I'm having some trouble using x and y coordinates from touchesBegan as the center key in a CI filter - swift

Question

I'm trying to setup having the users tap a location in an image view and the X,Y of the tap becomes the center point (kCIInputCenterKey) of the current image filter in use.
These are my global variables:
var x: CGFloat = 0
var y: CGFloat = 0
var imgChecker = 0
This is my touchesBegan function that checks if the user is touching inside the image view or not, if not then sets the filter center key to the center of the image view:
override func touchesBegan(_ touches: Set<UITouch>, with event: UIEvent?) {
if let touch = touches.first {
let position = touch.location(in: self.imageView)
if (touch.view == imageView){
print("touchesBegan | This is an ImageView")
x = position.x * 4
y = position.y * 4
imgChecker = 1
}else{
print("touchesBegan | This is not an ImageView")
x = 0
y = 0
imgChecker = 0
}
print("x: \(x)")
print("y: \(y)")
}
}
As you can see I have the checker there to make the filter center appear in the middle of the image if inside the image view was not tapped. I'm also printing out the coordinates tapped to xCode's console and they appear without issue.
This is the part where i apply my filter:
currentFilter = CIFilter(name: "CIBumpDistortion")
currentFilter.setValue(200, forKey: kCIInputRadiusKey)
currentFilter.setValue(1, forKey: kCIInputScaleKey)
if imgChecker == 1 {
self.currentFilter.setValue(CIVector(x: self.x, y: self.y), forKey: kCIInputCenterKey)
}else{
self.currentFilter.setValue(CIVector(x: currentImage.size.width / 2, y: currentImage.size.height / 2), forKey: kCIInputCenterKey)
}
x = 0
y = 0
let beginImage = CIImage(image: currentImage)
currentFilter.setValue(beginImage, forKey: kCIInputImageKey)
let cgimg = context.createCGImage(currentFilter.outputImage!, from: currentFilter.outputImage!.extent)
currentImage = UIImage(cgImage: cgimg!)
self.imageView.image = currentImage
This is the CGRect I'm using, ignore the "frame" in there, its just a image view in front of the first one that allows me to save a "frame" over the current filtered image:
func drawImagesAndText() {
let renderer = UIGraphicsImageRenderer(size: CGSize(width: imageView.bounds.size.width, height: imageView.bounds.size.height))
img = renderer.image { ctx in
let bgImage = currentImage
bgImage?.draw(in: CGRect(x: 0, y: 0, width: imageView.bounds.size.width, height: imageView.bounds.size.height))
frames = UIImage(named: framesAr)
frames?.draw(in: CGRect(x: 0, y: 0, width: imageView.bounds.size.width, height: imageView.bounds.size.height))
}
}
When I do set the x,y by tapping inside the image view, the center of the filter in the image view keeps appearing in the lower left hand side of it regardless of where I tapped inside. If i keep tapping around the image view, the center does seem to move around a bit, but its no where near where I'm actually tapping.
any insight would be greatly appreciated, thank you.

Answer 1

Keep two things in mind.
First (and I think you probably know this), the CI origin (0,0) is lower left, not top left.
Second (and I think this is the issue) UIKit (meaning UIImage and potentially CGPoint coordinates) are not the same as CIVector coordinates. You need to take the UIKit touchesBegan coordinate and turn it into the CIImage.extent coordinate.
EDIT:
All coordinates that follow are X then Y, and Width then Height.
After posting my comment I thought I'd give an example of what I mean by scaling. Let's say you have a UIImageView sized at 250x250, using a content mode of AspectFit, displaying an image whose size is 1000x500.
Now, let's say the touchesBegan is CGPoint(200,100). (NOTE: If your UIImageView is part of a larger superview, it could be something more like 250,400 - I'm working on the point within the UIImageView.)
Scaling down the image size (remember, AspectFit) means the image is actually centered vertically (landscape appearing) within the UIImageView at CGRect(0, 62.5, 250, 125). So first off, good! The touch point not only began within the image view, it also began wishing the image. (You'll probably want to consider the not-so-edge case of touches beginning outside of the image.)
Dividing by 4 gives you the scaled down image view coordinates, and as you'd expect, multiplying up will give you the needed vector coordinates. So a touchesBegan CGPoint(200,100) turns into a CIVector(800,400).
I have some code written - not much in the way of comments, done in Swift 2 (I think) and very poorly written - that is part of a subclass (probably should have been an extension) of UIImageView that computes all this. Using the UIImageView's bounds and it's image's size is what you need. Keep in mind - images in AspectFit can also be scaled up!
One last note on CIImage - extent. Many times it's a UIImage's size. But many masks and generated output may have an infinite eatent.
SECOND EDIT:
I made a stupid mistake in my scaling example. Remember, the CIImage Origin is bottom left, not upper left. So in my example a CGPoint(200,100), scaled to CGPoint(800,400) would be CGVector(800,100).
THIRD EDIT:
Apologies for the multiple/running edits, but it seems important. (Besides, only the last was due my stupidity! Worthwhile, to note, but still.)
Now we're talking "near real time" updating using a Core Image filter. I'm planning to eventually have some blog posts on this, but the real source you want is Simon Gladman (he's moved on, look back to his posts in 2015-16), and his eBook Core Image for Swift (uses Swift 2 but most is automatically upgraded to Swift 3). Just giving credit where it is due.
If you want "near real time" usage of Core Image, you need to use the GPU. UIView, and all it's subclasses (meaning UIKit) uses the CPU. That's okay, using the GPU means using a Core Graphics, and specifically using a GLKView. It's the CG equivalent of a UIImage.
Here's my subclass of it:
open class GLKViewDFD: GLKView {
var renderContext: CIContext
var myClearColor:UIColor!
var rgb:(Int?,Int?,Int?)!
open var image: CIImage! {
didSet {
setNeedsDisplay()
}
}
public var clearColor: UIColor! {
didSet {
myClearColor = clearColor
}
}
public init() {
let eaglContext = EAGLContext(api: .openGLES2)
renderContext = CIContext(eaglContext: eaglContext!)
super.init(frame: CGRect.zero)
context = eaglContext!
}
override public init(frame: CGRect, context: EAGLContext) {
renderContext = CIContext(eaglContext: context)
super.init(frame: frame, context: context)
enableSetNeedsDisplay = true
}
public required init?(coder aDecoder: NSCoder) {
let eaglContext = EAGLContext(api: .openGLES2)
renderContext = CIContext(eaglContext: eaglContext!)
super.init(coder: aDecoder)
context = eaglContext!
enableSetNeedsDisplay = true
}
override open func draw(_ rect: CGRect) {
if let image = image {
let imageSize = image.extent.size
var drawFrame = CGRect(x: 0, y: 0, width: CGFloat(drawableWidth), height: CGFloat(drawableHeight))
let imageAR = imageSize.width / imageSize.height
let viewAR = drawFrame.width / drawFrame.height
if imageAR > viewAR {
drawFrame.origin.y += (drawFrame.height - drawFrame.width / imageAR) / 2.0
drawFrame.size.height = drawFrame.width / imageAR
} else {
drawFrame.origin.x += (drawFrame.width - drawFrame.height * imageAR) / 2.0
drawFrame.size.width = drawFrame.height * imageAR
}
rgb = (0,0,0)
rgb = myClearColor.rgb()
glClearColor(Float(rgb.0!)/256.0, Float(rgb.1!)/256.0, Float(rgb.2!)/256.0, 0.0);
glClear(0x00004000)
// set the blend mode to "source over" so that CI will use that
glEnable(0x0BE2);
glBlendFunc(1, 0x0303);
renderContext.draw(image, in: drawFrame, from: image.extent)
}
}
}
A few notes.
I absolutely need to credit Objc.io for much of this. This is also a great resource for Swift and UIKit coding.
I wanted AspectFit content mode with the potential to change the "backgroundColor" of the GLKView, which is why I subclassed and and called if clearColor.
Between the two resources I linked to, you should have what you need to have a good performing, near real time use of Core Image, using the GPU. One reason my afore-mentioned code to use scaling after getting the output of a filter was never updated? It didn't need it.
Lots here to process, I know. But I've found this side of things (Core Image effects) to be the most fun side (and pretty cool too) of iOS.