YOKOHAMA (Señor Tomato) – Several days ago, I released my second app with ARKit, which made me think to myself “What else can I do with ARKit?” How about a speed gun? Can we use ARKit to make the iPhone camera a speed gun? That’s how this new ARKit project started. The first prototype was horrible because it posted a moving vehicle speed of 522 km/h or something, which shouldn’t happen especially on a public street. Then I incorporated Core ML (Machine Learning) into the Xcode project to identify a moving vehicle. But that was only the beginning of a long road because the app still posted a moving vehicle speed of 270 km/h or something. After all, I completely changed the way how it estimates the speed of a moving object. That was basically the game-changing decision. The result of two dozen field tests over three days is Move & Roll.

Move & Roll is an iPhone-only iOS app that lets you keep track of a moving vehicle so that you can estimate its maximum speed. And it works in the portrait mode (vertical) only. Move & Roll uses Core ML (Machine Learning) to identify a moving vehicle so that it will show its position with a green rectangle on the camera screen. When the app identifies a moving object as a vehicle (bicycle, motorbike, car, bus, truck), it tells you what this vehicle type is on the diagnostic panel at the top-left corner of the screen. The status label will then turn orange and says ‘TRACKING VEHICLE.’ Finally, it will show its estimated maximum speed at the bottom and then look for a new target.

So the following is how you use this app. You stay away from traffic by 20 to 30 yards (20 to meters) and hold your device tight running Move & Roll. You select the speed unit and the minimum speed to record when the app starts up. Then tap the Start button. And the app will navigate to the Camera screen. Now, turn the camera screen towards the road and tilt it by 10 to 15 degrees towards incoming or outgoing traffic and stay still. When you see a moving vehicle, do not follow it by moving yourself or the device. Just let the app follow the moving object. Once the app finds a target, a green rectangle will cover it. And this green rectangle will keep following the fleeing target.

After tracking one moving object, you don’t have to go back the Startup screen. The app will accumulate vehicle records while you are on the camera screen. When you finally return to the Startup screen, the app will list all vehicle records each with the maximum speed estimate and its vehicle type. You can tap the orange Upload button to save this list as a text file. If you tap a resulting file, Files.app will open it with Numbers by default.

When you use your device as a speed gun with this app, bear in mind that Move & Roll will only give you an estimated speed of a moving vehicle. It does its best in making an estimate, but it will never beat an actual speed gun in accuracy.   Continue reading →

YOKOHAMA (Señor Tomato) – SwiftUI does not natively support Augmented Reality (AR). That’s one story. Developing an app with AR is another. A year ago from last summer, I had my first AR app. It is quite difficult to figure out how you can use AR, isn’t it? Finally, I now have a second AR app, which I submitted to Apple’s App Store a few minutes ago. This new software release is called Gappp.

Gappp is an iOS app for iPhone and iPad users that lets you measure an object size on a flat or vertical surface. You can measure an object size on the ceiling that you cannot normally reach. You can even measure an object at a different building that without physically going there.

Using Gappp is quite simple. After switching to the Camera screen, wait for the square color to turn green. Then use the slider at the bottom to adjust the square size matching that of the object that you want to measure. You can also pinch-adjust the color square itself. When you are ready, simply tap the screen. And the app will send a measurement record to main screen. You can tap the screen to measure another object without going back to the main screen. When you are finished, you should find a list of recorded measurements at the bottom. Finally, tap the orange upload toolbar button to save this list a file.   Continue reading →

YOKOHAMA (Señor Tomato) – Back in last August and September, I produced nine software titles in each of those months. 9 is the monthly record. If I make some many apps, I can inevitably run out of software development ideas. So I will be very slow this month. I’ve somehow managed to find a new software development idea, though. This new software release is called iLook4Faces 3.

The Look4Faces is an 11-year-old series. And iLook4Faces 3 is an iOS app for iPhone and iPad users that lets you scan a video you select to find frames containing faces. The app will loop through frames to find ones containing one or more faces. You can tap the Abort button at any time if you want to abort the process. When it’s done, the app will show all frames with faces in a horizontal scroll view. You can save any of them by tapping and highlighting one and then tap the Save toolbar button at the top-right corner.   Continue reading →

YOKOHAMA (Señor Tomato) – Super Highlight Mobile is an iOS app for iPhone and iPad users that exclusively works with PDF documents. You can use it to highlight a selection of text with a color you select. It’s not just a single selection of text. You can highlight every single occurrence of text you enter in a text field throughout the document with the tap of a button. Moreover, you can remove all highlighters with the tap of a button as well. Additionally, you can turn on or off the case-insensitive switch and then tap the Highlight All button if case sensitivity is important to you.

Super Highlight Mobile supports a full undo/redo stack. You can undo and redo the last highlight action by tapping the orange Undo or Redo button. If you change the highlight color, you can undo it as well.

Super Highlight Mobile isn’t an ordinary iOS app that works with PDF documents. It works side by side with its macOS counterpart (Super Highlight Desktop). You can push the revised PDF document with the tap of a button so that you can view it with the macOS counterpart. Super Highlight Mobile also lets you fetch all PDF documents pushed by Macs and other iOS devices of yours with the tap of a button. Just make sure that they all use the same iCloud account so that you can share PDF documents across different devices.   Continue reading →

YOKOHAMA (Señor Tomato) – ここのところ雨続きの日々の連続ですが、皆さんどのようにお過ごしでしょうか？関東地方で9月にこれほど連続して雨が降るのはあまり記憶がありません。確か2015年の4月に雨日が長く続いたのは覚えています。しかも最高気温が30度になったり、次の日にそれが21・2度に下がることもあるので、皆さん体調管理に気を付けてください。

さて久々に日本語化にしたアプリを紹介します。この製品は日本人の方々だけに使ってもらうためのiPhoneとiPad用のアプリです。だから標準言語が日本語になっています。製品名は「薬の時間ですよ」と言います。

日本で一般に普及している薬の服用の仕方は海外ではあまり見当たりませんね。日本では食前30分とか食後2時間以内とかいう服用の仕方が一般的です。もし服用薬が1種類であれば服用時間を間違えることはないかもしれませんが、それが3種類・4種類となると、それらの服用時間を間違えないようにするのにも気遣いが必要でしょう。そのような方々のためにつくったのがこの「薬の時間ですよ」です。名前のごとく、この製品ではそれぞれの薬に対して服用時間を設定することができ、服用時間になる度に端末に通知が送られます。またそれぞれの薬に対して毎日服用するのか、或いは特定の曜日を設定することができ、毎日その日にだけ服用する薬の情報が画面下に列挙され、しかも服用方法（食前・食後30分など）も確認することができます。

「薬の時間ですよ」では薬の服用済み・未服用をそれぞれの登録薬に関して毎日記録できるようになっています。「服用済み」にしたい場合は時間のボタンをタップすることで、右横の「未服用」の表示が「服用済み」に変わり、戻したい場合は同じ時間のボタンをタップするだけです。もし服用履歴を確認したい場合は、画面上で特定の服用薬のアイコンをタップした後に右にスクロールして「記録」ボタンをタップすることで、その薬の全服用履歴を確認することができます。

もし複数のiOS端末を使っているのであれば、登録した服用薬の情報を他の端末で再度入力する必要はありません。同じiCloudアカウントを使うことで1つの端末で登録した服用薬の情報は自動的に他の端末にも共有されからです。ただ服用履歴は共有されないのでご注意ください。  Continue reading →