Fractal Dimension Bias And Analysis

Strobotorch supports a temporal fractal-dimension control for point-away signal patterns and audio-reactive command traces.

This feature is adapted from the local Dynamic Oscillatory Pattern Entrainment work, but it is reduced to the one-dimensional torch-command domain:

• generator-side D: a deterministic Weierstrass-style signal biases timing, duty cycle, frequency selection, and brightness requests
• output-side analysis: a rolling command trace estimates Higuchi fractal dimension and power spectral slope beta

The estimate describes the requested command trace inside the app. It is not a measurement of optical LED output. Device firmware, Android scheduling, thermal policy, command-rate limiting, and torch hardware can all change the actual light emitted by the phone.

Controls

Static pulse mode exposes fractal bias only under the point-away diagnostic gate. This is intentional: timing bias can create locally faster transitions around the requested base rate, so it should not be treated as a direct-viewing safe mode.

Audio Reactive Mode exposes:

• target temporal fractal dimension, D = 1.0..2.0
• bias strength, 0..100%
• rolling analysis window, currently 64..512 samples in the UI
• live Higuchi D, PSD beta, sample count, and target error

Without the point-away acknowledgement, torch output remains unavailable and frequency mapping remains inside the direct-viewing cap.

Implementation Notes

The generator lives in core/fractal/FractalSignalGenerator.kt. It uses the same basic idea as the DOPE Fraktill work: higher target D values retain more high-octave structure, while lower values decay high octaves more aggressively.

The analyzer lives in core/fractal/FractalTraceAnalyzer.kt. It follows the DOPE split between authored generator values and measured/output-side traces: Strobotorch does not assume the target D was achieved. It keeps a rolling window of normalized requested torch levels and estimates the trace directly.

Audio-reactive mapping analyzes the mapped command trace even when torch output is off, so the user can inspect the planned signal before enabling the point-away torch gate.

Safety Boundary

Fractal bias does not make flashing light safe to stare at. It is a signal shaping and diagnostics feature for a flashlight pointed away from people. See Flashing Light Safety and Safety.