Draw the biggest element conncted using areaContours (OpenCV ) - c++

Question

i m new in this topic.i'm trying to use some openCV library to make a project but i have some problems with findContour,drawContours.After i read an input image and make a tresholding , i use findContours as in the code
cv::Mat cont; // i create a matrix
result2.copyTo(cont); // this is the copy of the input image tresholded
std::vector<std::vector<cv::Point> > contours;
std::vector<cv::Vec4i> hierarchy;
cv::findContours(cont,contours, hierarchy, CV_RETR_EXTERNAL, CV_CHAIN_APPROX_SIMPLE, cv::Point(0,0 ));
eiid::imshow("Im_Find", cont); // I watch the points
for( int s = 0; s< contours.size(); s++ )
{
printf(" * Contour[%d]= Area OpenCV: %.2f \n", s,cv::contourArea(contours[s])) ;
drawContours( cont, contours, s, cv::Scalar(255,255), 10, 1, hierarchy, 0, cv::Point() );
}
eiid::imshow ( "FINE" , cont);
I have 7 elements connected, ( so 7 areaContours)
This is my objective: knowing the areas of my all elemets, I want to draw, to paint, only the biggest area (and so exclude the other 6 areas )
I can't do it , someone can help me please?
(I tried to store my 7 areas in double array but i can't go on :( )
Thanks to answer me man, but i still have a problem. Your code works but i don't know why some pixels are still in the image... When i watch the final image i see my biggest contour but also some white pixels :( .. The problem is that i have to use this algoritm for more pictures, so my code has to be standard for all pictures..Maybe i use uncorrectly the functions??
My image is black and white but Color(255,255) i think is good in my case. Howerver i understood my problem is that findContours put pixels in my image,so i copyed in other image and now i don t have problems. HOwever i still have a problem :( Now i have the biggest contour,but i need to apply it on my original image to exclude some text from it..The problem is that the inside of the biggest contour is black , but in my original image , the inside is white...so i can 't get a operation like " less - " (interseption) ....:( how can i do man?

Answer 1

Just find the biggest one first, then draw.
int idx = -1;
double maxArea = 0.0;
for( int s = 0; s< contours.size(); s++ )
{
double area = cv::contourArea(contours[s]);
if( area > maxArea){
maxArea = area;
idx = s;
}
}
cv::drawContours( cont, contours, idx , cv::Scalar(255,255), 10, 1, hierarchy, 0, cv::Point() );

Answer 2

There we go.
(FYI: try not to be lazy and figure out what happens in my function below.
cv::Mat findBiggestBlob(cv::Mat & matImage){
int largest_area=0;
int largest_contour_index=0;
vector< vector<Point> > contours; // Vector for storing contour
vector<Vec4i> hierarchy;
findContours( matImage, contours, hierarchy,CV_RETR_CCOMP, CV_CHAIN_APPROX_SIMPLE ); // Find the contours in the image
for( int i = 0; i< contours.size(); i++ ) {// iterate through each contour.
double a=contourArea( contours[i],false); // Find the area of contour
if(a>largest_area){
largest_area=a;
largest_contour_index=i; //Store the index of largest contour
//bounding_rect=boundingRect(contours[i]); // Find the bounding rectangle for biggest contour
}
}
drawContours( matImage, contours, largest_contour_index, Scalar(255), CV_FILLED, 8, hierarchy ); // Draw the largest contour using previously stored index.
return matImage;
}