Convert RGB to Black & White in OpenCV - c++

I would like to know how to convert an RGB image into a black & white (binary) image.
After conversion, how can I save the modified image to disk?

AFAIK, you have to convert it to grayscale and then threshold it to binary.
1. Read the image as a grayscale image
If you're reading the RGB image from disk, then you can directly read it as a grayscale image, like this:
// C
IplImage* im_gray = cvLoadImage("image.jpg",CV_LOAD_IMAGE_GRAYSCALE);
// C++ (OpenCV 2.0)
Mat im_gray = imread("image.jpg",CV_LOAD_IMAGE_GRAYSCALE);
2. Convert an RGB image im_rgb into a grayscale image: Otherwise, you'll have to convert the previously obtained RGB image into a grayscale image
// C
IplImage *im_rgb = cvLoadImage("image.jpg");
IplImage *im_gray = cvCreateImage(cvGetSize(im_rgb),IPL_DEPTH_8U,1);
cvCvtColor(im_rgb,im_gray,CV_RGB2GRAY);
// C++
Mat im_rgb = imread("image.jpg");
Mat im_gray;
cvtColor(im_rgb,im_gray,CV_RGB2GRAY);
3. Convert to binary
You can use adaptive thresholding or fixed-level thresholding to convert your grayscale image to a binary image.
E.g. in C you can do the following (you can also do the same in C++ with Mat and the corresponding functions):
// C
IplImage* im_bw = cvCreateImage(cvGetSize(im_gray),IPL_DEPTH_8U,1);
cvThreshold(im_gray, im_bw, 128, 255, CV_THRESH_BINARY | CV_THRESH_OTSU);
// C++
Mat img_bw = im_gray > 128;
In the above example, 128 is the threshold.
4. Save to disk
// C
cvSaveImage("image_bw.jpg",img_bw);
// C++
imwrite("image_bw.jpg", img_bw);

This seemed to have worked for me!
Mat a_image = imread(argv[1]);
cvtColor(a_image, a_image, CV_BGR2GRAY);
GaussianBlur(a_image, a_image, Size(7,7), 1.5, 1.5);
threshold(a_image, a_image, 100, 255, CV_THRESH_BINARY);

I do something similar in one of my blog postings. A simple C++ example is shown.
The aim was to use the open source cvBlobsLib library for the detection
of spot samples printed to microarray slides, but the images have to be
converted from colour -> grayscale -> black + white as you mentioned, in order to achieve this.

A simple way of "binarize" an image is to compare to a threshold:
For example you can compare all elements in a matrix against a value with opencv in c++
cv::Mat img = cv::imread("image.jpg", CV_LOAD_IMAGE_GRAYSCALE);
cv::Mat bw = img > 128;
In this way, all pixels in the matrix greater than 128 now are white, and these less than 128 or equals will be black
Optionally, and for me gave good results is to apply blur
cv::blur( bw, bw, cv::Size(3,3) );
Later you can save it as said before with:
cv::imwrite("image_bw.jpg", bw);

Simple binary threshold method is sufficient.
include
#include <string>
#include "opencv/highgui.h"
#include "opencv2/imgproc/imgproc.hpp"
using namespace std;
using namespace cv;
int main()
{
Mat img = imread("./img.jpg",0);//loading gray scale image
threshold(img, img, 128, 255, CV_THRESH_BINARY);//threshold binary, you can change threshold 128 to your convenient threshold
imwrite("./black-white.jpg",img);
return 0;
}
You can use GaussianBlur to get a smooth black and white image.

Related

C++ OpenCV Color Thersholding HSV images Errors

So basically Im trying to detect a green target using Canny edge detection and color threshold. The original image as shown below is an example of what im trying to detect.
Original Image:
After applying canny edge detection this is what appears.
CannyEdge Image:
From here I want only the green rectangle targets to appear so I use the inRange function and input the ranges of HSV I got from GIMP of that certain green target in that picture. However I divded the Hue value by 2 as I heard that OpenCV uses Hue values 0 - 180 unlike GIMP which uses 0 - 360 and still end up with a black output image from the inRange function....
How do you only make the green rectangles appear?
#include <opencv2/opencv.hpp>
#include <iostream>
using namespace cv;
Mat ORIGINAL_img;
Mat HSV_img, FINAL_img, MASKED_img, BLURRED_img;
Mat dst, detectededges;
int main() {
ORIGINAL_img = imread("straight7.jpg", CV_LOAD_IMAGE_COLOR);
cvtColor(ORIGINAL_img, HSV_img, COLOR_BGR2HSV);
inRange(HSV_img, Scalar(80, 150, 15), Scalar(100, 255, 60), MASKED_img);
blur(MASKED_img, BLURRED_img, Size(3,3));
Canny(BLURRED_img, detectededges, 50, 20, 3);
dst = Scalar::all(0);
HSV_img.copyTo(dst, detectededges);
imwrite("cannyoutput.jpg", dst);
imwrite("colormaskoutput.jpg", MASKED_img);
//imshow("color", HSV_img);
waitKey(0);
return 0;
}

How to display PGM image using OpenCV

I'm trying to load and display a .PGM image using OpenCV(2.4.0) for C++.
void open(char* location, int flag, int windowFlag)
{
Mat image = imread(location, flag);
namedWindow("Image window", windowFlag);
imshow("Image window", image);
waitKey(0);
}
I'm calling open like this:
open("./img_00245_c1.pgm", IMREAD_UNCHANGED, CV_WINDOW_AUTOSIZE);
The problem is that the image shown when the window is opened is darker than if I'm opening the file with IrfanView.
Also if I'm trying to write this image to another file like this:
Mat imgWrite;
imgWrite = image;
imwrite("newImage.pgm", imgWrite)
I will get a different file content than the original one and IrfanView will display this as my function displays with imshow.
Is there a different flag in imread for .PGM files such that I can get the original file to be displayed and saved ?
EDIT: Image pgm file
EDIT 2 : Remarked that: IrfanView normalizes the image to a maximum pixel value of 255 .
In order to see the image clearly using OpenCV I should normalize the image also when loading in Mat. Is this possible directly with OpenCV functions without iterating through pixels and modifying their values ?
The problem is not in the way data are loaded, but in the way they are displayed.
Your image is a CV_16UC1, and both imshow and imwrite normalize the values from original range [0, 65535] to the range [0, 255] to fit the range of the type CV_8U.
Since your PGM image has max_value of 4096:
P2
1176 640 // width height
4096 // max_value
it should be normalized from range [0, 4096] instead of [0, 65535].
You can do this with:
Mat img = imread("path_to_image", IMREAD_UNCHANGED);
img.convertTo(img, CV_8U, 255.0 / 4096.0);
imshow("Image", img);
waitKey();
Please note that the values range in your image doesn't correspond to [0, 4096], but:
double minv, maxv;
minMaxLoc(img, &minv, &maxv);
// minv = 198
// maxv = 2414
So the straightforward normalization in [0,255] like:
normalize(img, img, 0, 255, NORM_MINMAX);
img.convertTo(img, CV_8U);
won't work, as it will produce an image brighter than it should be.
This means that to properly show your image you need to know the max_value (here 4096). If it changes every time, you can retrieve it parsing the .pgm file.
Again, it's just a problem with visualization. Data are correct.

OpenCV keep background transparent during warpAffine

I create a Bird-View-Image with the warpPerspective()-function like this:
warpPerspective(frame, result, H, result.size(), CV_WARP_INVERSE_MAP, BORDER_TRANSPARENT);
The result looks very good and also the border is transparent:
Bird-View-Image
Now I want to put this image on top of another image "out". I try doing this with the function warpAffine like this:
warpAffine(result, out, M, out.size(), CV_INTER_LINEAR, BORDER_TRANSPARENT);
I also converted "out" to a four channel image with alpha channel according to a question which was already asked on stackoverflow:
Convert Image
This is the code: cvtColor(out, out, CV_BGR2BGRA);
I expected to see the chessboard but not the gray background. But in fact, my result looks like this:
Result Image
What am I doing wrong? Do I forget something to do? Is there another way to solve my problem? Any help is appreciated :)
Thanks!
Best regards
DamBedEi
I hope there is a better way, but here it is something you could do:
Do warpaffine normally (without the transparency thing)
Find the contour that encloses the image warped
Use this contour for creating a mask (white values inside the image warped, blacks in the borders)
Use this mask for copy the image warped into the other image
Sample code:
// load images
cv::Mat image2 = cv::imread("lena.png");
cv::Mat image = cv::imread("IKnowOpencv.jpg");
cv::resize(image, image, image2.size());
// perform warp perspective
std::vector<cv::Point2f> prev;
prev.push_back(cv::Point2f(-30,-60));
prev.push_back(cv::Point2f(image.cols+50,-50));
prev.push_back(cv::Point2f(image.cols+100,image.rows+50));
prev.push_back(cv::Point2f(-50,image.rows+50 ));
std::vector<cv::Point2f> post;
post.push_back(cv::Point2f(0,0));
post.push_back(cv::Point2f(image.cols-1,0));
post.push_back(cv::Point2f(image.cols-1,image.rows-1));
post.push_back(cv::Point2f(0,image.rows-1));
cv::Mat homography = cv::findHomography(prev, post);
cv::Mat imageWarped;
cv::warpPerspective(image, imageWarped, homography, image.size());
// find external contour and create mask
std::vector<std::vector<cv::Point> > contours;
cv::Mat imageWarpedCloned = imageWarped.clone(); // clone the image because findContours will modify it
cv::cvtColor(imageWarpedCloned, imageWarpedCloned, CV_BGR2GRAY); //only if the image is BGR
cv::findContours (imageWarpedCloned, contours, CV_RETR_EXTERNAL, CV_CHAIN_APPROX_NONE);
// create mask
cv::Mat mask = cv::Mat::zeros(image.size(), CV_8U);
cv::drawContours(mask, contours, 0, cv::Scalar(255), -1);
// copy warped image into image2 using the mask
cv::erode(mask, mask, cv::Mat()); // for avoid artefacts
imageWarped.copyTo(image2, mask); // copy the image using the mask
//show images
cv::imshow("imageWarpedCloned", imageWarpedCloned);
cv::imshow("warped", imageWarped);
cv::imshow("image2", image2);
cv::waitKey();
One of the easiest ways to approach this (not necessarily the most efficient) is to warp the image twice, but set the OpenCV constant boundary value to different values each time (i.e. zero the first time and 255 the second time). These constant values should be chosen towards the minimum and maximum values in the image.
Then it is easy to find a binary mask where the two warp values are close to equal.
More importantly, you can also create a transparency effect through simple algebra like the following:
new_image = np.float32((warp_const_255 - warp_const_0) *
preferred_bkg_img) / 255.0 + np.float32(warp_const_0)
The main reason I prefer this method is that openCV seems to interpolate smoothly down (or up) to the constant value at the image edges. A fully binary mask will pick up these dark or light fringe areas as artifacts. The above method acts more like true transparency and blends properly with the preferred background.
Here's a small test program that warps with transparent "border", then copies the warped image to a solid background.
int main()
{
cv::Mat input = cv::imread("../inputData/Lenna.png");
cv::Mat transparentInput, transparentWarped;
cv::cvtColor(input, transparentInput, CV_BGR2BGRA);
//transparentInput = input.clone();
// create sample transformation mat
cv::Mat M = cv::Mat::eye(2,3, CV_64FC1);
// as a sample, just scale down and translate a little:
M.at<double>(0,0) = 0.3;
M.at<double>(0,2) = 100;
M.at<double>(1,1) = 0.3;
M.at<double>(1,2) = 100;
// warp to same size with transparent border:
cv::warpAffine(transparentInput, transparentWarped, M, transparentInput.size(), CV_INTER_LINEAR, cv::BORDER_TRANSPARENT);
// NOW: merge image with background, here I use the original image as background:
cv::Mat background = input;
// create output buffer with same size as input
cv::Mat outputImage = input.clone();
for(int j=0; j<transparentWarped.rows; ++j)
for(int i=0; i<transparentWarped.cols; ++i)
{
cv::Scalar pixWarped = transparentWarped.at<cv::Vec4b>(j,i);
cv::Scalar pixBackground = background.at<cv::Vec3b>(j,i);
float transparency = pixWarped[3] / 255.0f; // pixel value: 0 (0.0f) = fully transparent, 255 (1.0f) = fully solid
outputImage.at<cv::Vec3b>(j,i)[0] = transparency * pixWarped[0] + (1.0f-transparency)*pixBackground[0];
outputImage.at<cv::Vec3b>(j,i)[1] = transparency * pixWarped[1] + (1.0f-transparency)*pixBackground[1];
outputImage.at<cv::Vec3b>(j,i)[2] = transparency * pixWarped[2] + (1.0f-transparency)*pixBackground[2];
}
cv::imshow("warped", outputImage);
cv::imshow("input", input);
cv::imwrite("../outputData/TransparentWarped.png", outputImage);
cv::waitKey(0);
return 0;
}
I use this as input:
and get this output:
which looks like ALPHA channel isn't set to ZERO by warpAffine but to something like 205...
But in general this is the way I would do it (unoptimized)

Best way to set image region to zeros in OpenCV C++?

I would like to ask which is the most efficient way to set a region of a grayscale Mat image to zeros (or any other constant value, for that matter).
Should I create a zeros image and then use copyTo() or is there a better way?
I would use setTo(), for example:
// load an image
cv::Mat pImage = cv::imread("someimage.jpg", CV_LOAD_IMAGE_COLOR);
// select a region of interest
cv::Mat pRoi = pImage(cv::Rect(10, 10, 20, 20));
// set roi to some rgb colour
pRoi.setTo(cv::Scalar(blue, green, red));
Let's say we paint a black rectangle in a white canvas:
cv::Mat img(100,100,CV_8U,cv::Scalar(255));
img(cv::Rect(15,15,20,40))=0;
cv::imshow("Img",img);
cv::waitKey();
Try the following code
Mat image;
image = imread("images/lena.jpg");
int x=100;int y=100; int w=100; int h=100;
Rect roi = Rect(x,y,w,h);
image(roi).setTo(cv::Scalar(0,0,0));
imshow("display",image);

Canny edge detection - grayscale images always coming up as 3-channel, unusable?

I am working through the book "Learning OpenCV" from the O'Reilly series and am trying to perform a canny edge detection sample.
Any grayscale image I choose seems to come up as having 3 channels, and to the best of my knowledge, canny only works with single channel images, so this always fails. I am even using the images provided by OpenCV.
Here is my code..
IplImage* doCanny(IplImage* in, double lowThresh, double highThresh, double aperture)
{
if(in->nChannels != 1)
return(0); //canny only handles gray scale images
IplImage* out = cvCreateImage(cvSize(in->width, in->height), IPL_DEPTH_8U, 1);
cvCanny(in, out, lowThresh, highThresh, aperture);
return(out);
};
IplImage* img = cvLoadImage("someGrayscaleImage.jpg");
IplImage* out = doCanny(img, 10, 100, 3);
Why might this always give me 3-channel images? How can I solve this?
You can use this method with another parameter
IplImage* cvLoadImage(const char* filename, int iscolor=CV_LOAD_IMAGE_COLOR)
#define CV_LOAD_IMAGE_COLOR 1
#define CV_LOAD_IMAGE_GRAYSCALE 0
#define CV_LOAD_IMAGE_UNCHANGED -1
The default parameter is load image with color. What you have to do is to load it with grayscale
Here is an example
cvLoadImage("yourimage.jpg", CV_LOAD_IMAGE_GRAYSCALE);
Here is the detail explanation for that method. You can look at here for more details:
Open CV 2.0 References
scolor – Specific color type of the loaded image: if $ > 0 $, the loaded image is forced to be a 3-channel color image; if 0, the loaded image is forced to be grayscale; if $ < 0 $, the loaded image will be loaded as is (note that in the current implementation the alpha channel, if any, is stripped from the output image, e.g. 4-channel RGBA image will be loaded as RGB).