Yes, a pseudo-random sequence that is (only) long 256 numbers is quite discernible to the eye as a pattern.
Our brains are VERY good at detecting patterns in things, especially in moving things (and sounds btw).
My UNTESTED suggestion to "disrupt" the regularity of the sequence.
So, let's get inspired by the coolest random number generator on the web:
HotBits: Genuine Random Numbers (Genuine random numbers, generated by radioactive decay)
The principle is that you get any physical measurement, and look only at the least significant part (the last digit, so to say) where you know our measures will have a lot of errors.
What? physical measurement? How can we do that in our camera?
Well, our camera can measure luminosity (Bv) so, take luminosity, throw away the "large numbers" keep only the "small numbers" and you MIGHT have something that looks quite random-like...
The disadvantage is that these numbers will be rather small (as we keep only the least siignificant part).
I would therefore compose the two methods: use the Bv-generated numbers for the "high part" of the random number, and use the lfsr for the low part of the number.
i.e., replace the middle part of the script above with the following UNTESTED code:
rem read luminance
get_bv96 b
rem keep only luminance modulo 3 (pseudo-randomly alternating between 0,1 and 2)
b = b % 3
rem use it to generate the high part (becomes 0, 256, and 512)
b = b * 256
rem get your usual random number (0 to 255)
gosub "lfsr8"
rem add them up (getting numbers in the range fro 0+0 to 512+255)
d = c + b
rem if needed, bring the number back in the 0-255 range
d=d/3
rem d has our (maybe more) random number
print d
Instead of 3 above, you could use other numbers. Better if odd, prime, small numbers like 3, 5 or 7
Otherwise, you could also have LSFR longer than 256-numbers. That would be maybe better, but WAAAY less cool :-)
Below a graph of a sequence of 300 pseduo-random numbers ranging from 0 to 6, generated from the Bv logs I had for my sunset-time-lapse script (
Timelapse with variable shutter speed )
Iin this case, I did Bv modulo 7 and it still seems rather random.
