I have a piece of processing code that I was given, which appears to be setting up a randomized Fourier series. Unfortunately, despite my efforts to improve my mathematical skills, I have no idea what it is doing and the articles I have found are not much help.
I'm trying to extend this code so that I can draw a line tangent to a point on the slope created by the code bellow. The closest I can find to answering this is in the mathematics forum. Unfortunately, I don't really understand what is being discussed or if it really is relevant to my situation.
Any assistance on how I would go about calculating a tangent line at a particular point on this curve would be much appreciated.
UPDATE As of 06/17/13
I've been trying to play around with this, but without much success. This is the best I can do, and I doubt that I'm applying the derivative correctly to find the tangent (or even if I have found the derivative at the point correctly). Also, I'm beginning to worry that I'm not drawing the line correctly even if I have everything else correct. If anyone can provide input on this I'd appreciate it.
final int w = 800;
final int h = 480;
double[] skyline;
PImage img;
int numOfDeriv = 800;
int derivModBy = 1; //Determines how many points will be checked
int time;
int timeDelay = 1000;
int iter;
double[] derivatives;
void setup() {
noStroke();
size(w, h);
fill(0,128,255);
rect(0,0,w,h);
int t[] = terrain(w,h);
fill(77,0,0);
for(int i=0; i < w; i++){
rect(i, h, 1, -1*t[i]);
}
time = millis();
timeDelay = 100;
iter =0;
img = get();
}
void draw() {
int dnum = 0; //Current position of derivatives
if(iter == numOfDeriv) iter = 0;
if (millis() > time + timeDelay){
image(img, 0, 0, width, height);
strokeWeight(4);
stroke(255,0,0);
point((float)iter*derivModBy, height-(float)skyline[iter*derivModBy]);
strokeWeight(1);
stroke(255,255,0);
print("At x = ");
print(iter);
print(", y = ");
print(skyline[iter]);
print(", derivative = ");
print((float)derivatives[iter]);
print('\n');
lineAngle(iter, (int)(height-skyline[iter]), (float)derivatives[iter], 100);
lineAngle(iter, (int)(height-skyline[iter]), (float)derivatives[iter], -100);
stroke(126);
time = millis();
iter += 1;
}
}
void lineAngle(int x, int y, float angle, float length)
{
line(x, y, x+cos(angle)*length, y-sin(angle)*length);
}
int[] terrain(int w, int h){
width = w;
height = h;
//min and max bracket the freq's of the sin/cos series
//The higher the max the hillier the environment
int min = 1, max = 6;
//allocating horizon for screen width
int[] horizon = new int[width];
skyline = new double[width];
derivatives = new double[numOfDeriv];
//ratio of amplitude of screen height to landscape variation
double r = (int) 2.0/5.0;
//number of terms to be used in sine/cosine series
int n = 4;
int[] f = new int[n*2];
//calculating omegas for sine series
for(int i = 0; i < n*2 ; i ++){
f[i] = (int) random(max - min + 1) + min;
}
//amp is the amplitude of the series
int amp = (int) (r*height);
int dnum = 0; //Current number of derivatives
for(int i = 0 ; i < width; i ++){
skyline[i] = 0;
double derivative = 0.0;
for(int j = 0; j < n; j++){
if(i % derivModBy == 0){
derivative += ( cos( (f[j]*PI*i/height) * f[j]*PI/height) -
sin(f[j+n]*PI*i/height) * f[j+n]*PI/height);
}
skyline[i] += ( sin( (f[j]*PI*i/height) ) + cos(f[j+n]*PI*i/height) );
}
skyline[i] *= amp/(n*2);
skyline[i] += (height/2);
skyline[i] = (int)skyline[i];
horizon[i] = (int)skyline[i];
derivative *= amp/(n*2);
if(i % derivModBy == 0){
derivatives[dnum++] = derivative;
derivative = 0;
}
}
return horizon;
}
void reset() {
time = millis();
}
I received an answer to this problem via "quarks" on processing.org form. Essentially the problem is that I was taking the derivative of each term of the series instead of taking the derivative of the sum of the entire series. Also, I wasn't applying my result correctly anyway.
Here is the code that quarks provided that definitively solves this problem.
final int w = 800;
final int h = 480;
float[] skyline;
PImage img;
int numOfDeriv = 800;
int derivModBy = 1; //Determines how many points will be checked
int time;
int timeDelay = 1000;
int iter;
float[] tangents;
public void setup() {
noStroke();
size(w, h);
fill(0, 128, 255);
rect(0, 0, w, h);
terrain(w, h);
fill(77, 0, 0);
for (int i=0; i < w; i++) {
rect(i, h, 1, -1*(int)skyline[i]);
}
time = millis();
timeDelay = 100;
iter =0;
img = get();
}
public void draw() {
if (iter == numOfDeriv) iter = 0;
if (millis() > time + timeDelay) {
image(img, 0, 0, width, height);
strokeWeight(4);
stroke(255, 0, 0);
point((float)iter*derivModBy, height-(float)skyline[iter*derivModBy]);
strokeWeight(1);
stroke(255, 255, 0);
print("At x = ");
print(iter);
print(", y = ");
print(skyline[iter]);
print(", derivative = ");
print((float)tangents[iter]);
print('\n');
lineAngle(iter, (int)(height-skyline[iter]), (float)tangents[iter], 100);
lineAngle(iter, (int)(height-skyline[iter]), (float)tangents[iter], -100);
stroke(126);
time = millis();
iter += 1;
}
}
public void lineAngle(int x, int y, float angle, float length) {
line(x, y, x+cos(angle)*length, y-sin(angle)*length);
}
public void terrain(int w, int h) {
//min and max bracket the freq's of the sin/cos series
//The higher the max the hillier the environment
int min = 1, max = 6;
skyline = new float[w];
tangents = new float[w];
//ratio of amplitude of screen height to landscape variation
double r = (int) 2.0/5.0;
//number of terms to be used in sine/cosine series
int n = 4;
int[] f = new int[n*2];
//calculating omegas for sine series
for (int i = 0; i < n*2 ; i ++) {
f[i] = (int) random(max - min + 1) + min;
}
//amp is the amplitude of the series
int amp = (int) (r*h);
for (int i = 0 ; i < w; i ++) {
skyline[i] = 0;
for (int j = 0; j < n; j++) {
skyline[i] += ( sin( (f[j]*PI*i/h) ) + cos(f[j+n]*PI*i/h) );
}
skyline[i] *= amp/(n*2);
skyline[i] += (h/2);
}
for (int i = 1 ; i < w - 1; i ++) {
tangents[i] = atan2(skyline[i+1] - skyline[i-1], 2);
}
tangents[0] = atan2(skyline[1] - skyline[0], 1);
tangents[w-1] = atan2(skyline[w-2] - skyline[w-1], 1);
}
void reset() {
time = millis();
}