This project shows how one can use machine learning to enable the recognition of complex gestures in an iOS app. See the articles:

• A new approach to touch-based mobile interaction
• Smart Gesture Recognition in iOS 11 with Core ML and TensorFlow

The sample data and demo app support 13 gestures which the latter distinguishes with high accuracy: check marks, x marks, ascending diagonals, "scribbles" (rapid side-to-side motion while moving either up or down), circles, U shapes, hearts, plus signs, question marks, capital A, capital B, happy faces and sad faces.

File layout:

• apps/
  • GestureInput: An iOS app for inputting examples of gestures and maintaining a set of them. Runs on iOS 10.
  • GestureRecognizer: An iOS app that uses the model trained by gesturelearner to classify gestures drawn by the user in real time. Specifically, it contains a Core ML .mlmodel file generated by gesturelearner/save_mlmodel.py. Since Core ML is new with iOS 11, this app only runs there.
• gesturelearner: Scripts that manipulate the set of gestures produced by GestureInput and use TensorFlow to train a model that will recognize them
• sample_data: A sample data set from GestureInput with 1300 examples of 13 different gestures (100 each). Also includes a trained TensorFlow model.

Since GestureRecognizer requires iOS 11, you'll need to have Xcode 9 set up and a device running iOS 11.

Set up GestureInput and GestureRecognizer:

# Make sure Xcode 9 is selected.
# sudo xcode-select -s /Applications/Xcode.app/Contents/Developer

cd apps/GestureInput
carthage bootstrap --platform iOS
cd ../GestureRecognizer
carthage bootstrap --platform iOS

If you just want to try out GestureRecognizer, you don't need to train a new model yourself. Otherwise, set up gesturelearner with virtualenv:

cd gesturelearner

# Until coremltools supports Python 3, use Python 2.7.
virtualenv -p $(which python2.7) venv
# Activate the virtualenv.
source venv/bin/activate

pip install -r requirements.txt

GestureInput saves the data set in two files in the Documents folder of its application container:

• dataset.dataset: The primary storage, which stores the full time sequence of touch positions for each example. This file is only used by GestureInput.
• dataset.trainingset: This file is generated by the "Rasterize" button. It converts all the gesture examples into images, storing them and their labels in this file. This is the file that gesturelearner uses for training.

Follow these instructions to download the container and get dataset.trainingset.

If you want to add to the sample data, you'll need to transfer it to the device. Download the application container, put the sample dataset.trainingset file in the Documents folder and replace the container.

Start by activating gesturelearner's virtual environment with source venv/bin/activate.

Typical use of gesturelearner would be:

# Split the rasterized data set into an 85% training set and 15% test set (the holdout method).
# Replace `/path/to/gesturelearner` with the actual path.
python /path/to/gesturelearner/filter.py --test-fraction=0.15 data.trainingset

# Convert the generated files to TensorFlow data files.
python /path/to/gesturelearner/convert_to_tfrecords.py data_filtered.trainingset
python /path/to/gesturelearner/convert_to_tfrecords.py data_filtered_test.trainingset

# Train the neural network.
python /path/to/gesturelearner/train.py --test-file=data_filtered_test.tfrecords data_filtered.tfrecords

# Save a Core ML .mlmodel file.
python /path/to/gesturelearner/save_mlmodel.py model.ckpt

The generated model.mlmodel file can be added to Xcode 9 which will automatically generate a Swift type for using the model. The model used by GestureRecognizer is at GestureRecognizer/Source/Resources/GestureModel.mlmodel.

GestureInput, GestureRecognizer and gesturelearner all get the list of classes from the Label enum in touches.proto, which is currently duplicated at apps/Common/Protobuf/touches.proto and gesturelearner/protobuf/touches.proto.

If you add a gesture class to touches.proto, you'll need to:

• Make sure you keep the list of label values in ascending order.
• If you want to use the sample data provided in this repository, make sure you preserve the enum values of the existing gesture classes.
• Run the protobuf protoc utility to regenerate touches.pb.swift and touches_pb2.py. For touches.pb.swift you'll need to install swift-protobuf and follow the instructions at that repository. For touches_pb2.py, see these instructions.
• Add your new class to Touches_Label.all in apps/Common/Label+Extensions.swift so that the order of classes there matches their order in touches.proto.
• In Label+Extensions.swift, give your new class a name to be displayed in the iOS apps.