Develop Reference

python opencv - filter contours by position

I use this code to find some blobs, and pick the biggest one.
contours, hierarchy = cv2.findContours(th1, cv2.RETR_EXTERNAL, cv2.CHAIN_APPROX_NONE)
if len(contours) != 0:
c = max(contours, key=cv2.contourArea)
Now, I would need to change this code in a way so it returns the contour that is in the middle of the frame. (its bounding box covers the center pixel of the image)
I am not able to figure out how to do this except getting the bounding box of all contours with
xbox, ybox, wbox, hbox = cv2.boundingRect(cont)
and then checking that x and y are smaller than the centere, and x+w and y+h aare bigger than the centre. It does not look like a efficient way tough, since there can be up to 500 small controus..

There is a function in OpenCV that will check if a given point is inside a contour (returns a 1), on the boundary (returns a 0) or outside (returns a -1).
cv2.pointPolygonTest()

I'd like to suggest this approach, maybe there is a more straightforward one. I'm writing code here, but instead giving a possible algorithm:
Iterate over contours and draw each single contour using a mask in a binary mat (b/w and filled)
Check if the center pixel (image width/2, image height/2) is equal to 1
That should work.

Extract most central area in a Binary Image

I am processing binary images, and was previously using this code to find the largest area in the binary image:
# Use the hue value to convert to binary
thresh = 20
thresh, thresh_img = cv2.threshold(h, thresh, 255, cv2.THRESH_BINARY)
cv2.imshow('thresh', thresh_img)
cv2.waitKey(0)
cv2.destroyAllWindows()
# Finding Contours
# Use a copy of the image since findContours alters the image
contours, _ = cv2.findContours(thresh_img.copy(), cv2.RETR_EXTERNAL, cv2.CHAIN_APPROX_NONE)
#Extract the largest area
c = max(contours, key=cv2.contourArea)
This code isn't really doing what I need it to do, now I think it would better to extract the most central area in the binary image.
Binary Image
Largest Image
This is currently what the code is extracting, but I am hoping to get the central circle in the first binary image extracted.

OpenCV comes with a point-polygon test function (for contours). It even gives a signed distance, if you ask for that.
I'll find the contour that is closest to the center of the picture. That may be a contour actually overlapping the center of the picture.
Timings, on my quadcore from 2012, give or take a millisecond:
findContours: ~1 millisecond
all pointPolygonTests and argmax: ~1 millisecond
mask = cv.imread("fkljm.png", cv.IMREAD_GRAYSCALE)
(height, width) = mask.shape
ret, mask = cv.threshold(mask, 128, 255, cv.THRESH_BINARY) # required because the sample picture isn't exactly clean
# get contours
contours, hierarchy = cv.findContours(mask, cv.RETR_LIST | cv.RETR_EXTERNAL, cv.CHAIN_APPROX_SIMPLE)
center = (np.array([width, height]) - 1) / 2
# find contour closest to center of picture
distances = [
cv.pointPolygonTest(contour, center, True) # looking for most positive (inside); negative is outside
for contour in contours
]
iclosest = np.argmax(distances)
print("closest contour is", iclosest, "with distance", distances[iclosest])
# draw closest contour
canvas = cv.cvtColor(mask, cv.COLOR_GRAY2BGR)
cv.drawContours(image=canvas, contours=[contours[iclosest]], contourIdx=-1, color=(0, 255, 0), thickness=5)
closest contour is 45 with distance 65.19202405202648
a cv.floodFill() on the center point can also quickly yield a labeling on that blob... assuming the mask is positive there. Otherwise, there needs to be search.
(cx, cy) = center.astype(int)
assert mask[cy,cx], "floodFill not applicable"
# trying cv.floodFill on the image center
mask2 = mask >> 1 # turns everything else gray
cv.floodFill(image=mask2, mask=None, seedPoint=center.astype(int), newVal=255)
# use (mask2 == 255) to identify that blob
This also takes less than a millisecond.
Some practically faster approaches might involve a pyramid scheme (low-res versions of the mask) to quickly identify areas of the picture that are candidates for an exact test (distance/intersection).
Test target pixel. Hit (positive)? Done.
Calculate low-res mask. Per block, if any pixel is positive, block is positive.
Find positive blocks, sort by distance, examine closer all those that are within sqrt(2) * blocksize of the best distance.

There are several ways you define "most central." I chose to define it as the region with the closest distance to the point you're searching for. If the point is inside the region, then that distance will be zero.
I also chose to do this with a pixel-based approach rather than a polygon-based approach, like you're doing with findContours().
Here's a step-by-step breakdown of what this code is doing.
Load the image, put it into grayscale, and threshold it. You're already doing these things.
Identify connected components of the image. Connected components are places where there are white pixels which are directly connected to other white pixels. This breaks up the image into regions.
Using np.argwhere(), convert a true/false mask into an array of coordinates.
For each coordinate, compute the Euclidean distance between that point and search_point.
Find the minimum within each region.
Across all regions, find the smallest distance.
import cv2
import numpy as np
img = cv2.imread('test197_img.png')
gray = cv2.cvtColor(img, cv2.COLOR_BGR2GRAY)
_, thresh_img = cv2.threshold(gray,127,255,cv2.THRESH_BINARY)
n_groups, comp_grouped = cv2.connectedComponents(thresh_img)
components = []
search_point = [600, 150]
for i in range(1, n_groups):
mask = (comp_grouped == i)
component_coords = np.argwhere(mask)[:, ::-1]
min_distance = np.sqrt(((component_coords - search_point) ** 2).sum(axis=1)).min()
components.append({
'mask': mask,
'min_distance': min_distance,
})
closest = min(components, key=lambda x: x['min_distance'])['mask']
Output:

remove demarcation from text image - image processing

Hi I need to write a program that remove demarcation from gray scale image(image with text in it)
i read about thresholding and blurring but still i dont see how can i do it.
my image is an image of a hebrew text like that:
and i need to remove the demarcation(assuming that the demarcation is the smallest element in the image) the output need to be something like that
I want to write the code in python using opencv, what topics do i need to learn to be able to do that, and how?
thank you.
Edit:
I can use only cv2 functions

The symbols you want to remove are significantly smaller than all other shapes, you can use that to determine witch ones to remove.
First use threshold to convert the image to binary. Next, you can use findContours to detect the shapes and then contourArea to determine if the shape is larger than a threshold.
Finally you can can create a mask to remove the unwanted shapes, draw the larger symbols on a new image or draw the smaller symbols in white over the original symbols in the original image - making them disappear. I used that last technique in the code below.
Result:
Code:
import cv2
# load image as grayscale
img = cv2.imread('1MioS.png',0)
# convert to binary. Inverted, so you get white symbols on black background
_ , thres = cv2.threshold(img, 200, 255, cv2.THRESH_BINARY_INV)
# find contours in the thresholded image (this gives all symbols)
contours, hierarchy = cv2.findContours(thres, cv2.RETR_EXTERNAL, cv2.CHAIN_APPROX_SIMPLE)
# loop through the contours, if the size of the contour is below a threshold,
# draw a white shape over it in the input image
for cnt in contours:
if cv2.contourArea(cnt) < 250:
cv2.drawContours(img,[cnt],0,(255),-1)
# display result
cv2.imshow('res', img)
cv2.waitKey(0)
cv2.destroyAllWindows()
Update
To find the largest contour, you can loop through them and keep track of the largest value:
maxArea = 0
for cnt in contours:
currArea = cv2.contourArea(cnt)
if currArea > maxArea:
maxArea = currArea
print(maxArea)
I also whipped up a little more complex version, that creates a sorted list of the indexes and sizes of the contours. Then it looks for the largest relative difference in size of all contours, so you know which contours are 'small' and 'large'. I do not know if this works for all letters / fonts.
# create a list of the indexes of the contours and their sizes
contour_sizes = []
for index,cnt in enumerate(contours):
contour_sizes.append([index,cv2.contourArea(cnt)])
# sort the list based on the contour size.
# this changes the order of the elements in the list
contour_sizes.sort(key=lambda x:x[1])
# loop through the list and determine the largest relative distance
indexOfMaxDifference = 0
currentMaxDifference = 0
for i in range(1,len(contour_sizes)):
sizeDifference = contour_sizes[i][1] / contour_sizes[i-1][1]
if sizeDifference > currentMaxDifference:
currentMaxDifference = sizeDifference
indexOfMaxDifference = i
# loop through the list again, ending (or starting) at the indexOfMaxDifference, to draw the contour
for i in range(0, indexOfMaxDifference):
cv2.drawContours(img,contours,contour_sizes[i][0] ,(255),-1)
To get the background color you can do use minMaxLoc. This returns the lowest color value and it's position of an image (also the max value, but you don't need that). If you apply it to the thresholded image - where the background is black -, it will return the location of a background pixel (big odds it will be (0,0) ). You can then look up this pixel in the original color image.
# get the location of a pixel with background color
min_val, _, min_loc, _ = cv2.minMaxLoc(thres)
# load color image
img_color = cv2.imread('1MioS.png')
# get bgr values of background
b,g,r = img_color[min_loc]
# convert from numpy object
background_color = (int(b),int(g),int(r))
and then to draw the contours
cv2.drawContours(img_color,contours,contour_sizes[i][0],background_color,-1)
and of course
cv2.imshow('res', img_color)

This looks like a problem for template matching since you have what looks like a known font and can easily understand what the characters and/or demarcations are. Check out https://opencv-python-tutroals.readthedocs.io/en/latest/py_tutorials/py_imgproc/py_template_matching/py_template_matching.html
Admittedly, the tutorial talks about finding the match; modification is up to you. In that case, you know the exact shape of the template itself, so using that information along with the location of the match, just overwrite the image data with the appropriate background color (based on the examples above, 255).

You can solve it by removing all the small clusters.
I found a Python solution (using OpenCV) here.
For supporting smaller fonts, I added the following heuristic:
"The largest size of the demarcation cluster is 1/500 of the largest letter cluster".
The heuristic can be refined, by statistical analysts (or improved by other heuristics, such as demarcation locations relative to the letters).
import numpy as np
import cv2
I = cv2.imread('Goodluck.png', cv2.IMREAD_GRAYSCALE)
J = 255 - I # Invert I
img = cv2.threshold(J, 127, 255, cv2.THRESH_BINARY)[1] # Convert to binary
# https://answers.opencv.org/question/194566/removing-noise-using-connected-components/
nlabel,labels,stats,centroids = cv2.connectedComponentsWithStats(img, connectivity=8)
labels_small = []
areas_small = []
# Find largest cluster:
max_size = np.max(stats[:, cv2.CC_STAT_AREA])
thresh_size = max_size / 500 # Set the threshold to maximum cluster size divided by 500.
for i in range(1, nlabel):
if stats[i, cv2.CC_STAT_AREA] < thresh_size:
labels_small.append(i)
areas_small.append(stats[i, cv2.CC_STAT_AREA])
mask = np.ones_like(labels, dtype=np.uint8)
for i in labels_small:
I[labels == i] = 255
cv2.imshow('I', I)
cv2.waitKey(0)
Here is a MATLAB code sample (kept threshold = 200):
clear
I = imbinarize(rgb2gray(imread('בהצלחה.png')));
figure;imshow(I);
J = ~I;
%Clustering
CC = bwconncomp(J);
%Cover all small clusters with zewros.
for i = 1:CC.NumObjects
C = CC.PixelIdxList{i}; %Cluster coordinates.
%Fill small clusters with zeros.
if numel(C) < 200
J(C) = 0;
end
end
J = ~J;
figure;imshow(J);
Result:

Python OpenCV - customizing mask

I am having a image here. The region within the yellow lines is my region of interest, as shown in this image here, which is also one of my objective. Here's my planning / steps:
Denoise, color filtering, masking and Canny edging (DONE)
Coordinates of the edges (DONE)
Select coordinates of certain vertices, for example
Draw polygon with those vertices' coordinates
Here's the code:
import cv2
import numpy as np
from matplotlib import pyplot as plt
frame = cv2.imread('realtest.jpg')
denoisedFrame = cv2.fastNlMeansDenoisingColored(frame, None, 10, 10, 7, 21)
HSVframe = cv2.cvtColor(denoisedFrame, cv2.COLOR_BGR2HSV)
lower_yellowColor = np.array([15,105,105])
upper_yellowColor = np.array([25,255,255])
whiteMask = cv2.inRange(HSVframe, lower_yellowColor, upper_yellowColor)
maskedFrame = cv2.bitwise_and(denoisedFrame, denoisedFrame, mask=whiteMask)
grayFrame = cv2.cvtColor(maskedFrame, cv2.COLOR_BGR2GRAY)
gaussBlurFrame = cv2.GaussianBlur(grayFrame, (5,5), 0)
edgedFrame = cv2.Canny(grayFrame, 100, 200)
#Coordinates of each white pixels that make up the edges
ans = []
for y in range(0, edgedFrame.shape[0]):
for x in range(0, edgedFrame.shape[1]):
if edgedFrame[y, x] != 0:
ans = ans + [[x, y]]
ans = np.array(ans)
#print(ans.shape)
#print(ans[0:100, :])
cv2.imshow("edged", edgedFrame)
cv2.waitKey(0)
cv2.destroyAllWindows()
As you can see, I have successfully done step number (2) in getting the coordinates of each white pixels that make the edges. Whereas for the next step, step number (3), I am stuck. I have tried the coding here, but getting error that says 'ValueError: too many values to unpack (expected 2)'.
Please help teaching me in finding good vertices for constructing a polygon that is as close to the yellow lines as possible.

I have split the answer into two parts
Part 1: Finding the good vertices to construct a polygon
The required vertices around an image containing edges can be done using OpenCV's inbuilt cv2.findContours() function. It returns the image with contours, vertices of the contours and the hierarchy of the contours.
One can find vertices of contours in two ways:
cv2.CHAIN_APPROX_NONE plots ALL the coordinates(boundary points) on each contour
cv2.CHAIN_APPROX_SIMPLE plots ONLY the most necessary coordinates on each contour. It doesn't store all the points. Only the most required coordinates that best represent the contours are stored.
In your case option 2 can be opted. After finding the edges you can do the following:
image, contours, hier = cv2.findContours(edgedFrame, cv2.RETR_EXTERNAL,cv2.CHAIN_APPROX_SIMPLE)
contours contains the vertices of every contour in the image edgedFrame
Part 2: Constructing the polygon
Opencv has an in-built function for this as well cv2.convexHull() After finding those points you can draw them using cv2.drawContours().
for cnt in contours:
hull = cv2.convexHull(cnt)
cv2.drawContours(frame, [hull], -1, (0, 255, 0), 2)
cv2.imshow("Polygon", frame)
You can obtain a better approximation of the desired edge by doing some more pre-processing while creating the mask

OpenCV get centers of multiple objects

I'm trying to build a simple image analyzing tool that will find items that fit in a color range and then finds the centers of said objects.
As an example, after masking, I'm analyzing an image like this:
What I'm doing so far code-wise is rather simple:
import cv2
import numpy
bound = 30
inc = numpy.array([225,225,225])
lower = inc - bound
upper = inc + bound
img = cv2.imread("input.tiff")
cv2.imshow("Original", img)
mask = cv2.inRange(img, lower, upper)
cv2.imshow("Range", mask)
contours = cv2.findContours(mask, cv2.RETR_CCOMP, cv2.CHAIN_APPROX_TC89_L1)
print contours
This, however, gives me a countless number of contours. I'm somewhat at a loss while reading the corresponding manpage. Can I use moments to reasonably analyze the contours? Are contours even the right tool for this?
I found this question, that vaguely covers finding the center of one object, but how would I modify this approach when there are multiple items?
How do I find the centers of the objects in the image? For example, in the above sample image I'm looking to find three points (the centers of the rectangle and the two circles).

Try print len(contours). That will give you around the expected answer. The output you see is the full representation of the contours which could be thousands of points.
Try this code:
import cv2
import numpy
img = cv2.imread('inp.png', 0)
_, contours, _ = cv2.findContours(img.copy(), cv2.RETR_CCOMP, cv2.CHAIN_APPROX_TC89_L1)
print len(contours)
centres = []
for i in range(len(contours)):
moments = cv2.moments(contours[i])
centres.append((int(moments['m10']/moments['m00']), int(moments['m01']/moments['m00'])))
cv2.circle(img, centres[-1], 3, (0, 0, 0), -1)
print centres
cv2.imshow('image', img)
cv2.imwrite('output.png',img)
cv2.waitKey(0)
This gives me 4 centres:
[(474, 411), (96, 345), (58, 214), (396, 145)]
The obvious thing to do here is to also check for the area of the contours and if it is too small as a percentage of the image, don't count it as a real contour, it will just be noise. Just add something like this to the top of the for loop:
if cv2.contourArea(contours[i]) < 100:
continue
For the return values from findContours, I'm not sure what the first value is for as it is not present in the C++ version of OpenCV (which is what I use). The second value is obviously just the contours (an array of arrays) and the third value is a hierarchy holding information on the nesting of contours, which can be very handy.

You can use the opencv minEnclosingCircle() function on your contours to get the center of each object.
Check out this example which is in c++ but you can adapt the logic Example