (16,777,216) unique colors! ASCII only needs 7 bits for its 128 unique values.
I wanted a hands-on "mechanical computer" feel with mechanical transistors (the buttons with green lights) for the user to interact with the bits. ASCII mode has a bit of a bug. If you turned on any of the Red or Green bits, the ASCII mode will be blank. It's probably an easy fix, but I don't want to right now. :-)
