Question

I two concentric circles on the screen and I want the circle on the inside to move around while the user drags their finger around the outside of the larger circle. This means that I have two point, center of the larger circle and the point at which the user touched. How do I calculate where the center of the smaller circle should be?

Answer 1

Ok, if you’re drawing a persons eyes it is a completely different matter.

If we start with the following values

• re: the radius of the eye
• rp: the radius of the pupil
• p1 = (x1, y1): the coordinates of
  the center of the eye
• p2 = (x2, y2): the coordinates of
  the users touch
• v1 = [x3; y3]: the direction vector between p1 and p2.
  • x3 = (x1 - x2)
  • y3 = (y1 - y2)
• l = sqrt((x3)^2 + (y3)^2): the length of v1

Then do the following steps

1. Check if the user is touching within re - rp of the middle of the eye (i.e. l < (re - rp)), it he/she is draw the pupil at p2 and do no more.
2. Otherwise draw the pupil at x coordinate (re - rp) * x3 / l + x1 and y coordinate (re - rp) * y3 / l + y1

If you have more than one eye, just repeat the steps for the other ones.

I certainly hope you understand what I mean by this, if you don’t just ask away.