I want to track the motion of device along 0-180 degrees from left to right (up and downwards also) and show it on the device screen like a graph. I am using device motion sensors to draw the line but unable to find which values I need to use for.
[self.motionManager startDeviceMotionUpdatesToQueue:[NSOperationQueue currentQueue] withHandler:^(CMDeviceMotion *motion, NSError *error) {
{
CGFloat rotationRateY = motion.rotationRate.y;
CGFloat rotationRateX = motion.rotationRate.x;
if (fabs(rotationRateY) >= 0.1f || fabs(rotationRateX) >= 0.1f)
{
CMAttitude *currentAttitude = self.motionManager.deviceMotion.attitude;
newXVal = (int)round(degrees(currentAttitude.roll));
newYVal = (int)round(degrees(currentAttitude.pitch));
newZVal = (int)round(degrees(currentAttitude.yaw));
// Degrees should always be positive
if(newZVal < 0)
{
newZVal = newZVal + 360;
}
else
{
newZVal = newZVal + 180;
}
//I want to track some cgpoints to draw the line here I think but how...:(
}
}];
In the above code I am depending on yaw value to track 0 - 180 degrees but it is changing as I move the device up/down, so I couldn't use the values.
For Reference:
Thanks.
The problem with doing this is that the only information you get back from the device about movement is acceleration. (i.e. not position or speed).
You might be able to work out which direction the device is currently accelerating in. But not how far it has travelled (or how fast) in that direction.
Using this you could then put lines down.
i.e. right, up, right, down, right, diagonal up, diagonal down, right, etc...
You can get this from the userAcceleration property of CMDeviceMotion. This then has x, y, and z values.
There are many resources about why it's hard (impossible) to work out location though... This is one of the best I have found. It's the same reason that the Oculus Rift 2 has an external camera to track movement.
Good luck though :)
Related
I'm trying to duplicate the functionality in the Compass app - and I'm stuck on a particular bit: how do I figure out which way is "up" in the interface?
I've got a label onscreen, and I've got the following code that orients it to remain horizontal as the device moves around:
self.motionManager = CMMotionManager()
self.motionManager?.gyroUpdateInterval = 1/100
self.motionManager?.startDeviceMotionUpdatesToQueue(NSOperationQueue.mainQueue(), withHandler: { (deviceMotion, error) -> Void in
let roll = -deviceMotion.attitude.roll
self.tiltLabel?.transform = CGAffineTransformRotate(CGAffineTransformIdentity, CGFloat(roll))
})
This effect is pretty good, but it's got a few states where it's wrong - for example, the label flips erratically when the iPhone's lightning connector is pointed up.
How do I consistently tell which direction is up using CoreMotion?
UPDATE: Apparently, roll/pitch/yaw are Euler angles, which suffer from gimbal lock - so I think the correct solution might involve using quaternions, which don't suffer from this issue, or perhaps the rotationMatrix on CMAttitude might help: https://developer.apple.com/library/ios/documentation/CoreMotion/Reference/CMAttitude_Class/index.html
It doesn't need to be quite so complicated for the 2D case. "Up" means "opposite gravity", so:
motionManager.startDeviceMotionUpdatesToQueue(NSOperationQueue.mainQueue()) { (motion, error) in
// Gravity as a counterclockwise angle from the horizontal.
let gravityAngle = atan2(Double(motion.gravity.y), Double(motion.gravity.x))
// Negate and subtract π/2, because we want -π/2 ↦ 0 (home button down) and 0 ↦ -π/2 (home button left).
self.tiltLabel.transform = CGAffineTransformMakeRotation(CGFloat(-gravityAngle - M_PI_2))
}
But simply "opposite gravity" has less meaning if you're trying to do this in all 3 dimensions: the direction of gravity doesn't tell you anything about the phone's angle around the gravity vector (if your phone is face-up, this is the yaw angle). To correct in three dimensions, we can use the roll, pitch, and yaw measurements instead:
// Add some perspective so the label looks (roughly) the same,
// no matter what angle the device is held at.
var t = self.view.layer.sublayerTransform
t.m34 = 1/300
self.view.layer.sublayerTransform = t
motionManager.startDeviceMotionUpdatesToQueue(NSOperationQueue.mainQueue()) { (motion, error) in
let a = motion.attitude
self.tiltLabel.layer.transform =
CATransform3DRotate(
CATransform3DRotate(
CATransform3DRotate(
CATransform3DMakeRotation(CGFloat(a.roll), 0, -1, 0),
CGFloat(a.pitch), 1, 0, 0),
CGFloat(a.yaw), 0, 0, 1),
CGFloat(-M_PI_2), 1, 0, 0) // Extra pitch to make the label point "up" away from gravity
}
I'm making a simple game in Spritekit where I roll a ball around the screen. Right now it works fine and the ball moves around how I want it to. I want to change it though so that the neutral position is something like 45 degrees instead of flat. This is the code I have now.
- (void)startMonitoringAcceleration {
if (_motionManager.accelerometerAvailable) {
[_motionManager startAccelerometerUpdates];
}
}
- (void)moveBallFromMotionManager {
CMAccelerometerData* data = _motionManager.accelerometerData;
if (fabs(data.acceleration.x) > 0.05) {
[_ball.physicsBody applyForce:CGVectorMake(25.0 * data.acceleration.y, -25.0 * data.acceleration.x)];
}
if (fabs(data.acceleration.y) > 0.05) {
[_ball.physicsBody applyForce:CGVectorMake(25.0 * data.acceleration.y, -25.0 * data.acceleration.x)];
}
}
-(void)update:(CFTimeInterval)currentTime {
[self moveBallFromMotionManager];
}
I'm new to this, so I don't really know how I should go about doing it. Thanks for any help.
Create a baseline for your pitch and roll. For example, at the init method (or anytime you want) set 2 variables with the current value for pitch and roll. Once done, you can use those variables as an offset against current values.
For example, the pitch offset is set at 0.3. If your current pitch reading is 0.45, subtract the offset from the current reading.
This is language-agnostic question, more about model of my game.
I have a snake game with elements, but I move the elements smoothly, they don't just move 1 block each time, but instead they move some amount of pixels every frame.
I have an update loop that calculates the positions of the element, but I am stuck on correct calculations.
I have heading for each element:
typedef NS_ENUM(int, kElementHeading)
{
kElementHeadingNorth = 1,
kElementHeadingSouth,
kElementHeadingEast,
kElementHeadingWest
};
I also have velocity (x, y) that determines in what direction snake is going. I have problem with snake movement, because my elements are in wrong positions. I managed to localize the thing for 2 elements, but my solution fails on more elements.
First solution I tried is to save point of rotation where the head changes direction. This worked, but due to different circumstances element can move different amount of pixels each turn. Often the element would skip the point. I tried increasing the zone where it should rotate, but it adds up error. I tried fixing this error, but element would still separate from snake (quite often).
On the second try I decided to keep the snake head in center of the screen and move the world around it. It worked good for 2 elements, as I just smoothly move the next element to desired position relatively to head. But this fails badly on more elements. If you make fast turns they start dancing and not following the path.
Third thing that I tried is leaving a path for other elements to follow. But that didn't work because I intend to keep my snake on center of the screen and technically it never moves to create a path.
I'm looking to replicate the movement pattern like in Nimble Quest (or any snake).
How should I implement snake elements moving to have no errors?
Here is my code for the first method, problem with it is that often the elements would fall off. The code is pretty self-explanatory. Rotation points are the places where to change direction.
CFTimeInterval delta = self.lastTime - currentTime;
CGPoint currentPosition = self.playerSnake.head.sprite.position;
CGPoint velocity = self.playerSnake.velocity;
self.playerSnake.head.sprite.position = CGPointMake(currentPosition.x + velocity.x * delta * CONSTANTSPEEDFACTOR , currentPosition.y + velocity.y * delta * CONSTANTSPEEDFACTOR);
for (SnakeElement *element in self.playerSnake.elements) {
CGPoint currentPositionE = element.sprite.position;
CGPoint velocityE = element.velocity;
element.sprite.position = CGPointMake(currentPositionE.x + velocityE.x * delta * CONSTANTSPEEDFACTOR , currentPositionE.y + velocityE.y * delta * CONSTANTSPEEDFACTOR);
}
BOOL markToDelete = NO;
NSDictionary *deleteDictionary;
for (NSDictionary *dict in self.playerSnake.rotationPoints) {
CGPoint positionCoordinate = CGPointFromString(dict[#"position"]);
CGPoint velocityNew = CGPointFromString(dict[#"velocity"]);
double newAngle = [dict[#"angle"] doubleValue];
for (SnakeElement *element in self.playerSnake.elements) {
int xDifference = element.sprite.position.x - positionCoordinate.x;
int yDifference = element.sprite.position.y - positionCoordinate.y;
if ((xDifference > -2 && xDifference < 2) && (yDifference > -2 && yDifference < 2) ) {
element.velocity = velocityNew;
element.sprite.position = CGPointMake(element.sprite.position.x + xDifference, element.sprite.position.y + yDifference);
SKAction *action = [SKAction rotateToAngle:newAngle duration:0.2 shortestUnitArc:YES];
[element.sprite runAction:action];
if ([element isEqual:[self.playerSnake.elements lastObject]]) {
markToDelete = YES;
deleteDictionary = dict;
}
}
}
}
[self.playerSnake.rotationPoints removeObject:deleteDictionary];
If I try increase the catch zone for the turning point, the elements tend to fall off more often then when it is 1 or 2 pixels wide. I'm not sure why this happens.
This is what I was suggesting you do in the comments in terms of handling your turning on points :
1.. calculate the distance that the element should move that frame based on speed and your elapsed time since last frame. (delta)
2.. calculate distance from element's current position to the turn point. This is the beforeDistance I spoke of in the comments
3.. calculate the distance the element should move towards the NEW target turning point AFTER the turn
afterDistance = distanceToMoveThisFrame - beforeDistance
4.. Calculate the new position for your element, starting at the current turning point towards the next target turning point of the element using afterDistance
If you follow this logic, you will NEVER overshoot or undershoot the turning point.
I'm making an app that (among other things) displays a simplified compass image that rotates according to the device's rotation. The problem is that simply doing this:
float heading = -1.0f * M_PI * trueHeading / 180.0f; //trueHeading is always between 0 and 359, never 360
self.compassNeedle.transform = CGAffineTransformMakeRotation(heading);
inside CLLocationManager's didUpdateHeading method makes the animation ugly and choppy.
I have already used Instruments to find out whether its simply my app not being able to render at more than 30-48 fps, but that's not the case.
How can I smooth out the image view's rotation so that it's more like Apple's own Compass app?
Instead of using the current instant value, try using the average of the last N values for the true heading. The value may be jumping around a lot in a single instant but settle down "in the average".
Assuming you have a member variable storedReadings which is an NSMutableArray:
-(void)addReading(float):newReading
{
[storedReadings addObject:[NSNumber numberWithFloat:newReading]];
while([storedReadings count] > MAX_READINGS)
{
[storedReadings removeObjectAtIndex:0];
}
}
then when you need the average value (timer update?)
-(float)calcReading
{
float result = 0.0f;
if([storedReadings count] > 0)
{
foreach(NSNumber* reading in storedReadings)
{
result += [reading floatValue];
}
result /= [storedReadings count];
}
return result;
}
You get to pick MAX_READINGS a priori.
NEXT LEVEL(S) UP
If the readings are not jumping around so much but the animation is still choppy, you probably need to do something like a "smooth" rotation. At any given time, you have the current angle you are displaying, theta (store this in your class, start it out at 0). You also have your target angle, call it target. This is the value you get from the smoothed calcReading function. The error is defined as the difference between the two:
error = target-theta;
Set up a timer callback with a period of something like 0.05 seconds (20x per second). What you want to do is adjust theta so that the error is driven towards 0. You can do this in a couple of ways:
thetaNext += kProp * (target - theta); //This is proportional feedback.
thetaNext += kStep * sign(target-theta); // This moves theta a fixed amount each update. sign(x) = +1 if x >= 0 and -1 if x < 0.
The first solution will cause the rotation to change sharply the further it is from the target. It will also probably oscillate a little bit as it swings past the "zero" point. Bigger values of kProp will yield faster response but also more oscillation. Some tuning will be required.
The second solution will be much easier to control...it just "ticks" the compass needle around each time. You can set kStep to something like 1/4 degree, which gives you a "speed" of rotation of about (1/4 deg/update) * (20 updates/seconds) = 5 degrees per second. This is a bit slow, but you can see the math and change kStep to suit your needs. Note that you may to "band" the "error" value so that no action is taken if the error < kStep (or something like that). This prevents your compass from shifting when the angle is really close to the target. You can change kStep when the error is small so that it "slides" into the ending position (i.e. kStep is smaller when the error is small).
For dealing with Angle Issues (wrap around), I "normalize" the angle so it is always within -Pi/Pi. I don't guarantee this is the perfect way to do it, but it seems to get the job done:
// Takes an angle greater than +/- M_PI and converts it back
// to +/- M_PI. Useful in Box2D where angles continuously
// increase/decrease.
static inline float32 AdjustAngle(float32 angleRads)
{
if(angleRads > M_PI)
{
while(angleRads > M_PI)
{
angleRads -= 2*M_PI;
}
}
else if(angleRads < -M_PI)
{
while(angleRads < -M_PI)
{
angleRads += 2*M_PI;
}
}
return angleRads;
}
By doing it this way, -pi is the angle you reach from going in either direction as you continue to rotate left/right. That is to say, there is not a discontinuity in the number going from say 0 to 359 degrees.
SO PUTTING THIS ALL TOGETHER
static inline float Sign(float value)
{
if(value >= 0)
return 1.0f;
return -1.0f;
}
//#define ROTATION_OPTION_1
//#define ROTATION_OPTION_2
#define ROTATION_OPTION_3
-(void)updateArrow
{
// Calculate the angle to the player
CGPoint toPlayer = ccpSub(self.player.position,self.arrow.position);
// Calculate the angle of this...Note there are some inversions
// and the actual image is rotated 90 degrees so I had to offset it
// a bit.
float angleToPlayerRads = -atan2f(toPlayer.y, toPlayer.x);
angleToPlayerRads = AdjustAngle(angleToPlayerRads);
// This is the angle we "wish" the arrow would be pointing.
float targetAngle = CC_RADIANS_TO_DEGREES(angleToPlayerRads)+90;
float errorAngle = targetAngle-self.arrow.rotation;
CCLOG(#"Error Angle = %f",errorAngle);
#ifdef ROTATION_OPTION_1
// In this option, we just set the angle of the rotated sprite directly.
self.arrow.rotation = CC_RADIANS_TO_DEGREES(angleToPlayerRads)+90;
#endif
#ifdef ROTATION_OPTION_2
// In this option, we apply proportional feedback to the angle
// difference.
const float kProp = 0.05f;
self.arrow.rotation += kProp * (errorAngle);
#endif
#ifdef ROTATION_OPTION_3
// The step to take each update in degrees.
const float kStep = 4.0f;
// NOTE: Without the "if(fabs(...)) check, the angle
// can "dither" around the zero point when it is very close.
if(fabs(errorAngle) > kStep)
{
self.arrow.rotation += Sign(errorAngle)*kStep;
}
#endif
}
I put this code into a demo program I had written for Cocos2d. It shows a character (big box) being chased by some monsters (smaller boxes) and has an arrow in the center that always points towards the character. The updateArrow call is made on a timer tick (the update(dt) function) regularly. The player's position on the screen is set by the user tapping on the screen and the angle is based on the vector from the arrow to the player. In the function, I show all three options for setting the angle of the arrow:
Option 1
Just set it based on where the player is (i.e. just set it).
Option 2
Use proportional feedback to adjust the arrow's angle each time step.
Option 3
Step the angle of the arrow each timestep a little bit if the error angle is more than the step size.
Here is a picture showing roughly what it looks like:
And, all the code is available here on github. Just look in the HelloWorldLayer.m file.
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I have an app that records angles as user is walking around an object, while pointing device (preferably) at the center of the object.
Angle gets reset on user's command - so reference attitude gets reset.
Using Euler angles produces Gimbal lock, so I am currently using quaternions and calculating angles this way:
double angleFromLastPosition = acos(fromLastPositionAttitude.quaternion.w) * 2.0f;
This gives off good precision and it works perfectly IF device's pitch and yaw does not change. In other words, as the angle shows 360 degrees I end up in the same place as the start of the circle.
Problem 1: if device's yaw and pitch change slightly (user not pointing directly at center of the object), so does the angleFromLastPosition.
I understand this part, as my angle formula just shows the angle in between two device attitudes in 3D space.
Scenario:
I mark the start of rotation attitude and start moving in a circle around the object while pointing at the center
I stop at, say, 45 degrees and change pitch of the device by pointing it higher or lower. Angle changes accordingly.
What I would love to see is: angle stays at 45 degrees, even if pitch or yaw changes.
Question 1 is, how can I calculate only the Roll of the device using quaternions, and disregard changes in other two axes (at least within some reasonable number of degrees).
Problem 2: if I rotate for a bit and then freeze the device completely (on tripod so there's no shaking at all), the angleFromLastPosition drifts at a rate of 1 degree per about 10-20 seconds, and it appears not to be linear. In other words, it drifts fast at first, then slows down considerably. Sometimes I get no drift at all - angle is rock-solid if device is stationary. And this makes me lost in understanding what's going on.
Question 2, what is going on here, and how can I take care of the drift?
I went through quite a few articles and tutorials, and quaternion math is beyond me at the moment, hope someone will be able to help with a tip, link, or few lines of code.
I have tested this and it seems to work according to what you're looking for in Question 1, Andrei.
I set the homeangle initially 0, and immediately after the first pass I store the angle returned from walkaroundAngleFromAttitude:fromHomeAngle: in homeangle, for future use.
My testing included starting the device updates using a reference frame:
[_motionManager
startDeviceMotionUpdatesUsingReferenceFrame:CMAttitudeReferenceFrameXArbitraryZVertical
toQueue:operationQueue
withHandler:handler];
and using the following methods called within handler:
- (CMQuaternion) multiplyQuanternion:(CMQuaternion)left withRight:(CMQuaternion)right {
CMQuaternion newQ;
newQ.w = left.w*right.w - left.x*right.x - left.y*right.y - left.z*right.z;
newQ.x = left.w*right.x + left.x*right.w + left.y*right.z - left.z*right.y;
newQ.y = left.w*right.y + left.y*right.w + left.z*right.x - left.x*right.z;
newQ.z = left.w*right.z + left.z*right.w + left.x*right.y - left.y*right.x;
return newQ;
}
-(float)walkaroundRawAngleFromAttitude:(CMAttitude*)attitude {
CMQuaternion e = (CMQuaternion){0,0,1,1};
CMQuaternion quatConj = attitude.quaternion;
quatConj.x *= -1; quatConj.y *= -1; quatConj.z *= -1;
CMQuaternion quat1 = attitude.quaternion;
CMQuaternion quat2 = [self multiplyQuanternion:quat1 withRight:e];
CMQuaternion quat3 = [self multiplyQuanternion:quat2 withRight:quatConj];
return atan2f(quat3.y, quat3.x);
}
-(float)walkaroundAngleFromAttitude:(CMAttitude*)attitude fromHomeAngle:(float)homeangle {
float rawangle = [self walkaroundRawAngleFromAttitude:attitude];
if (rawangle <0) rawangle += M_PI *2;
if (homeangle < 0) homeangle += M_PI *2;
float finalangle = rawangle - homeangle;
if (finalangle < 0) finalangle += M_PI *2;
return finalangle;
}
This is using some modified and extended code from Finding normal vector to iOS device
Edit to deal with Question 2 & Problem 2:
This may not be solvable. I've seen it in other apps (360 pano for example) and have read about faulty readings in gyro and such. If you tried to compensate for it, of course you'll end up with a jittery experience when some authentic rotational movement gets tossed by the compensation code. So far as I've been interpreting for the last few years, this is a hardware-based issue.