GrabCut reading mask from PNG file in OpenCV (C++) - c++

Question

The implementation of this functionality seems pretty straightforward in Python, as shown here: http://docs.opencv.org/trunk/doc/py_tutorials/py_imgproc/py_grabcut/py_grabcut.html
Yet, when I tried to do exactly the same in C++, I get bad arguments error (for the grabcut function). How to put the mask image in the right format?
I am a newbie at this, so I'd be very thankful if someone could help me understand better. Thank you!
Here's what I have so far:
Mat image;
image= imread(file);
Mat mask;
mask.setTo( GC_BGD );
mask = imread("messi5.png");
Mat image2 = image.clone();
// define bounding rectangle
cv::Rect rectangle(startX, startY, width, height);
cv::Mat result; // segmentation result (4 possible values)
cv::Mat bgModel,fgModel; // the models (internally used)
//// GrabCut segmentation that works, but with a rectangle, not with the mask I need
//cv::grabCut(image, // input image
// result, // segmentation result
// rectangle,// rectangle containing foreground
// bgModel,fgModel, // models
// 1, // number of iterations
// cv::GC_INIT_WITH_RECT); // use rectangle
grabCut( image, mask, rectangle, bgModel, fgModel, 1, GC_INIT_WITH_MASK);
cv::compare(mask,cv::GC_PR_FGD,mask,cv::CMP_EQ);
cv::Mat foreground(image.size(),CV_8UC3,cv::Scalar(255,255,255));
image.copyTo(foreground,mask); // bg pixels not copied
namedWindow( "Display window", WINDOW_AUTOSIZE );
imshow( "Display window", foreground );
waitKey(0);
return 0;
}

Answer 1

It looks like you have misunderstood the guide, repeated here from the linked guide in the question:
# newmask is the mask image I manually labelled
newmask = cv2.imread('newmask.png',0)
# whereever it is marked white (sure foreground), change mask=1
# whereever it is marked black (sure background), change mask=0
mask[newmask == 0] = 0
mask[newmask == 255] = 1
mask, bgdModel, fgdModel = cv2.grabCut(img,mask,None,bgdModel,fgdModel,5,cv2.GC_INIT_WITH_MASK)
mask = np.where((mask==2)|(mask==0),0,1).astype('uint8')
img = img*mask[:,:,np.newaxis]
plt.imshow(img),plt.colorbar(),plt.show()
this is not what you have done i'm afraid. For a start you seem to have set the mask to the rgb image:
mask = imread("messi5.png");
whereas is should be set to the mask image:
mask = imread("newmask.png",CV_LOAD_IMAGE_GRAYSCALE);
EDIT from comments:
from a pure red mask painted over the image (an actual mask would be better).
maskTmp = imread("messi5.png");
std::vector<cv::Mat> channels(3)
split( messi5, channels);
cv::Mat maskRed = channels[2];
now threshold on the red channel to get your binary mask.