Lenna, the Utah Teapot, and...? October 17, 2012 12:32 PMSubscribe
There is Lenna, the go-to image for testing image processing software, and there is the Utah Pot, the standard with which to test 3D modeling approaches. Now Michal Migurski proposes that Oakland's Lake Merritt may be a GIS instance of a "Lenna".
What other Lennae are out there, in other fields? Standard test instances in other domains? posted by sandettie light vessel automatic to grab bag (27 answers total) 21 users marked this as a favorite
The original version of Tom's Diner by Suzanne Vega is the Lenna for MP3s. posted by Jairus at 12:34 PM on October 17, 2012 [2 favorites]
In programming, it's mostly Hello World and FizzBuzz (BizzBuzz) to demonstrate basic syntax. posted by specialagentwebb at 12:41 PM on October 17, 2012 [2 favorites]
Color Bars for video would apply, I think. Possibly Von Karajen's recording of Beethoven's 9th for CD's? (though that has to do only with disc space/recording length.) posted by ShutterBun at 12:42 PM on October 17, 2012
At the bottom of the Lenna page on Wikipedia (I often don't scroll all the way down into the references, etc, so you may have missed this) there's actually a really good category collection of "standard test items," including test cards for television, GTUBE, SMPTE color bars, "Tom's Diner," Quick Fox and other pangrams for typefaces, and so on. posted by finnb at 12:51 PM on October 17, 2012 [3 favorites]
Maybe this is a bit too tenuous an example, by I overheard someone yesterday explaining that everyone who goes on a blacksmithing course makes a poker, because it's about the simplest object that can be made using all of the basic techniques. posted by pipeski at 12:57 PM on October 17, 2012
Actually, something not mentioned in the Wikipedia collection is the enormous set of standard test items maintained by the National Institute of Standards and Technology, as the Standard Reference Materials -- the benchmarks used to measure physical objects for regulation purposes, everything from the ignition temperature of cigarettes to the consistency of baby food and the thermal transmission properties of fibrous glass board. (And standard cartridge casings with which forensic scientists can calibrate their cartridge analysis equipment!) There's a great interview about the SRM family of more than 1200 products here. You can order them, too, should you want some standard, benchmarking calibration peanut butter around the house. posted by finnb at 1:01 PM on October 17, 2012 [6 favorites]
The Stanford Bunny! It's a mesh you often see in 3d printing, graphics, and haptics demos. Here's a bunch of them, including what looks to be a photo of the original ceramic figurine that was scanned to make the mesh. posted by ulotrichous at 1:04 PM on October 17, 2012 [1 favorite]
The non-malicious test file for virus scanners is a very short, entirely printable characters program. http://www.eicar.org/86-0-Intended-use.html posted by cschneid at 2:25 PM on October 17, 2012
Chemists used to use Perrier as a standard for pure water, to test their equipment that looked for impurities and pollution. In 1990, a lab in North Carolina found benzene in the stuff, and I believe that chemists no longer trust it. posted by Chocolate Pickle at 4:18 PM on October 17, 2012
It's not a testing standard, but somewhat related check out the Wihelm Scream. posted by 7segment at 4:56 PM on October 17, 2012
Very analog, but potters will use a 1/2 pound (.23 kg, for the rest of the world) of clay to throw a 6 inch (or better) cylinder as a test of skill. posted by 1f2frfbf at 4:59 PM on October 17, 2012
There's a "Laughing Buddha" model (on the left) that's used similar to the bunny, but I'm not sure of its official name or provenance. I've also seen a Chinese dragon model that seems to be popular with the SIGGRAPH set.
The Fifth Element is often used as a demo movie by A/V nerds to show off home theater setups. posted by qxntpqbbbqxl at 5:15 PM on October 17, 2012
SL_2 in representation theory posted by Mai2k3 at 5:32 PM on October 17, 2012
I work in visual effects and we use Macbeth Color Charts for color matching lookdev to plates and for creating HDR environments... posted by jnnla at 6:07 PM on October 17, 2012
This may vary from music genre to music genre, but nearly every live sound engineer I've worked with has used a Steely Dan track for EQing the front-of-house sound. But, really, any song or album you're so familiar with that you just KNOW how it's supposed to sound could work. posted by emelenjr at 7:57 PM on October 17, 2012
It would be so cool and appropriate if David Bowie's "China Girl" somehow became the de facto standard for audio testing. posted by ShutterBun at 1:01 AM on October 18, 2012
The sentence "The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog" is used by designers and typographers to preview fonts, as its a pangram—meaning it contains every letter of the alphabet.
Also, is there a word to define what it is sound engineers do when they're testing microphones for a concert? That thing where they go to each mic and say some variation of "hey, hey, one, two, hey, hey?" That seems to be a pretty universal thing for testing mics. posted by teriyaki_tornado at 6:00 AM on October 18, 2012
This question reminded me of some of the test images (usually of women) that come on the heads of reels of 35mm motion picture film, which led me to this awesome site which catalogs a bunch of them. posted by hamsterdam at 11:07 AM on October 18, 2012
Teriyaki, that's usually just referred to as a 'mic check'.
For things like two-way radios, they do a "five count" of "1,2,3,4,5" and are rated for signal strength and clarity ("five by five", etc.) posted by ShutterBun at 7:55 PM on October 18, 2012
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posted by Jairus at 12:34 PM on October 17, 2012 [2 favorites]