Hue Stretch Algorithm

An algorithm we use in our music player to adapt the colors of the visualizer to the thumbnails of the currently playing songs.

_{Thumbnail is taken from nu11 - FamiTracker Works album. Artwork by Yomieda.}

This algorithm was developed on a Live Programming Session for Sowon2 - a custom music player we use to play cool tracks during the breaks. The player originally had a visualizer that was colored in all hues of the color spectrum like a rainbow:

We decided to make it adapt to the colors of the thumbnals:

The algorithm analyses the most frequent hues of the thumbnail and stretches them on the color spectrum proportinally to their frequencies. The resulting color sequence is then smoothed out with Gaussian Blur to create a nice gradient. For all the technical details see ./hue_stretch.c.

Quick Start

Tested only on Linux so far.

$ make
$ ./hue_stretch

Gallery

Here is a gallery of how this algorithm works on a bunch of songs we have in our playlist.

_{Song: H-Mister - Catalyst}

---

_{Song: H-Mister - Moving Forward}

---

_{Song: H-Mister - Ready Set Action! 2021 Edition}

---

_{Song: H-Mister - Steadfast}

---

_{Song: ko0x - Essential Facts of Life}

---

_{Song: nu11 - Break & Enter}

---

_{Song: nu11 - Face Your Destiny}

---

_{Song: nu11 - Melt My Heart}

---

_{Song: nu11 - Strike Forward}