I’ve got a little bit of spare time on my hands at the moment and have started to go back through the apps I’ve built and think about updating them. A big one on my list is Sudoku Grab - the first app I ever wrote, published back in 2009!

The first step in this was to actually get the code building with the latest version of Xcode. After a bit of a cull of some very old) libraries it actually built and ran!

The next step was to upgrade to ARC - this was relatively painless except for some usages of NSInvocation which I’d used for building some dynamic menus.

NSInvocation doesn’t seem to be recommended anymore, blocks are the new way of doing the kind of thing I was doing, so I was resigned to rewriting this bit of code until I realised that the only place it was being used was in the grab from camera menu. Since I’m going to be reworking the UI anyway I decided to leave in place until later.

I’m planning on simplifying the menu system quite a bit - my current plan is to replace the front screen with it’s large icons with a simpler menu structure which will combine several levels into one menu.

My current plan is to do that first and get it working nicely with iOS7 and 4 inch display sizes. And then go through each of the old screens making sure they work with both screen sizes and iOS7.

I think for this initial update that should be enough. Taking a brief look at the way the puzzles are persisted I think that another update could add synching over iCloud so that puzzles are available on all your devices. This does not look too hard - but I think the main thing to do first will be to get the UI modernised and updated.

One bonus of doing this update - I can definitely justify the need to get a iPhone5s now!

Related Posts

Version 2 of SudokuGrab released - We've updated SudokuGrab with some major enhancements including iCloud syncing for your puzzles and support for iPads. There are a few bugs we're aware of and we're actively working to fix them in the coming weeks, with a new version already submitted to the app store.

Sudoku Grab Removed From Sale in Japan - Just got an email from Apple, claiming that my app 'Sudoku Grab' infringes on intellectual property rights of Nikoli.Co.Ltd. So, as a precaution, I've taken Sudoku Grab off the shelves in Japan.

25000 copies downloaded! - I'm thrilled to announce that Sudoku Grab has reached 25000 downloads! As a token of gratitude, the app will be available for free until the 25th June. A huge thank you to everyone who has purchased the app and for all the valuable feedback.

Augmented Reality In The Browser - This blog showcases the progress of my idea to create an augmented reality Sudoku solver using technology that enables us to solve puzzles in our browser rather than with dedicated apps. I have developed an AR Sudoku solver with a simple image processing pipeline. It identifies and extracts Sudoku puzzles from pictures, recognizes each cell's numbers, solves the puzzle, and renders the solution on top of the original image. This process is accomplished by converting the image to greyscale, conducting thresholding, OCR-processing, and puzzle-solving. I've also done parallel image location and extraction. It's a technical journey that's achieved some high-quality, low-drift results, visible in the video included. The full codebase is accessible on Github. Enjoy the joy of leveraging technology to efficiently solve Sudoku puzzles!

How does it all work? - In this blog, I explain the process behind my Sudoku Grab app, a solution that uses basic image processing techniques to recognize Sudoku puzzles. This is done by locating the puzzle in an image, turning it back into a square form, segmenting it to find potential numbers, and lastly, recognizing those numbers. This involves simple thresholding techniques, blob extraction algorithm, perspective transform, and a Neural Network for Optical Character Recognition (OCR) to recognize digits from the photograph. I conclude by mentioning the potential for multiple enhancements to this process.

Related Videos

Sudoku Grab for the iPhone - Unleash the power of technology to effortlessly solve Sudoku puzzles with this incredible iPhone App available on the App Store! Click to learn more and get started.

Augmented Reality iPhone Sudoku Grab - Experience real-time augmented reality capture with the new version of Sudoku Grab! Learn to build your own app with detailed guidance provided in the linked article.

AR Sudoku Solver in Your Browser: TensorFlow & Image Processing Magic - Discover how to recreate a Sudoku app using browser APIs and ecosystem advancements, and explore the image processing pipeline technique for extracting Sudoku puzzles and solving them.

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