Image Processing 101

Simple examples of image processing concepts on OpenCV. Concepts explored:

  • Data structures
  • Color and color conversions
  • Thresholding and masking
  • Blurring
  • Contours and bounding rectangles
  • Edges
  • Hough Transforms
In [1]:
import matplotlib, cv2
import numpy as np
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

%matplotlib inline

Basic data structures in OpenCV

In [2]:
# read an image
img = cv2.imread('images/noguchi02.jpg')

# show image format (basically a 3-d array of pixel color info, in BGR format)
print(img)

[[[ 72  99 143]
  [ 76 103 147]
  [ 78 106 147]
  ..., 
  [159 186 207]
  [160 187 213]
  [157 187 212]]

 [[ 74 101 145]
  [ 77 104 148]
  [ 77 105 146]
  ..., 
  [160 187 208]
  [158 186 210]
  [153 183 208]]

 [[ 76 103 147]
  [ 77 104 148]
  [ 76 104 145]
  ..., 
  [157 181 203]
  [160 188 212]
  [158 186 210]]

 ..., 
 [[ 39  78 130]
  [ 39  78 130]
  [ 40  79 131]
  ..., 
  [193 210 223]
  [195 212 225]
  [197 214 227]]

 [[ 32  71 123]
  [ 32  71 123]
  [ 32  71 123]
  ..., 
  [198 215 228]
  [200 217 230]
  [200 217 230]]

 [[ 39  78 130]
  [ 39  78 130]
  [ 39  78 130]
  ..., 
  [199 216 229]
  [200 217 230]
  [201 218 231]]]

Colors and color conversions

In [3]:
# convert image to RGB color for matplotlib
img = cv2.cvtColor(img, cv2.COLOR_BGR2RGB)

# show image with matplotlib
plt.imshow(img)
Out[3]:
<matplotlib.image.AxesImage at 0x10d46e8d0>
In [4]:
# convert image to grayscale
gray_img = cv2.cvtColor(img, cv2.COLOR_RGB2GRAY)

# grayscale image represented as a 2-d array
print(gray_img)

[[109 113 115 ..., 189 192 191]
 [111 114 114 ..., 190 190 187]
 [113 114 113 ..., 185 192 190]
 ..., 
 [ 89  89  90 ..., 212 214 216]
 [ 82  82  82 ..., 217 219 219]
 [ 89  89  89 ..., 218 219 220]]
In [5]:
# have to convert grayscale back to RGB for plt.imshow()
plt.imshow(cv2.cvtColor(gray_img, cv2.COLOR_GRAY2RGB))
Out[5]:
<matplotlib.image.AxesImage at 0x10da6ba50>

Finding the average color of an image

In [6]:
# find average per row
# np.average() takes in an axis argument which finds the average across that axis. 
average_color_per_row = np.average(img, axis=0)

# find average across average per row
average_color = np.average(average_color_per_row, axis=0)

# convert back to uint8
average_color = np.uint8(average_color)
print(average_color)

[179 146 123]
In [7]:
# create 100 x 100 pixel array with average color value
average_color_img = np.array([[average_color]*100]*100, np.uint8)

plt.imshow(average_color_img)
Out[7]:
<matplotlib.image.AxesImage at 0x10d22a5d0>

Binary thresholding

Examples using thresholding on brightness/darkness of grayscale image and on color ranges

Binary thresholding on grayscale image

In [8]:
# threshold for grayscale image
_, threshold_img = cv2.threshold(gray_img, 60, 255, cv2.THRESH_BINARY)

threshold_img = cv2.cvtColor(threshold_img, cv2.COLOR_GRAY2RGB)
plt.figure(figsize=(10,10))
plt.imshow(threshold_img)
Out[8]:
<matplotlib.image.AxesImage at 0x10d6dea10>

Binary thresholding on color

In [9]:
# open new Mondrian Piet painting photo
piet = cv2.imread('images/piet.png')
piet_hsv = cv2.cvtColor(piet, cv2.COLOR_BGR2HSV)
In [10]:
plt.imshow(cv2.cvtColor(piet, cv2.COLOR_BGR2RGB))
Out[10]:
<matplotlib.image.AxesImage at 0x10dc1d450>
In [11]:
# threshold for hue channel in blue range
blue_min = np.array([85, 60, 60], np.uint8)
blue_max = np.array([150, 255, 255], np.uint8)
threshold_blue_img = cv2.inRange(piet_hsv, blue_min, blue_max)

# show threshold bits
threshold_blue_img = cv2.cvtColor(threshold_blue_img, cv2.COLOR_GRAY2RGB)
plt.imshow(threshold_blue_img)
Out[11]:
<matplotlib.image.AxesImage at 0x113f46350>

Using binary thresholding to obtain an image mask

In [36]:
upstate = cv2.imread('images/upstate-ny.jpg')
upstate_hsv = cv2.cvtColor(upstate, cv2.COLOR_BGR2HSV)

plt.imshow(cv2.cvtColor(upstate_hsv, cv2.COLOR_HSV2RGB))
Out[36]:
<matplotlib.image.AxesImage at 0x12231b590>
In [37]:
mask_inverse = cv2.inRange(upstate_hsv, blue_min, blue_max)
mask = cv2.bitwise_not(mask_inverse)
plt.imshow(cv2.cvtColor(mask, cv2.COLOR_GRAY2RGB))
Out[37]:
<matplotlib.image.AxesImage at 0x1224b45d0>
In [39]:
# convert single channel mask back into 3 channels
mask_rgb = cv2.cvtColor(mask, cv2.COLOR_GRAY2RGB)

# perform bitwise and on mask to obtain cut-out image that is not blue
masked_upstate = cv2.bitwise_and(upstate, mask_rgb)

# replace the cut-out parts with white
masked_replace_white = cv2.addWeighted(masked_upstate, 1, \
                                       cv2.cvtColor(mask_inverse, cv2.COLOR_GRAY2RGB), 1, 0)

plt.imshow(cv2.cvtColor(masked_replace_white, cv2.COLOR_BGR2RGB))
Out[39]:
<matplotlib.image.AxesImage at 0x1223f59d0>

Gaussian Blur

Gaussian blurring in action, and how it makes a difference in the binary image that it produces

In [15]:
img = cv2.imread('images/oy.jpg')
plt.imshow(cv2.cvtColor(img, cv2.COLOR_BGR2RGB))
Out[15]:
<matplotlib.image.AxesImage at 0x11464ba90>
In [16]:
# preproccess with blurring, with 5x5 kernel
img_blur_small = cv2.GaussianBlur(img, (5,5), 0)
cv2.imwrite('output/oy-gaussian-blur-5.jpg', img_blur_small)
plt.imshow(cv2.cvtColor(img_blur_small, cv2.COLOR_BGR2RGB))
Out[16]:
<matplotlib.image.AxesImage at 0x11e097310>
In [17]:
img_blur_small = cv2.GaussianBlur(img, (5,5), 25)
cv2.imwrite('output/oy-gaussian-blur-5-3.jpg', img_blur_small)
plt.imshow(cv2.cvtColor(img_blur_small, cv2.COLOR_BGR2RGB))
Out[17]:
<matplotlib.image.AxesImage at 0x10db79290>
In [18]:
img_blur_large = cv2.GaussianBlur(img, (15,15), 0)
cv2.imwrite('output/oy-gaussian-blur-15.jpg', img_blur_large)
plt.imshow(cv2.cvtColor(img_blur_large, cv2.COLOR_BGR2RGB))
Out[18]:
<matplotlib.image.AxesImage at 0x12842ec10>
In [19]:
# threshold on regular image
gray_img = cv2.cvtColor(img, cv2.COLOR_BGR2GRAY)
_, threshold_img = cv2.threshold(gray_img, 100, 255, cv2.THRESH_BINARY)
cv2.imwrite('output/oy-no-blur-thresh.jpg', threshold_img)

plt.imshow(cv2.cvtColor(threshold_img, cv2.COLOR_GRAY2RGB))
Out[19]:
<matplotlib.image.AxesImage at 0x10db94690>
In [20]:
#threshold on blurred image
gray_blur_img = cv2.cvtColor(img_blur_small, cv2.COLOR_BGR2GRAY)
_, threshold_img_blur = cv2.threshold(gray_blur_img, 100, 255, cv2.THRESH_BINARY)
cv2.imwrite('output/oy-gaussian-blur-5-thresh.jpg', threshold_img_blur)
plt.imshow(cv2.cvtColor(threshold_img_blur, cv2.COLOR_GRAY2RGB))
Out[20]:
<matplotlib.image.AxesImage at 0x128e45f50>
In [21]:
# using adaptive threshold instead of global
adaptive_thresh = cv2.adaptiveThreshold(gray_img,255,\
                                         cv2.ADAPTIVE_THRESH_GAUSSIAN_C,\
                                         cv2.THRESH_BINARY,11,2)
plt.imshow(cv2.cvtColor(adaptive_thresh, cv2.COLOR_GRAY2RGB))
Out[21]:
<matplotlib.image.AxesImage at 0x129b0c5d0>

Contour and bounding boxes

In [22]:
coins = cv2.imread('images/coins.jpg')
plt.imshow(cv2.cvtColor(coins, cv2.COLOR_BGR2RGB))
cv2.imwrite('output/coins-orig.jpg', coins)
Out[22]:
True
In [23]:
# get binary image and apply Gaussian blur
coins_gray = cv2.cvtColor(coins, cv2.COLOR_BGR2GRAY)
coins_preprocessed = cv2.GaussianBlur(coins_gray, (5, 5), 0)

plt.imshow(cv2.cvtColor(coins_preprocessed, cv2.COLOR_GRAY2RGB))
Out[23]:
<matplotlib.image.AxesImage at 0x12a1fefd0>
In [24]:
_, coins_binary = cv2.threshold(coins_preprocessed, 130, 255, cv2.THRESH_BINARY)

# invert image to get coins
coins_binary = cv2.bitwise_not(coins_binary)
plt.imshow(cv2.cvtColor(coins_binary, cv2.COLOR_GRAY2RGB))
cv2.imwrite('output/coins-binary.png', coins_binary)
Out[24]:
True
In [25]:
# morph coins by eroding and dilating to remove noise
morph_kernel = np.ones((15,15),np.uint8)
coins_morph = cv2.morphologyEx(coins_binary, cv2.MORPH_CLOSE, morph_kernel)

plt.imshow(cv2.cvtColor(coins_morph, cv2.COLOR_GRAY2RGB))
Out[25]:
<matplotlib.image.AxesImage at 0x1292dcfd0>

Get countours

In [26]:
# find contours
coins_contours, _ = cv2.findContours(coins_binary, cv2.RETR_EXTERNAL, cv2.CHAIN_APPROX_SIMPLE)

# make copy of image
coins_and_contours = np.copy(coins)

# find contours of large enough area
min_coin_area = 60
large_contours = [cnt for cnt in coins_contours if cv2.contourArea(cnt) > min_coin_area]

# draw contours
cv2.drawContours(coins_and_contours, large_contours, -1, (255,0,0))

plt.imshow(cv2.cvtColor(coins_and_contours, cv2.COLOR_BGR2RGB))
cv2.imwrite('output/coins-contour.jpg', coins_and_contours)

# print number of contours
print('number of coins: %d' % len(large_contours))

number of coins: 8

Find bounding boxes

In [27]:
# create copy of image to draw bounding boxes
bounding_img = np.copy(coins)

# for each contour find bounding box and draw rectangle
for contour in large_contours:
    x, y, w, h = cv2.boundingRect(contour)
    cv2.rectangle(bounding_img, (x, y), (x + w, y + h), (0, 255, 0), 3)

plt.imshow(cv2.cvtColor(bounding_img, cv2.COLOR_BGR2RGB))
cv2.imwrite('output/coins-bounding.jpg', bounding_img)
Out[27]:
True