Creating a scaled map circle - math

Similar questions to this have been asked a number of times here, but none of them seem to give me exactly what I want. I am working with the Bing Map control on Windows Phone and I'd like to add an ellipse that scales properly with zoom changes. This can be done with poly lines and polygons, but there is no ellipse type derived from MapShapeBase. I've tried various ways of doing it, but they require playing around with pixel sizes and fudging the math to make it line up with geo coordinates. I want to create an Ellipse with a center and x/y sizes in meters and have the framework do the rest. It seems so simple. Have I missed it somewhere? My other approach is to draw 365 line segments in a poly line, but that seems horribly ugly, and since the center can move, I'd need to bind the Location of every segment. That seems very heavy-weight. Any other thoughts?
[To be specific, I want to add a "GPS Accuracy" indicator as a circle around the current location.]

Update
In Mango, the phone automatically shows such a circle.
Orginal Post
It's fairly easy. You just use a Pushpin control to do the drawing with.
1) Add a MapLayer to your control:
<maps:MapLayer>
<maps:MapPolygon Fill="Gray"
IsHitTestVisible="False"
Locations="{Binding AccuracyLocationCollection}"
Opacity="0.6"
Stroke="Black"
StrokeThickness="2" />
</maps:MapLayer>
2) Add the AccuracyLocationCollection property in your ViewModel
public LocationCollection AccuracyLocationCollection
{
get;
set;
}
3) In the GeoCoordinateWatcher_PositionChanged event handler, calculate the size of the circle, and set the value to the AccuracyLocationCollection
ViewModel.AccuracyLocationCollection = DrawMapsCircle(e.Position.Location);
4) The code for the DrawMapsCircle goes like this:
private static double ToRadian(double degrees)
{
return degrees * (Math.PI / 180);
}
private static double ToDegrees(double radians)
{
return radians * (180 / Math.PI);
}
public static LocationCollection DrawMapsCircle(GeoCoordinate location)
{
double earthRadiusInMeters = 6367.0 * 1000.0;
var lat = ToRadian(location.Latitude);
var lng = ToRadian(location.Longitude);
var d = location.HorizontalAccuracy / earthRadiusInMeters;
var locations = new LocationCollection();
for (var x = 0; x <= 360; x++)
{
var brng = ToRadian(x);
var latRadians = Math.Asin(Math.Sin(lat) * Math.Cos(d) + Math.Cos(lat) * Math.Sin(d) * Math.Cos(brng));
var lngRadians = lng + Math.Atan2(Math.Sin(brng) * Math.Sin(d) * Math.Cos(lat), Math.Cos(d) - Math.Sin(lat) * Math.Sin(latRadians));
locations.Add(new Location()
{
Latitude = ToDegrees(latRadians),
Longitude = ToDegrees(lngRadians)
});
}
return locations;
}
Result: (This is next to my home, I can confirm there's about 3 meters between the roads the grey circle is displaying between)

Related

Drawing the "Seed of Life" without redrawing anything

I have a mildly interesting problem which I can't quite figure out (although in fairness, I am pretty drunk)
The "Seed of Life" is a pattern created from drawing circles of equal radius, centred on the intersection of the previous circle.
Language doesn't really matter, the theory is more important here. Anything which can draw a circle will do it. For example, HTML5 + JS canvas can do it. It's a lovely example of how recursion can help solve problems.
The problem is that a naive approach will end up redrawing many, many circles. With 7 layers, you'll end up with over 300,000 circle draws.
A simple approach is to maintain a list of previous circle centre points, and only draw circles which are not in that list.
My question is whether there's a "better" way to approach this? Something which doesn't require checking that list.
A fun problem to ponder.
I think I have this solved thanks to a friend. I'll post here what I'm doing now in case someone ever is curious.
In short, starting from the center and working out, calculate the vertices of a hexagon, and subdivide each edge of the hexagon into i number of places, where i is the layer number.
I drew it in C# using SkiaSharp, but the code is nothing special to the language, there's no reason this couldn't be written in any language. Here's the significant bits:
const float seedAngle = (float)(Math.PI / 3.0);
static void SeedOfLifeDemo(int x, int y) {
//setting up Skia stuff, this will be different depending what language you're using.
var info = new SKImageInfo(x, y);
using var bitmap = FlatImage(info, SKColors.White);
SKCanvas canvas = new SKCanvas(bitmap);
float radius = Math.Min(x, y) / 15;
SKPoint center = new SKPoint(x / 2f, y / 2f);
SKPaint strokePaint = new SKPaint {
Color = SKColors.Black,
Style = SKPaintStyle.Stroke,
StrokeWidth = 1,
IsAntialias = true,
};
int layers = 4;
//Draw the very central circle. This is just a little easier than adding that edge case to SubdividedHexagonAboutPoint
canvas.DrawCircle(center, radius, strokePaint);
for (int i = 1; i <= layers; i++) {
foreach (SKPoint p in SubdividedHexagonAboutPoint(center, radius * i, i)) {
canvas.DrawCircle(p, radius, strokePaint);
}
}
SaveImage(bitmap, "SeedOfLifeFastDemo.Jpg");//More Skia specific stuff
}
//The magic!
static List<SKPoint> SubdividedHexagonAboutPoint(SKPoint centre, float radius, int subdivisions) {
List<SKPoint> points = new List<SKPoint>(6 * subdivisions);
SKPoint? prevPoint = null;
for (int i = 0; i < 7; i++) {//Step around the circle. The 7th step is to close the last edge
float x = (float)(Math.Sin(seedAngle * i) * radius + centre.X);
float y = (float)(Math.Cos(seedAngle * i) * radius + centre.Y);
SKPoint point = new SKPoint(x, y);
if (prevPoint != null) {
points.Add(point);//include the "primary" 6 points
if (subdivisions > 0) {
float xDist = (point.X - prevPoint.Value.X) / subdivisions;
float yDist = (point.Y - prevPoint.Value.Y) / subdivisions;
for (int sub = 1; sub < subdivisions; sub++) {
SKPoint subPoint = new SKPoint(point.X - xDist * sub, point.Y - yDist * sub);
points.Add(subPoint);//include the edge subdivisions
}
}
}
prevPoint = point;
}
return points;
}
This is quite an interesting exercise really, and another example of where recursion can really bite you when used badly.

nvd3 scatterplot: labels on bullets

I have a requirement that the bullets on a specific implementation of a scatterplot needs to have labels next to them, however, it is known that many of the datapoints in the set are identical or very close to one another, so if I were to set labels on a fixed coordinate relative to the bullet, the labels would stack on top of eachother and not be readable.
I want to implement this so that the labels will give way for eachother - moving around, so they don't overlap - and I am thinking that this is a common enough idea that some approach already exists, but I have no idea what to search for. Does this concept have a name?
I would ofcource appreciate an implementation example, but that is not the most important thing. I am sure I can solve it myself, but I'd rather not reinvent something that someone else has already done better.
The image above displays examples of bullets on top of and close to each other
I ended up finding inspiration in Simulated Annealing.
My solution looks like this
/**
* Implements an algorithm for placing labels on a chart in a way so that they
* do not overlap as much.
* The approach is inspired by Simulated Annealing
* (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simulated_annealing)
*/
export class Placer {
private knownPositions: Coordinate[];
private START_RADIUS = 20;
private RUNS = 15;
private ORIGIN_WEIGHT = 2;
constructor() {
this.knownPositions = []
}
/**
* Get a good spot to place the object.
*
* Given a start coordinate, this method tries to find the best place
* that is close to that point but not too close to other known points.
*
* #param {Coordinate} coordinate
* #returns {Coordinate}
*/
getPlacement(coordinate: Coordinate) : Coordinate {
let radius = this.START_RADIUS;
let lastPosition = coordinate;
let lastScore = 0;
while (radius > 0) {
const newPosition = this.getRandomPosition(coordinate, radius);
const newScore = this.getScore(newPosition, coordinate);
if (newScore > lastScore) {
lastPosition = newPosition;
lastScore = newScore;
}
radius -= this.START_RADIUS / this.RUNS;
}
this.knownPositions.push(lastPosition);
return lastPosition;
}
/**
* Return a random point on the radius around the position
*
* #param {Coordinate} position Center point
* #param {number} radius Distance from `position` to find a point
* #returns {Coordinate} A random point `radius` distance away from
* `position`
*/
private getRandomPosition(position: Coordinate, radius:number) : Coordinate {
const randomRotation = radians(Math.random() * 360);
const xOffset = Math.cos(randomRotation) * radius;
const yOffset = Math.sin(randomRotation) * radius;
return {
x: position.x + xOffset,
y: position.y + yOffset,
}
}
/**
* Returns a number score of a position. The further away it is from any
* other known point, the better the score (bigger number), however, it
* suffers a subtraction in score the further away it gets from its origin
* point.
*
* #param {Coordinate} position The position to score
* #param {Coordinate} origin The initial position before looking for
* better ones
* #returns {number} The representation of the score
*/
private getScore(position: Coordinate, origin: Coordinate) : number {
let closest: number = null;
this.knownPositions.forEach((knownPosition) => {
const distance = Math.abs(Math.sqrt(
Math.pow(knownPosition.x - position.x, 2) +
Math.pow(knownPosition.y - position.y, 2)
));
if (closest === null || distance < closest) {
closest = distance;
}
});
const distancetoOrigin = Math.abs(Math.sqrt(
Math.pow(origin.x - position.x, 2) +
Math.pow(origin.y - position.y, 2)
));
return closest - (distancetoOrigin / this.ORIGIN_WEIGHT);
}
}
There is room for improvement in the getScore method, but the results are good enough for my case.
Basically, all points try to move to a random position in a given radius and sees if that position is "better" than the original. The algorithm keeps doing that for a smaller and smaller radius until radius = 0.
The class keeps track of all known points, so that when you try to place point number two, the scoring can account for the presence of point number one.

Gmap.net show only markers within polygon

I am currently working with gmap.net to create a certain radius with a polygon. I currently have made a polygon for the radius but now I come to the problem that I want to create multipule markers but only show the markers who are inside the polygon. Is this possible?
_polygonOverlay = new GMapOverlay("destination");
_gMap.Overlays.Add(_polygonOverlay);
private void CreateCircle(PointLatLng destination, double radius)
{
List<PointLatLng> radiusPoint = new List<PointLatLng>();
double seg = Math.PI * 2 / 40;
for (int i = 0; i < 40; i++)
{
double theta = seg * i;
double latitude = destination.Lat + Math.Cos(theta) * radius;
double longitude = destination.Lng + Math.Sin(theta) * radius;
PointLatLng cirlePoint = new PointLatLng(latitude, longitude);
radiusPoint.Add(cirlePoint);
}
GMapPolygon radiusCircle = new GMapPolygon(radiusPoint, "radius");
_polygonOverlay.Polygons.Add(radiusCircle);
}
private void CreateMarkers()
{
_polygonOverlay.Markers.Add(new GMarkerGoogle(new PointLatLng(xxx, xxx), GMarkerGoogleType.blue));
_polygonOverlay.Markers.Add(new GMarkerGoogle(new PointLatLng(xxx, xxx), GMarkerGoogleType.blue));
_polygonOverlay.Markers.Add(new GMarkerGoogle(new PointLatLng(xxx, xxx), GMarkerGoogleType.blue));
}
Here is a little sample of the code I have that create a circle (still needs some work on it) and some markers.
Already thanks is advance
Since you are dealing with a circle, you should be able to simply check the distance of your marker from the center of the circle. If the distance is greater than the radius, don't add it to the overlay.
GMap gives you access to the necessary methods to determine this information. Do something like this:
//Assuming p1 is your marker and p2 is your circle center coordinate
double markerDist = GMap.NET.MapProviders.EmptyProvider.Instance.Projection.GetDistance(p1.Position, p2);
if(markerDist <= circleRadius)
{
//Add the marker to the overlay
}
Assume you have a GMapPolygon with some Points, you could just use
bool inside = gMapPolygon.IsInside(point)
to check if the point of a GMarker is inside that GMapPolygon

World to screen coordinates in Unity

For my current project it is necessary, that I compute the screen coordinates of a given point in the world space in Unity.
I used this tutorial to write a methode to do so.
After some debugging the x and y screen coordinate are correct, but my z coordinates looks wrong and I have some more questions:
static public Vector3 convertWorldToScreenCoordinates (Vector3 point, PhotoData photoData)
{
// get the camera
Camera camera = GameObject.Find (photoData.cameraName).camera;
/*
* 1 convert P_world to P_camera
*/
Vector4 pointInCameraCoodinates = convertWorldToCameraCoordinates (point, photoData);
/*
* 2 convert P_camera to P_clipped
*/
Vector4 pointInClipCoordinates = camera.projectionMatrix * pointInCameraCoodinates;
/*
* 3 convert P_clipped to P_ndc
* Normalized Device Coordinates
*/
Vector3 pointInNdc = pointInClipCoordinates / pointInClipCoordinates.w;
/*
* 4 convert P_ndc to P_screen
*/
Vector3 pointInScreenCoordinates;
pointInScreenCoordinates.x = camera.pixelWidth / 2.0f * (pointInNdc.x + 1);
pointInScreenCoordinates.y = camera.pixelHeight / 2.0f * (pointInNdc.y + 1);
pointInScreenCoordinates.z = ((camera.farClipPlane - camera.nearClipPlane) * pointInNdc.z + (camera.farClipPlane + camera.nearClipPlane)) / 2.0f;
// return screencoordinates
return pointInScreenCoordinates;
}
PhotoData is a class, that contains some information about the camera. The important part here is that I can access the camera.
static public Vector4 convertWorldToCameraCoordinates (Vector3 point, PhotoData photoData)
{
// translate the point by the negative camera-offset
//and convert to Vector4
Vector4 translatedPoint = point - photoData.cameraPosition;
// by default translatedPoint.w is 0
translatedPoint.w = 1.0f;
// create transformation matrix
Matrix4x4 transformationMatrix = Matrix4x4.identity;
transformationMatrix.SetRow (0, photoData.camRight);
transformationMatrix.SetRow (1, photoData.camUp);
transformationMatrix.SetRow (2, - photoData.camForward);
Vector4 transformedPoint = transformationMatrix * translatedPoint;
return transformedPoint;
}
First of all, the tutorial mentions, that after computing the ndc-values, "the range of values is now normalized from -1 to 1 in all 3 axes". This is not true in my case and I do not see what I am doing wrong.
My second question is, does pointInClipCoordinates.z < 0 mean the world point is "behind" my camera?
And the last question so far is why do I have to use - photoData.camForward?
// edit: updated code + questions
For editor scripts, use HandleUtility.WorldToGUIPoint (available since Unity3D 4.12) to convert a world space point to a 2D GUI position.

Flex: drawing a connector line between shapes

I am building a diagramming tool using Adobe Flex 3. I am about to implement connector lines and I have a question.
Imagine I have 2 squares at random positions on the canvas. I need to draw an arrowed connector line between them. I need it to tend to the target square's center but end on its border.
How do I find out the exact points between which to draw the line?
Thank you
Here is an example doing what you want.
package
{
import flash.display.Shape;
import flash.display.Sprite;
import flash.events.Event;
import flash.geom.Matrix;
import flash.geom.Point;
import flash.ui.Mouse;
/**
* Sample class to draw squares and arrows between them.
*/
public class SquareArrows extends Sprite
{
/**
* Initialize the scene as soon as we can.
*/
public function SquareArrows()
{
if(stage) {
init();
}
else {
addEventListener(Event.ADDED_TO_STAGE, init);
}
}
/**
* Draw two squares and an arrow between them.
*/
private function init(e : Event = null) : void
{
if(hasEventListener(Event.ADDED_TO_STAGE)) {
removeEventListener(Event.ADDED_TO_STAGE, init);
}
// Drawing random-sized squares.
var squareOne : Shape =
getSquareShape((Math.random() * 50) + 20, 0xBBBBBB);
var squareTwo : Shape =
getSquareShape((Math.random() * 50) + 20, 0xDDDDDD);
addChild(squareOne);
addChild(squareTwo);
// Draw the connector.
var connector : Shape = getConnectorShape(squareOne, squareTwo);
addChild(connector);
}
/**
* Draw a connector arrow between two square shapes.
*/
private function getConnectorShape(connectFrom : Shape, connectTo : Shape) : Shape
{
// Getting the center of the first square.
var centerFrom : Point = new Point();
centerFrom.x = connectFrom.x + (connectFrom.width / 2);
centerFrom.y = connectFrom.y + (connectFrom.height / 2);
// Getting the center of the second square.
var centerTo : Point = new Point();
centerTo.x = connectTo.x + (connectTo.width / 2);
centerTo.y = connectTo.y + (connectTo.height / 2);
// Getting the angle between those two.
var angleTo : Number =
Math.atan2(centerTo.x - centerFrom.x, centerTo.y - centerFrom.y);
var angleFrom : Number =
Math.atan2(centerFrom.x - centerTo.x, centerFrom.y - centerTo.y);
// Getting the points on both borders.
var pointFrom : Point = getSquareBorderPointAtAngle(connectFrom, angleTo);
var pointTo : Point = getSquareBorderPointAtAngle(connectTo, angleFrom);
// Calculating arrow edges.
var arrowSlope : Number = 30;
var arrowHeadLength : Number = 10;
var vector : Point =
new Point(-(pointTo.x - pointFrom.x), -(pointTo.y - pointFrom.y));
// First edge of the head...
var edgeOneMatrix : Matrix = new Matrix();
edgeOneMatrix.rotate(arrowSlope * Math.PI / 180);
var edgeOneVector : Point = edgeOneMatrix.transformPoint(vector);
edgeOneVector.normalize(arrowHeadLength);
var edgeOne : Point = new Point();
edgeOne.x = pointTo.x + edgeOneVector.x;
edgeOne.y = pointTo.y + edgeOneVector.y;
// And second edge of the head.
var edgeTwoMatrix : Matrix = new Matrix();
edgeTwoMatrix.rotate((0 - arrowSlope) * Math.PI / 180);
var edgeTwoVector : Point = edgeTwoMatrix.transformPoint(vector);
edgeTwoVector.normalize(arrowHeadLength);
var edgeTwo : Point = new Point();
edgeTwo.x = pointTo.x + edgeTwoVector.x;
edgeTwo.y = pointTo.y + edgeTwoVector.y;
// Drawing the arrow.
var arrow : Shape = new Shape();
with(arrow.graphics) {
lineStyle(2);
// Drawing the line.
moveTo(pointFrom.x, pointFrom.y);
lineTo(pointTo.x, pointTo.y);
// Drawing the arrow head.
lineTo(edgeOne.x, edgeOne.y);
moveTo(pointTo.x, pointTo.y);
lineTo(edgeTwo.x, edgeTwo.y);
}
return arrow;
}
/**
* Utility method to get a point on a square border at a certain angle.
*/
private function getSquareBorderPointAtAngle(square : Shape, angle : Number) : Point
{
// Calculating rays of inner and outer circles.
var minRay : Number = Math.SQRT2 * square.width / 2;
var maxRay : Number = square.width / 2;
// Calculating the weight of each rays depending on the angle.
var rayAtAngle : Number = ((maxRay - minRay) * Math.abs(Math.cos(angle * 2))) + minRay;
// We have our point.
var point : Point = new Point();
point.x = rayAtAngle * Math.sin(angle) + square.x + (square.width / 2);
point.y = rayAtAngle * Math.cos(angle) + square.y + (square.height / 2);
return point;
}
/**
* Utility method to draw a square of a given size in a new shape.
*/
private function getSquareShape(edgeSize : Number, fillColor : Number) : Shape
{
// Draw the square.
var square : Shape = new Shape();
with(square.graphics) {
lineStyle(1);
beginFill(fillColor);
drawRect(0, 0, edgeSize, edgeSize);
endFill();
}
// Set a random position.
square.x = Math.random() * (stage.stageWidth - square.width);
square.y = Math.random() * (stage.stageHeight - square.height);
return square;
}
}
}
This code isn't totally optimized. The idea is more to explain how it works. Basically, we are defining two (random) squares, and tracing a line between them. To trace the line, we calculate an angle from the center of the first square to the center of the second one, and we use a special method (getSquareBorderPointAtAngle) to extract a point on the square border in the right direction.
This method is the first key point of this snippet. We calculate that using simple circle geometry, with a little complexification on how we make the point match the border instead of matching a circle around or inside the square.
Then, we draw an arrow head. For that, we're making use of the Flash Matrix class, because it's much easier this way than to calculate it from the scratch.
And here we're done.
I was reading the answers here a month ago as I need the same thing. Found this connector drawing example in the meantime, and thought i'd share the link.
The example draws connector lines between uicomponents, and updates the lines as the connectors are dragged. Nice one!
(source: sammyjoeosborne.com)
http://sammyjoeosborne.com/Examples/Connector/ConnectorExample.html
the most simple thing is probably using flash.geom.Point. take both centers c1 and c2. take the vector d that is their difference. depending on its angle (315 to 45, 45 to 135, 135 to 225, 225 to 315) you will know which sides are involved (respectively: right and left, top and bottom, left and right, bottom and top).
then calculate intersections between each side and the line connecting the centers.
the line connecting the centers can be represented as p=t*v+c1 (speaking in vectors). represent the side as a line and then calculate t such that both equations yield the same point p, which is the intersection you are looking for.

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