# Anyone know how to use "identicons" with Ruby on Rails?

**URL:** <https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/anyone-know-how-to-use-identicons-with-ruby-on-rails/104643>\
**Category:** Rails\
**Created:** [May 21, 2007, 3:48am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/anyone-know-how-to-use-identicons-with-ruby-on-rails/104643 "2007-05-21T03:48:55Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 2\
**Page:** 1

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![jawgaping](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/ecccb3/32.png) [@jawgaping](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/jawgaping)\
**Post date:** [May 21, 2007, 3:48am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/anyone-know-how-to-use-identicons-with-ruby-on-rails/104643/1 "2007-05-21T03:48:55Z")

</div>

An “identicon” is a small 9-block image generated using hashed data,  
like that of an IP address to visually identify users quickly while  
still preserving user privacy.

[http://www.docuverse.com/blog/donpark/2007/01/18/visual-security-9-block-ip-identification](http://www.docuverse.com/blog/donpark/2007/01/18/visual-security-9-block-ip-identification)

There seems to be a couple of variations for PHP, Python etc… is  
there anything like this pre-packaged for Ruby on Rails? I have  
looked and been unable to find anything.

> **[Identicon](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Identicon)**
>
> An Identicon is a visual representation of a hash value, usually of an IP address, that serves to identify a user of a computer system as a form of avatar while protecting the user's privacy. The original Identicon was a 9-block graphic, and the representation has been extended to other graphic forms by third parties.
> Don Park came up with the Identicon idea on January 18, 2007. In his words:
> I originally came up with this idea to be used as an easy means of visually distinguishing multiple un...

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![jawgaping](https://www.ruby-forum.com/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/j/ecccb3/32.png) [@jawgaping](https://www.ruby-forum.com/u/jawgaping)\
**Post date:** [May 21, 2007, 4:04am UTC](https://www.ruby-forum.com/t/anyone-know-how-to-use-identicons-with-ruby-on-rails/104643/2 "2007-05-21T04:04:56Z")

</div>

On 5/20/07, jawgaping [removed\_email\_address@domain.invalid](mailto:removed_email_address@domain.invalid) wrote:

> [Identicon - Wikipedia](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Identicon)

There isn’t, but it’d make a neat plugin for interested folks.

–  
Rick O.  
[http://lighthouseapp.com](http://lighthouseapp.com)  
[http://weblog.techno-weenie.net](http://weblog.techno-weenie.net)  
[http://mephistoblog.com](http://mephistoblog.com)