iOS: Segmented touchmap over image - ios

I've been trying to find a way to solve this problem, and haven't been able to find anything useful, so forgive me if this is a duplicate of something I couldn't find.
I have, essentially, a large complicated image in the style of a stained glass window in a scroll view so that I can pan and zoom around it. Each of the individual segments of the window has some information associated with it. What I need to be able to do is tap on any of the segments and determine which segment was tapped so that I can display the information. What I'm not sure of is how to do the mapping between touch points and segments. Most of the segments aren't even regular polygon shapes let alone orthogonal squares, so I can't think of a straightforward way to determine which segment I've tapped.
If anybody has any ideas as to how I might go about implementing this, it would be most appreciated!
Cheers

Put each individual segment in a different layer. Now you can do hit-testing on what layer was tapped. Your test must be designed so that if a layer was tapped but on a transparent area (i.e. outside its segment), your test will fall through to the next layer behind it. Thus the test will succeed if and when you discover a layer's non-transparent region under the tap. Since it is one segment per layer, the segment is the one corresponding to that layer.

Related

Determining the "Region" Touched in a UIImageView

I'm trying to determine the region or area of an image that a user touches.
For example, I would like to have a CGRect to define the location of each letter so I can determine when the user touches the "O" in one of the following images…
My first idea was to use locationInView to give me the absolute coordinates and adjust them to the relative size of the ImageView. However, since I'm using AspectFit for the content mode, the relative location of a given region changes with every screen size and orientation because of the image padding on the top/bottom and sides.
In a perfect solution, I would also like to embed this image in a ScrollView so it can be zoomed. But, I can forgo that if necessary.
I don't work with gestures and images very often, so I may be missing something obvious. Any help or ideas you provide will be greatly appreciated.
There is the easy way and the hard way. The easy way it to break this image down into smaller images, one for each letter. The problem with this approach is making them line up as the single image did. If you take this approach you can use CGRectContainsPoint to see which image you tapped. Or you can make each of them buttons or give each image a gesture recognizer to identify what was pressed. If your design is requires you to use a single image then you'll have to make a hitmap describing each location. Each letter will require its own CGMutablePathRef with a CGPathMoveToPoint and a few CGPathAddLineToPoint to describe its shape and location. The method CGPathContainsPoint will tell you which one you hit.

Interact with complex figure in iOS

I need to be able to interact with a representation of a cilinder that has many different parts in it. When the users taps over on of the small rectangles, I need to display a popover related to the specific piece (form).
The next image demonstrates a realistic 3d approach. But, I repeat, I need to solve the problem, the 3d is NOT required (would be really cool though). A representation that complies the functional needs will suffice.
The info about the parts to make the drawing comes from an API (size, position, etc)
I dont need it to be realistic really. The simplest aproximation would be to show a cilinder in a 2d representation, like a rectangle made out of interactable small rectangles.
So, as I mentioned, I think there are (as I see it) two opposite approaches: Realistic or Simplified
Is there a way to achieve a nice solution in the middle? What libraries, components, frameworks that I should look into?
My research has led me to SceneKit, but I still dont know if I will be able to interact with it. Interaction is a very important part as I need to display a popover when the user taps on any small rectangle over the cylinder.
Thanks
You don't need any special frameworks to achieve an interaction like this. This effect can be achieved with standard UIKit and UIView and a little trigonometry. You can actually draw exactly your example image using 2D math and drawing. My answer is not an exact formula but involves thinking about how the shapes are defined and break the problem down into manageable steps.
A cylinder can be defined by two offset circles representing the end pieces, connected at their radii. I will use an orthographic projection meaning the cylinder doesn't appear smaller as the depth extends into the background (but you could adapt to perspective if needed). You could draw this with CoreGraphics in a UIView drawRect.
A square slice represents an angle piece of the circle, offset by an amount smaller than the length of the cylinder, but in the same direction, as in the following diagram (sorry for imprecise drawing).
This square slice you are interested in is the area outlined in solid red, outside the radius of the first circle, and inside the radius of the imaginary second circle (which is just offset from the first circle by whatever length you want the slice).
To draw this area you simply need to draw a path of the outline of each arc and connect the endpoints.
To check if a touch is inside one of these square slices:
Check if the touch point is between angle a from the origin at a.
Check if the touch point is outside the radius of the inside circle.
Check if the touch point is inside the radius of the outside circle. (Note what this means if the circles are more than a radius apart.)
To find a point to display the popover you could average the end points on the slice or find the middle angle between the two edges and offset by half the distance.
Theoretically, doing this in Scene Kit with either SpriteKit or UIKit Popovers is ideal.
However Scene Kit (and Sprite Kit) seem to be in a state of flux wherein nobody from Apple is communicating with users about the raft of issues folks are currently having with both. From relatively stable and performant Sprite Kit in iOS 8.4 to a lot of lost performance in iOS 9 seems common. Scene Kit simply doesn't seem finished, and the documentation and community are both nearly non-existent as a result.
That being said... the theory is this:
Material IDs are what's used in traditional 3D apps to define areas of an object that have different materials. Somehow these Material IDs are called "elements" in SceneKit. I haven't been able to find much more about this.
It should be possible to detect the "element" that's underneath a touch on an object, and respond accordingly. You should even be able to change the state/nature of the material on that element to indicate it's the currently selected.
When wanting a smooth, well rounded cylinder as per your example, start with a cylinder that's made of only enough segments to describe/define the material IDs you need for your "rectangular" sections to be touched.
Later you can add a smoothing operation to the cylinder to make it round, and all the extra smoothing geometry in each quadrant of unique material ID should be responsive, regardless of how you add this extra detail to smooth the presentation of the cylinder.
Idea for the "Simplified" version:
if this representation is okey, you can use a UICollectionView.
Each cell can have a defined size thanks to
collectionView:layout:sizeForItemAtIndexPath:
Then each cell of the collection could be a small rectangle representing a
touchable part of the cylinder.
and using
collectionView:(UICollectionView *)collectionView
didSelectItemAtIndexPath:(NSIndexPath *)indexPath
To get the touch.
This will help you to display the popover at the right place:
CGRect rect = [collectionView layoutAttributesForItemAtIndexPath:indexPath].frame;
Finally, you can choose the appropriate popover (if the app has to work on iPhone) here:
https://www.cocoacontrols.com/search?q=popover
Not perfect, but i think this is efficient!
Yes, SceneKit.
When user perform a touch event, that mean you knew the 2D coordinate on screen, so your only decision is to popover a view or not, even a 3D model is not exist.
First, we can logically split the requirement into two pieces, determine the touching segment, showing right "color" in each segment.
I think the use of 3D model is to determine which piece of data to show in your case if I don't get you wrong. In that case, the SCNView's hit test method will do most of work for you. What you should do is to perform a hit test, take out the hit node and the hit's local 3D coordinate of this node, you can then calculate which segment is hit by this touch and do the decision.
Now how to draw the surface of the cylinder would be the only left question, right? There are various ways to do, for example simply paint each image you need and programmatically and attach it to the cylinder's material or have your image files on disk and use as material for the cylinder ...
I think the problem would be basically solved.

handling finger detection on small objects

The application I am working on requires a 4px bar height with a full screen size width. I need to be able to select this 4px bar and move it around. I also can not change the size of this bar it has to be 4px in height.
This wouldn't be that big of an issue if I wasn't using OpenGL to create the object. OpenGL obviously does not have its own selection features so I am needing to program my own.
Initially after research I built a color selector to identify the object. How my color selector works is what ever x and y my finger touch returns from touchesBegan: is the pixel I grab from a screenshot of the OpenGL View. The issue with this is finger location is not precise at all. If I use the mouse it works perfect...
I decided to maybe loop through a buffer zone of the selected x and y but unfortunately a screenshot of the OpenGL view has antialiasing happens to the image when it's stored in memory and the buffer returns several shade of my objects color. I could possibly do a comparative color look up, to see if its in the range of colors but that seems overly complicated with how much I have already had to do. Plus cycling through the buffer zone isn't quick.
I also have thought maybe just remembering the location of my line on the screen and if my finger is close to that location just know that that's the one I want to select and move it around.
The future of this application can have up to 4 lines just like this so, I want something more secure then just knowing the location of where it is in memory.
What better way is there out there of handling selection of small objects?
How about maintaining an array of frames for the four objects, but expand the heights to something more manageable (8px or bigger)? Then, a touch within the larger region could be compared against the array (using CGRectContainsPoint). If you get a hit, then "snap to" the center point of the smaller (4px) rectangle before beginning the drag.
I do something like this by maintaining a list of "drop targets" for drag & drop, where it snaps to the drop target when it gets pretty close. Don't know if I'm conveying the idea very well, but it ought to work.
If the four 4px rectangles are going to be contiguous or very close together, you'll have to be able to make the selected one stand out or the user won't be able to tell which they're dragging -- but you could do that by making it bigger (maybe 6-8 px) then bringing it to the front so it overlays its adjacent neighbors.
More of an idea than an answer I guess.
John,
I would suggest a different approach. As you've discovered, touches in iOS are very imprecise. Apple usually suggests that the "hit box" for your controls be at least 40x40 points. I've gone as small as 30x30 points, but that starts to get hard.
What I would suggest you do is to factor your code so the app knows where the line is, and keeps track of it as a logical object. Then in your touch handler, interpret touches based on a large "buffer area" around the things you want the user to be able to move. If you just have a single horizontal bar, this should work great. Where you'll get into trouble is if you have multiple, thin horizontal bars that are close together. In that case you might need to rethink your app design and find another way to solve the problem.
As for the implementation details, you might add a pan gesture recognizer to your OpenGL view, and have it notify the OpenGL view of touch and drag actions. Then your OpenGL view can use knowledge of where your draggable objects are to decide how to interpret the touches.

iOs draw an intereactive map

I need to draw an interactive map for an iOs application. For example it can be the map of the US showing the states. It will need to show all the states in different colors ( I'll get this from a delegate colorForStateNo: ) It will need to allow the user to select a state by touching it, when the color will change, and a "stick out" effect should be shown, maybe even a symbol animated to appear over the selected state. Also the color of some states will need to change depending on external events. This color change will mean an animation like a circle starting in the middle of the state and progressing towards the edges changing the color from the current one to the one inside the circle.
Can this be done ,easily in core-graphics? Or is it only possible with Open GL ES? What is the easiest way to do this? I have worked with core graphics and it doesn't seem to handle animation very well, I just redraw the entire screen when something needed to move... Also how could I use an external image to draw the map? Setting up a lot of drawLineToPoint seems like , a lot of work to draw only one state let alone the whole map ...
You could create the map using vector graphics and then have that converted to OpenGL calls.
Displaying SVG in OpenGL without intermediate raster
EDIT: The link applies to C++, but you may be able to find a similar solution.

Detect touch coordinates on a sinle UIImageview

I have a single imageview with a static country map divided into regions of that country. What I'd like to do is detect the touch location on the image and provide content about the corresponding region. Since region borders are not linear, how can I save each region's area? Do I need several imageviews (or even custom UIButtons with those images) each belonging to one region or is it possible the way I'd like?
This is the first thing that came to my mind so maybe there is a simpler and better way which I'd love to hear about and I couldn't know how to search for this so apologies if there is a duplicate. And of course I'd appreciate the help.
Thanks
One simple & exact way would be to use Ole Begemann's OBShapedButtons - one for each state.
This will allow you to detect exactly which state was selected. Simply put image of each state in separate buttons (with transparent surroundings) and align buttons next to eachother so that state-borders allign one to another.
Buttons will detect the location of the press and if one button was pressed on its transparent region the touch will be passed along until the correct button gets it.
The simplest way to do something like what you want would be to just put some UIButtons over the top of your UIImageView, making their type custom (so they are transparent). Generally fill in the area of each country with UIButtons. If you test your app, you will probably notice that people will touch the center of each country, so I wouldn't worry about getting 100% coverage. Depending on the shape of the countries, one or two square UIButtons would probably be enough.
If you did want to go the 100% coverage route, you could embed each country in a separate UIImageView subclass, and when you detect a touch anywhere, go through each country image and see if the point touched isn't transparent. When you hit that (a non-transparent pixel) you have found the country. See this post for relevant code: How to get the color of a pixel in an UIView?

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