erica / fringe-tv-show-code-breaking Goto Github PK

UPDATE 7 April 2009: 

SOLVED!

See here: http://www.juliansanchez.com/2009/04/07/solution-to-the-fringe-glyph-cipher/


BREAKING THE FRINGE CODE
The producers and writers of Fringe have decided to invite viewers to interact with their program by challenging us to solve a secret code. Near most commercial breaks, they have been displaying a series of images that contain clues to this puzzle.

Producer Pinkner explains here: http://vimeo.com/3495685

This repository contains all the glyph-code data that has aired on the show to date. I'm writing up this puzzle for an Ars post that should go live just before the show returns in April. My write-up is about this puzzle as well as a number of other interactive elements hidden in the show.

So here's your chance to gain fleeting Internet notoriety by solving the code and revealing a clue central to the show's mythology. All the data and notes are set up so you can get started right away.

FILES
CryptHelper: Some notes on English language frequencies.
DecryptNotes: Treating the images as an English language cypher.
Digraphs: Common English letter pairs
Distribution: Frequency count of unique image/yellow dot pairs
FileList: The image files in the Glyphs folder
NumberedLetters: The base letter set numbered i order
NumberedList: The images numbered in order
PicList: The list of pictures, with orientation and dot information
ReflectNormed: The list of pictures normalized for reflection
SearchingForSpaces: Attempts to find word dividers



NOTES ON THE NAMING PATTERN
* Images are listed by episode and order within the episode.
* The ABCDEF notes refer roughly to the yellow dot location with respect to the image, namely:
   AD
   BE
   CF
* All dot locations are rough estimates.
* The R/L notation refers to the fact that images may appear flipped. The naming for R/L is arbitrary, based on any prominent feature like the frog's foot or the daisy's wing.

FAILED APPROACHES
* Treating the six yellow dot locations as the source for Braille with one character defined per episode. Tried doing dot inverses and mirroring as well
* Morse
* Grouping the dots by image. 

HINTS
http://twitter.com/jrorci/status/1297163414: "You any good at frequency analysis"

CREDIT
Glyph Images were captured by participants at fringe-forums.com