Develop Reference

OpenCV - Can't find correct contours in similar images

the task I want to do looks pretty simple: I take as input several images with an object centered in the photo and a little color chart needed for other purposes. My code normally works for the majority of the cases, but sometimes fails miserably and I just can't understand why.
For example (these are the source images), it works correctly on this https://imgur.com/PHfIqcb but not on this https://imgur.com/qghzO3V
Here's the code of the interested part:
img = cv2.imread(path)
height, width, channel = img.shape
gray = cv2.cvtColor(img, cv2.COLOR_BGR2GRAY)
kernel = np.ones((31, 31), np.uint8)
dil = cv2.dilate(gray, kernel, iterations=1)
_, th = cv2.threshold(dil, 0, 255, cv2.THRESH_BINARY + cv2.THRESH_OTSU)
th_er1 = cv2.bitwise_not(th)
_, contours, _= cv2.findContours(th_er1, cv2.RETR_EXTERNAL, cv2.CHAIN_APPROX_SIMPLE)
areas = [cv2.contourArea(c) for c in contours]
max_index = np.argmax(areas)
cnt=contours[max_index]
x,y,w,h = cv2.boundingRect(cnt)
After that I'm just going to crop the image accordingly to the given results (getting the biggest rectangle contour), basically cutting off the photo only the main object.
But as I said, using very similar images sometimes works and sometimes not.
Thank you in advance.

maybe you could try not using otsu's method, and just set threshold manually, if it's possible... ;)

You can use the Canny edge detector. In the two images, there is a good threshold value to isolate the object in the center of the image. After applying the threshold, we blur the results and apply the Canny edge detector before finding the contours:
import cv2
import numpy as np
def process(img):
img_gray = cv2.cvtColor(img, cv2.COLOR_BGR2GRAY)
_, thresh = cv2.threshold(img_gray, 190, 255, cv2.THRESH_BINARY_INV)
img_blur = cv2.GaussianBlur(thresh, (3, 3), 1)
img_canny = cv2.Canny(img_blur, 0, 0)
kernel = np.ones((5, 5))
img_dilate = cv2.dilate(img_canny, kernel, iterations=1)
return cv2.erode(img_dilate, kernel, iterations=1)
def get_contours(img):
contours, hierarchies = cv2.findContours(process(img), cv2.RETR_EXTERNAL, cv2.CHAIN_APPROX_NONE)
cnt = max(contours, key=cv2.contourArea)
cv2.drawContours(img, [cnt], -1, (0, 255, 0), 30)
x, y, w, h = cv2.boundingRect(cnt)
cv2.rectangle(img, (x, y), (x + w, y + h), (0, 0, 255), 30)
img = cv2.imread("image.jpeg")
get_contours(img)
cv2.imshow("Result", img)
cv2.waitKey(0)
Input images:
Output images:
The green outlines are the contours of the objects, and the red outlines are the bounding boxes of the objects.

How do I detect the corners of a low resolution shape?

I have a low resolution concave quadrilateral cursor. My goal is to find the point he points to. So I thought of finding 4 corners and getting the farthest corner from each other. usually works fine but doesn't always detect corners accurately. Using blur gives little results, but I'm not sure it's enough. What would you suggest I do to improve my results?
cursor = cv.bitwise_and(captureHSV, captureHSV, mask=mask)
#resizeCurs = cv.resize(cursor, (0, 0), fx=0.60, fy=0.60)
#blurCurs = blur = cv.blur(cursor, (3,3))
grayCurs = cv.cvtColor(frame, cv.COLOR_BGR2GRAY)
corners = cv.goodFeaturesToTrack(grayCurs, 4, 0.01, 1)
corners = np.int0(corners)
coordList = []
for corner in corners:
x, y = corner.ravel()
cv.circle(cursor, (x, y), 1, (255, 0, 0), 1)
coordList.append([x, y])

After detecting the canny edges of your image, converted to grayscale & blurred beforehand of course, you can dilate and erode the edges to get rid of noisy bumps and fill in little gaps.
But that wouldn't be enough to smooth out the results to 4 points, you'll need to use the cv2.approxPolyDP method to approximate the resulting contours.
Here is how it might go:
import cv2
import numpy as np
def process(img):
img_gray = cv2.cvtColor(img, cv2.COLOR_BGR2GRAY)
img_blur = cv2.GaussianBlur(img_gray, (7, 7), 0)
img_canny = cv2.Canny(img_blur, 50, 50)
kernel = np.ones((0, 0))
img_dilate = cv2.dilate(img_canny, kernel, iterations=1)
img_erode = cv2.erode(img_dilate, kernel, iterations=1)
return img_erode
def get_contours(img):
contours, hierarchies = cv2.findContours(process(img), cv2.RETR_EXTERNAL, cv2.CHAIN_APPROX_NONE)
for cnt in contours:
if cv2.contourArea(cnt) > 10:
peri = cv2.arcLength(cnt, True)
approx = cv2.approxPolyDP(cnt, peri * 0.04, True)
cv2.drawContours(img, approx, -1, (0, 0, 255), 8)
img1 = cv2.imread("cursor1.png")
img2 = cv2.imread("cursor2.png")
get_contours(img1)
get_contours(img2)
cv2.imshow("Image 1", img1)
cv2.imshow("Image 2", img2)
cv2.waitKey(0)
Output:
Where the red dots are the parts that were drawn on by the program.

Python OpenCV not detecting obvious contours

Apologies as I'm very new to OpenCV and the world of image processing in general.
I'm using OpenCV in Python to detect contours/boxes in this image.
It almost manages to detect all contours, but for some odd reason it doesn't pick up the last row and column which are obvious contours. This image shows the bounding boxes for contours it manages to identify.
Not entirely sure why it's not able to easily pick up the remaining contours. I've researched similar questions but haven't found a suitable answer.
Here's my code.
import numpy as np
import cv2
import math
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
#load image
img = cv2.imread(path)
#remove noise
img = cv2.fastNlMeansDenoisingColored(img, None, 10, 10, 7, 21)
#convert to gray scale
img = cv2.cvtColor(img, cv2.COLOR_BGR2GRAY)
#make pixels darker
_, img = cv2.threshold(img, 240, 255, cv2.THRESH_TOZERO)
#thresholding the image to a binary image
thresh, img_bin = cv2.threshold(img, 128, 255, cv2.THRESH_BINARY | cv2.THRESH_OTSU)
#inverting the image
img_bin = 255 - img_bin
# countcol(width) of kernel as 100th of total width
kernel_len = np.array(img).shape[1]//100
# Defining a vertical kernel to detect all vertical lines of image
ver_kernel = cv2.getStructuringElement(cv2.MORPH_RECT, (1, kernel_len))
# Defining a horizontal kernel to detect all horizontal lines of image
hor_kernel = cv2.getStructuringElement(cv2.MORPH_RECT, (kernel_len, 1))
# A kernel of 2x2
kernel = cv2.getStructuringElement(cv2.MORPH_RECT, (2, 2))
#Use vertical kernel to detect and save the vertical lines in a jpg
image_1 = cv2.erode(img_bin, ver_kernel, iterations = 3)
vertical_lines = cv2.dilate(image_1, np.ones((10, 4),np.uint8), iterations = 30)
vertical_lines = cv2.erode(vertical_lines, np.ones((10, 4),np.uint8), iterations = 29)
#Use horizontal kernel to detect and save the horizontal lines in a jpg
image_2 = cv2.erode(img_bin, np.ones((1, 5),np.uint8), iterations = 5)
horizontal_lines = cv2.dilate(image_2, np.ones((2, 40),np.uint8), iterations = 20)
horizontal_lines = cv2.erode(horizontal_lines, np.ones((2, 39),np.uint8), iterations = 19)
# Combine horizontal and vertical lines in a new third image, with both having same weight.
img_vh = cv2.addWeighted(vertical_lines, 0.5, horizontal_lines, 0.5, 0.0)
rows, cols = img_vh.shape
#shift image so the enhanced lines overlap with original image
M = np.float32([[1,0,-30],[0,1,-21]])
img_vh = cv2.warpAffine(img_vh ,M,(cols,rows))
#Eroding and thesholding the image
img_vh = cv2.erode(~img_vh, kernel, iterations = 2)
thresh, img_vh = cv2.threshold(img_vh, 128, 255, cv2.THRESH_BINARY | cv2.THRESH_OTSU)
bitxor = cv2.bitwise_xor(img, img_vh)
bitnot = cv2.bitwise_not(bitxor)
#find contours
contours, _ = cv2.findContours(img_vh, cv2.RETR_LIST,cv2.CHAIN_APPROX_SIMPLE)
#create list empty list to append with contours less than a specified area
new_contours = []
for contour in contours:
if cv2.contourArea(contour) < 4000000:
new_contours.append(contour)
#get bounding boxes
bounding_boxes = [cv2.boundingRect(contour) for contour in new_contours]
#plot detected bounding boxes
img_og = cv2.imread(path)
for bounding_box in bounding_boxes:
x,y,w,h = bounding_box
img_plot = cv2.rectangle(img_og, (x, y), (x+w, y+h), (255, 0, 0) , 2)
plotting = plt.imshow(img_plot, cmap='gray')
plt.show()

Like #ypnos was suggesting, the dilation and erosion has most likely pushed the last line off the image in the "saving horizontal lines" section. So the image_vh wouldn't have the last row when it was being searched for contours. I tested (Note:1) this by viewing the image after each of your transformations.
Specifically, the number of iterations had been too much. You had used a reasonably sized kernel as it is. It gave perfect results with iterations = 2 on lines 43 and 44 of your code.
After modifying them to :
horizontal_lines = cv2.dilate(image_2, np.ones((2, 40), np.uint8), iterations=2)
horizontal_lines = cv2.erode(horizontal_lines, np.ones((2, 39), np.uint8), iterations=2)
the bounding box rectangles had shifted off the image a bit. That was fixed by changing line 51 of the code to:
M = np.float32([[1, 0, -30], [0, 1, -5]])
This was the result.
Note:
I test/debug using this function usually.
def test(image, title):
cv2.imshow(title, image)
cv2.waitKey(0)
cv2.destroyWindow(title)
The variable position and the handy waitkey calms me down.

Why to reshape MSER contours before detecting texts?

I am using MSER from opencv-python to detect text using the code from this stackoverflow question. Can anyone help me understand why the contour p is being reshaped to (-1, 1, 2) before computing the convex hull of the objects?
The code is as below:
import cv2
import numpy as np
#Create MSER object
mser = cv2.MSER_create()
#Your image path i-e receipt path
img = cv2.imread('/home/rafiullah/PycharmProjects/python-ocr-master/receipts/73.jpg')
#Convert to gray scale
gray = cv2.cvtColor(img, cv2.COLOR_BGR2GRAY)
vis = img.copy()
#detect regions in gray scale image
regions, _ = mser.detectRegions(gray)
hulls = [cv2.convexHull(p.reshape(-1, 1, 2)) for p in regions]
cv2.polylines(vis, hulls, 1, (0, 255, 0))
cv2.imshow('img', vis)
cv2.waitKey(0)
mask = np.zeros((img.shape[0], img.shape[1], 1), dtype=np.uint8)
for contour in hulls:
cv2.drawContours(mask, [contour], -1, (255, 255, 255), -1)
#this is used to find only text regions, remaining are ignored
text_only = cv2.bitwise_and(img, img, mask=mask)
cv2.imshow("text only", text_only)
cv2.waitKey(0)

It doesn't matter if you reshape or not.
The reshaping is unnecessary. cv2.convexHull() can take either input format. The following images show that the results are the same whether the contours in regions are reshaped or not.
hulls = [cv2.convexHull(p.reshape(-1, 1, 2)) for p in regions]
hulls1 = [cv2.convexHull(p) for p in regions]
This is how the p contour changes when it is reshaped:
>>> p
array([[305, 382],
[306, 382],
[308, 380],
[309, 380]...
>>> p.reshape(-1, 1, 2)
array([[[305, 382]],
[[306, 382]],
[[308, 380]],
[[309, 380]]...

Remove noise from threshold image opencv python

I am trying to get the corners of the box in image. Following are example images, their threshold results and on the right after the arrow are the results that I need. You might have seen these images before too on slack because I am using these images for my example questions on slack.
Following is the code that allows me reach till the middle image.
import cv2
import numpy as np
img_file = 'C:/Users/box.jpg'
img = cv2.imread(img_file, cv2.IMREAD_COLOR)
img = cv2.blur(img, (5, 5))
hsv = cv2.cvtColor(img, cv2.COLOR_BGR2HSV)
h, s, v = cv2.split(hsv)
thresh0 = cv2.adaptiveThreshold(s, 255, cv2.ADAPTIVE_THRESH_GAUSSIAN_C, cv2.THRESH_BINARY_INV, 11, 2)
thresh1 = cv2.adaptiveThreshold(v, 255, cv2.ADAPTIVE_THRESH_GAUSSIAN_C, cv2.THRESH_BINARY_INV, 11, 2)
thresh2 = cv2.adaptiveThreshold(v, 255, cv2.ADAPTIVE_THRESH_GAUSSIAN_C, cv2.THRESH_BINARY_INV, 11, 2)
thresh = cv2.bitwise_or(thresh0, thresh1)
cv2.imshow('Image-thresh0', thresh0)
cv2.waitKey(0)
cv2.imshow('Image-thresh1', thresh1)
cv2.waitKey(0)
cv2.imshow('Image-thresh2', thresh2)
cv2.waitKey(0)
Is there any method in opencv that can do it for me. I tried dilation cv2.dilate() and erosion cv2.erode() but it doesn't work in my cases.Or if not then what could be alternative ways of doing it ?
Thanks
Canny version of the image ... On the left with low threshold and on the right with high threshold

Below is a python implementation of #dhanushka's approach
import cv2
import numpy as np
# load color image
im = cv2.imread('input.jpg')
# smooth the image with alternative closing and opening
# with an enlarging kernel
morph = im.copy()
kernel = cv2.getStructuringElement(cv2.MORPH_RECT, (1, 1))
morph = cv2.morphologyEx(morph, cv2.MORPH_CLOSE, kernel)
morph = cv2.morphologyEx(morph, cv2.MORPH_OPEN, kernel)
kernel = cv2.getStructuringElement(cv2.MORPH_RECT, (2, 2))
# take morphological gradient
gradient_image = cv2.morphologyEx(morph, cv2.MORPH_GRADIENT, kernel)
# split the gradient image into channels
image_channels = np.split(np.asarray(gradient_image), 3, axis=2)
channel_height, channel_width, _ = image_channels[0].shape
# apply Otsu threshold to each channel
for i in range(0, 3):
_, image_channels[i] = cv2.threshold(~image_channels[i], 0, 255, cv2.THRESH_OTSU | cv2.THRESH_BINARY)
image_channels[i] = np.reshape(image_channels[i], newshape=(channel_height, channel_width, 1))
# merge the channels
image_channels = np.concatenate((image_channels[0], image_channels[1], image_channels[2]), axis=2)
# save the denoised image
cv2.imwrite('output.jpg', image_channels)
The above code doesn't give good results if the image you are dealing are invoices(or has large amount of text on a white background).
In order to get good results on such images, remove
gradient_image = cv2.morphologyEx(morph, cv2.MORPH_GRADIENT, kernel)
and pass morph obj to the split function and remove the ~ symbol inside for loop

You can smooth the image to some degree by applying alternative morphological closing and opening operations with an enlarging structuring element.Here are the original and smoothed versions.
Then take the morphological gradient of the image.
Then apply Otsu threshold to each of the channels, and merge those channels.
If your image sizes are different (larger), you might want to either change some of the parameters of the code or resize the images roughly to the sizes used here. The code is in c++ but it won't be difficult to port it to python.
/* load color image */
Mat im = imread(INPUT_FOLDER_PATH + string("2.jpg"));
/*
smooth the image with alternative closing and opening
with an enlarging kernel
*/
Mat morph = im.clone();
for (int r = 1; r < 4; r++)
{
Mat kernel = getStructuringElement(MORPH_ELLIPSE, Size(2*r+1, 2*r+1));
morphologyEx(morph, morph, CV_MOP_CLOSE, kernel);
morphologyEx(morph, morph, CV_MOP_OPEN, kernel);
}
/* take morphological gradient */
Mat mgrad;
Mat kernel = getStructuringElement(MORPH_ELLIPSE, Size(3, 3));
morphologyEx(morph, mgrad, CV_MOP_GRADIENT, kernel);
Mat ch[3], merged;
/* split the gradient image into channels */
split(mgrad, ch);
/* apply Otsu threshold to each channel */
threshold(ch[0], ch[0], 0, 255, CV_THRESH_BINARY | CV_THRESH_OTSU);
threshold(ch[1], ch[1], 0, 255, CV_THRESH_BINARY | CV_THRESH_OTSU);
threshold(ch[2], ch[2], 0, 255, CV_THRESH_BINARY | CV_THRESH_OTSU);
/* merge the channels */
merge(ch, 3, merged);

Not sure about how robust that solution will be but the idea is pretty simple. The edges of the box should be more pronounced than all the other high frequencies on those images. Thus using some basic preprocessing should allow to emphasize them.
I used your code to make a prototype but the contour finding doesn't have to be the right path. Also sorry for the iterative unsharp masking - didn't have time to adjust the parameters.
import cv2
import numpy as np
def unsharp_mask(img, blur_size = (9,9), imgWeight = 1.5, gaussianWeight = -0.5):
gaussian = cv2.GaussianBlur(img, (5,5), 0)
return cv2.addWeighted(img, imgWeight, gaussian, gaussianWeight, 0)
img_file = 'box.png'
img = cv2.imread(img_file, cv2.IMREAD_COLOR)
img = cv2.blur(img, (5, 5))
img = unsharp_mask(img)
img = unsharp_mask(img)
img = unsharp_mask(img)
hsv = cv2.cvtColor(img, cv2.COLOR_BGR2HSV)
h, s, v = cv2.split(hsv)
thresh = cv2.adaptiveThreshold(s, 255, cv2.ADAPTIVE_THRESH_GAUSSIAN_C, cv2.THRESH_BINARY_INV, 11, 2)
_, contours, heirarchy = cv2.findContours(thresh.copy(), cv2.RETR_TREE, cv2.CHAIN_APPROX_SIMPLE)
cnts = sorted(contours, key = cv2.contourArea, reverse = True)
#for cnt in cnts:
canvas_for_contours = thresh.copy()
cv2.drawContours(thresh, cnts[:-1], 0, (0,255,0), 3)
cv2.drawContours(canvas_for_contours, contours, 0, (0,255,0), 3)
cv2.imshow('Result', canvas_for_contours - thresh)
cv2.imwrite("result.jpg", canvas_for_contours - thresh)
cv2.waitKey(0)

method 1: using AI models
always try image segmentation models if feasible to your project, robust models will work better on a wider domain than any thresholding technique.
for example Rembg , try online on a Huggingface space
here are the results:
method 2:
almost similar to other answers but with another approach.
instead of closing and opening to blur the "noise", we use cv2.bilateralFilter which is similar to photoshop's surface blur, read more
im = cv2.imread('1.png')
blur = cv2.bilateralFilter(im,21,75,75)
use sobel filter to find edges
from skimage.filters import sobel
gray = cv2.cvtColor(blur,cv2.COLOR_BGR2GRAY)
mm = sobel(gray)
mm = ((mm/mm.max())*255).astype('uint8')
apply thresholding, I use Sauvola Thresholding here:
from skimage.filters import threshold_sauvola
mm2 = np.invert(mm)
thresh_sauvola = threshold_sauvola(mm2, window_size=51)
th = mm2 < thresh_sauvola
dilate and fill holes:
def fill_hole(input_mask):
h, w = input_mask.shape
canvas = np.zeros((h + 2, w + 2), np.uint8)
canvas[1:h + 1, 1:w + 1] = input_mask.copy()
mask = np.zeros((h + 4, w + 4), np.uint8)
cv2.floodFill(canvas, mask, (0, 0), 1)
canvas = canvas[1:h + 1, 1:w + 1].astype(np.bool)
return ~canvas | input_mask
kernel = cv2.getStructuringElement(cv2.MORPH_RECT, (2,2))
th2 =cv2.morphologyEx((th*255).astype('uint8'), cv2.MORPH_DILATE, kernel)
filled = fill_hole(th2==255)