

Show HN: iOS Motion Library – detect a backtap, knock and wave in your app - kiwiwearables
http://www.kiwimotion.io
Try out an alpha version of our new iOS motion library.
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yojimbo311
I was really excited to try this out, but then I hit the requirement to
provide contact information just to download the library. This is, for good or
bad, always off putting to me. I don't consider the need to collect certain
information bad in itself as long as it's reasonable or at least justified. In
this case however, there's a distinct lack of communication as to why the
information is being collected and that makes me wary (it's also fairly common
recently so this isn't the only offender). I can make all sorts of my own
assumptions as to why the developers would need that information, but after
being bitten a few times by folks who have been a little less than transparent
with their actual use of that information I'd prefer not to rely on my own
assumptions.

Some feedback based on my experience (take with a healthy dose of salt):

\- The quickstart menu item is the only one that takes you away from the main
page which interrupts the experience when using this particular style of
pagination. The way back to the main page from the quickstart page is also not
particularly obvious (just a back arrow within the logo would be sufficient).

\- A big red flag is the counter counting how many gestures have been
"tracked" leading me to believe that there's some sort of phone home going on
which, all things being equal, doesn't make too much sense for a gesture
library (unless some explanation is provided).

\- Another big red flag is no mention of why the need for a full name is
required in addition to the email, or why the email is necessary for the
download (It's mentioned that it will be sent to the email if the user scrolls
down to the 2nd form, but not in the first "page").

\- No obvious way to provide feedback is immediately available (I assume it's
provided in whatever email communication is made or within the library
itself).

(edit formatting)

~~~
sarreph
Yeah... what I thought:

Intercepting the traffic coming out of the app shows me its making api
requests to [http://api.parse.com](http://api.parse.com) — so, basically, I
would imagine it's sending some kind of usage data (can't yet decipher the
headers as I don't have time) back to Parse.com, which is allowing it to
'phone home'.

Also... this is happening with _every_ motion gesture attempt.

 _sigh_

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sekasi
Applaud the efforts. Motion/gesture libraries in general are notoriously
tricky to get right.

I am a little bit confused at the three gestures you chose in terms of
'launching' with. Recording custom motions and a good path to implement those
could be incredibly useful, but I'm a little bit hesitant at the real world
use of the 'knock' and 'backtap'.

Either way, signed up. Keen.

The use of backgrounds in that website make it a little bit hard to read
stuff, by the way :)

What are the plans long-term for this?

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mattchamb
My current favourite use of gesture control is the Peek option for the glance
screen in WP8 [1]. I find it sits in a nice spot where it allows crude
interaction with the device when you dont want to commit to fully interacting
with it. Similarly with the xbox one gesture controls - I use them as a last
resort when I dont want to commit to making full use of the device; such as
when I am sitting on the sofa and want to change it to watching TV and all
other controls are out of range.

Also, sorry for being off-topic, but as someone from New Zealand I find the
name to be slightly confusing. Is there any connection to NZ, the fruit or the
bird? I'm not complaining, just sounds odd to me.

[1] [http://www.wpcentral.com/nokia-brings-new-hover-feature-
lumi...](http://www.wpcentral.com/nokia-brings-new-hover-feature-lumia-
devices-quickly-turn-display)

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notjosh
The library looks great - congrats on that!

Just one small gripe: the name. Kiwi ([https://github.com/kiwi-
bdd/Kiwi](https://github.com/kiwi-bdd/Kiwi)) is a (pretty popular!) BDD
testing framework for iOS. Maybe consider renaming, as two Kiwi libraries in
one project is confusing :)

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thomasjoulin
The lib is 17.7MB, that's pretty big for tap detections

Direct link to download: [http://www.kiwimotion.io/library/kiwi-motion-app-
master.zip](http://www.kiwimotion.io/library/kiwi-motion-app-master.zip)

~~~
sarreph
I'm pretty sure it's so big because it includes the Parse framework (31MB
framework, uncompressed)

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alinawab
thanks for your note. Gestures are indeed tricky and hence the alpha version.
We initially started as a custom gesture library, but realized that even basic
back tap type gestures could be useful to augment existing apps.

thanks for your feedback on the site. Ali

What other languages are you interested in using?, we will likely publish a
node version next if there is interest

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yawz
Just signed up for it and I'm going to give it a try as soon as I can. Has
anyone had any (good or bad) experience with it?

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abcd_f
> 328 taps have been captured and 352 developers have joined

Is library phoning home?

~~~
sarreph
Yeah... see my comment to @yojimbo...

