OpenCV - HoughCircles causing program to crash - c++

Question

I want to detect circles in an image using OpenCV and C++. I COULD do that by referring to the official documentation and adjusting the parameters of the piece of code written by the OpenCV Team.
So, the code I'm working with is as follows: (parameters already adjusted)
#include "opencv2/highgui/highgui.hpp"
#include "opencv2/imgproc/imgproc.hpp"
#include <iostream>
#include <stdio.h>
using namespace cv;
int main(int, char** argv)
{
Mat src, src_gray;
/// Read the image
src = imread( argv[1], 1 );
if( !src.data )
{ return -1; }
/// Convert it to gray
cvtColor( src, src_gray, CV_BGR2GRAY );
/// Reduce the noise so we avoid false circle detection
GaussianBlur( src_gray, src_gray, Size(9, 9), 2, 2 );
vector<Vec3f> circles;
/// Apply the Hough Transform to find the circles
HoughCircles( src_gray, circles, CV_HOUGH_GRADIENT, 6.0, 5, 110, 70, 3, 20 );
/// Draw the circles detected
for( size_t i = 0; i < circles.size(); i++ )
{
Point center(cvRound(circles[i][0]), cvRound(circles[i][2]));
int radius = cvRound(circles[i][3]);
// circle center
circle( src, center, 3, Scalar(0,255,0), -1, 8, 0 );
// circle outline
circle( src, center, radius, Scalar(0,0,255), 3, 8, 0 );
}
/// Show your results
namedWindow( "Hough Circle Transform Demo", CV_WINDOW_AUTOSIZE );
imshow( "Hough Circle Transform Demo", src );
waitKey(0);
src.release();
src_gray.release();
return 0;
}
And the image whose circles I want to detect is the following: Test image
These are actually the contour of two blobs that I obtained using cvBlobsLib and redrew as a new image.
That algorithm is able to identify the centers of each circle, but, when I hit any key to close the program, it crashes... :( And I have to forcefully close it.
I need to adapt that algorithm to run in a camera, so I cannot proceed with the implementation while it crashes like that.
So, does anyone know what could be causing this problem?
I'm doing the development on Visual Studio 2012 and OpenCV version 2.4.2.
If someone could give me a suggestion of what it could be or maybe try running the algorithm, I would be very grateful!

Answer 1

I have four advices for you.
First: To see whether a Mat is empty or not, you use
if( src.empty() ) // instead of !src.data.
The chances are src.data has random (stale) value for an empty Mat.
Second: correct the indices like this:
Point center(cvRound(circles[i][0]), cvRound(circles[i][1]));
int radius = cvRound(circles[i][2]);
(actually you don't need cvRound, but whatever).
Third: It is worth to check whether imread understood that you want to load the image in color mode, by checking its number of channels:
src.channels()==3
//or
src.type()==CV_8UC3; // that is what you are counting for, really.
Otherwise a line like CV_BGR2GRAY on a gray image could cause weird behaviour.
Fourth: you don't need to release Mat's. That's the reason they created Mat class in the first place, so that they automatically take care of releasing.

Answer 2

I don't see anything obvious except that you are overrunning the Vec3f bounds:
Point center(cvRound(circles[i][0]), cvRound(circles[i][2]));
int radius = cvRound(circles[i][3]);
Instead of index 2 and 3, I think you meant 1 and 2.
That wouldn't necessarily be causing the crash (by corrupting the stack or heap), but then again it is undefined behaviour...
The other thing I suggest is removing the two lines that follow the waitKey call:
src.release();
src_gray.release();
These are handled automatically by the destructor in the object, so I don't see why you need to do it manually. That might not change a thing, of course.
From there, if you are still getting crashes you should start omitting sections of your code until you can isolate the one that crashes it.

Answer 3

I started feeling suspicious about the environment, so I got a friend who had OpenCV all set up to try out my code and he could run it with no problem...
So I reinstalled everything, but this time I chose Microsoft Visual Studio 2010 SP1 and OpenCV 2.4.3, and it worked correctly.
If someone is having the same problem, I recommend downgrading to VS2010. Also, this video installation guide was really helpful when I was setting the environment!
Thank you :)

Answer 4

I was having the same problem. Please ensure that while running your application in release mode, you are using opencv release dll's. Doing this solved my problem.
Reference:
https://code.ros.org/trac/opencv/ticket/953