Find vertical 1px lines with OpenCV - opencv

I have an image something like the image below (on the left):
I want to extract only the pixels in red on the right: the pixels that belong to a 1px vertical line, but not to any thicker line or other region with more than 1 adjacent black pixel. The image is bitonal.
I have so far tried a morphology OPEN with a vertical (10px, which is find for my purposes) and horizontal kernel and taken the difference, but this needs an awkward shift and leaves some "speckles":
vertical_kernel = cv2.getStructuringElement(cv2.MORPH_RECT, (1, 10))
vertical_mask1 = cv2.morphologyEx(thresh, cv2.MORPH_OPEN, vertical_kernel,
iterations=1)
horz_kernel = cv2.getStructuringElement(cv2.MORPH_RECT, (2, 1))
horz_mask = cv2.morphologyEx(thresh, cv2.MORPH_OPEN, horz_kernel,
iterations=1)
M = np.float32([[1,0,-1],[0,1,1]])
rows, cols = horz_mask.shape
vertical_mask = cv2.warpAffine(horz_mask, M, (cols, rows))
result = cv2.bitwise_and(thresh, cv2.bitwise_not(horz_mask))
What is the correct way to isolate the 1px lines (and only the 1px lines)?
In the general case, for other kernels, this question is: how do I find all pixels in the image that are in regions that the kernel "fits inside" (and then a subtraction to get my desired result)?

That's basically (binary) template matching. You need to derive proper templates from your "kernels". For larger "kernels", that might involve using masks for these templates, too, cf. cv2.matchTemplate.
What's the most important feature for a single pixel vertical line? The left and right neighbour of the current pixel must be 0. So, the template to match is [0, 1, 0]. By using the TemplateMatchMode cv2.TM_SQDIFF_NORMED, perfect matches will lead to close to 0 values in the result array.
You can mask those locations, and dilate according to the size of your template. Then, you use bitwise_and to extract the actual pixels that belong to your template.
Here's some code with a few template ("kernels"):
import cv2
import numpy as np
img = cv2.imread('AapJk.png', cv2.IMREAD_GRAYSCALE)[:, :50]
vert_line = np.array([[0, 1, 0]], np.uint8)
cross = np.array([[0, 1, 0], [1, 1, 1], [0, 1, 0]], np.uint8)
corner = np.array([[0, 0, 1], [0, 0, 1], [1, 1, 1]], np.uint8)
for i_k, k in enumerate([vert_line, cross, corner]):
m, n = k.shape
img_tmp = 1 - img // 255
mask = cv2.matchTemplate(img_tmp, k, cv2.TM_SQDIFF_NORMED) < 10e-6
mask = cv2.dilate(mask.astype(np.uint8), np.ones((m, n)), anchor=(n-1, m-1))
m, n = mask.shape
mask = cv2.bitwise_and(img_tmp[:m, :n], mask)
out = cv2.cvtColor(img, cv2.COLOR_GRAY2BGR)
roi = out[:m, :n]
roi[mask.astype(bool), :] = [0, 0, 255]
cv2.imwrite('{}.png'.format(i_k), out)
Vertical line:
Cross:
Bottom right corner 3 x 3:
Larger templates ("kernels") most likely will require additional masks, depending on how many or which neighbouring pixels should be considered or not.
----------------------------------------
System information
----------------------------------------
Platform: Windows-10-10.0.19041-SP0
Python: 3.9.1
PyCharm: 2021.1.3
NumPy: 1.20.3
OpenCV: 4.5.2
----------------------------------------

Related

How to connect disjointed lines or edges in images?

I am currently working on lines extraction from a binary image. I initially performed a few image processing steps including threshold segmentation and obtained the following binary image.
As can be seen in the binary image the lines are splitted or broken. And I wanted to join the broken line as shown in the image below marked in red. I marked the red line manually for a demonstration.
FYI, I used the following code to perform the preprocessing.
img = cv2.imread('original_image.jpg') # loading image
gray_image = cv2.cvtColor(img, cv2.COLOR_BGR2GRAY) # coverting to gray scale
median_filter = cv2.medianBlur (gray_image, ksize = 5) # median filtering
th, thresh = cv2.threshold (median_filter, median_filter.mean(), 255, cv2.THRESH_BINARY) # theshold segmentation
# small dots and noise removing
nlabels, labels, stats, centroids = cv2.connectedComponentsWithStats(thresh, None, None, None, 8, cv2.CV_32S)
areas = stats[1:,cv2.CC_STAT_AREA]
result = np.zeros((labels.shape), np.uint8)
min_size = 150
for i in range(0, nlabels - 1):
if areas[i] >= min_size: #keep
result[labels == i + 1] = 255
fig, ax = plt.subplots(2,1, figsize=(30,20))
ax[0].imshow(img)
ax[0].set_title('Original image')
ax[1].imshow(cv2.cvtColor(result, cv2.COLOR_BGR2RGB))
ax[1].set_title('preprocessed image')
I would really appreciate it if you have any suggestions or steps on how to connect the lines? Thank you
Using the following sequence of methods I was able to get a rough approximation. It is a very simple solution and might not work for all cases.
1. Morphological operations
To merge neighboring lines perform morphological (dilation) operations on the binary image.
img = cv2.imread('image_path', 0) # grayscale image
img1 = cv2.imread('image_path', 1) # color image
th = cv2.threshold(img, 150, 255, cv2.THRESH_BINARY)[1]
kernel = cv2.getStructuringElement(cv2.MORPH_ELLIPSE, (19, 19))
morph = cv2.morphologyEx(th, cv2.MORPH_DILATE, kernel)
2. Finding contours and extreme points
My idea now is to find contours.
Then find the extreme points of each contour.
Finally find the closest distance among these extreme points between neighboring contours. And draw a line between them.
cnts1 = cv2.findContours(morph, cv2.RETR_EXTERNAL, cv2.CHAIN_APPROX_SIMPLE)
cnts = cnts1[0] # storing contours in a variable
Lets take a quick detour to visualize where these extreme points are present:
# visualize extreme points for each contour
for c in cnts:
left = tuple(c[c[:, :, 0].argmin()][0])
right = tuple(c[c[:, :, 0].argmax()][0])
top = tuple(c[c[:, :, 1].argmin()][0])
bottom = tuple(c[c[:, :, 1].argmax()][0])
# Draw dots onto image
cv2.circle(img1, left, 8, (0, 50, 255), -1)
cv2.circle(img1, right, 8, (0, 255, 255), -1)
cv2.circle(img1, top, 8, (255, 50, 0), -1)
cv2.circle(img1, bottom, 8, (255, 255, 0), -1)
(Note: The extreme points points are based of contours from morphological operations, but drawn on the original image)
3. Finding closest distances between neighboring contours
Sorry for the many loops.
First, iterate through every contour (split line) in the image.
Find the extreme points for them. Extreme points mean top-most, bottom-most, right-most and left-most points based on its respective bounding box.
Compare the distance between every extreme point of a contour with those of every other contour. And draw a line between points with the least distance.
for i in range(len(cnts)):
min_dist = max(img.shape[0], img.shape[1])
cl = []
ci = cnts[i]
ci_left = tuple(ci[ci[:, :, 0].argmin()][0])
ci_right = tuple(ci[ci[:, :, 0].argmax()][0])
ci_top = tuple(ci[ci[:, :, 1].argmin()][0])
ci_bottom = tuple(ci[ci[:, :, 1].argmax()][0])
ci_list = [ci_bottom, ci_left, ci_right, ci_top]
for j in range(i + 1, len(cnts)):
cj = cnts[j]
cj_left = tuple(cj[cj[:, :, 0].argmin()][0])
cj_right = tuple(cj[cj[:, :, 0].argmax()][0])
cj_top = tuple(cj[cj[:, :, 1].argmin()][0])
cj_bottom = tuple(cj[cj[:, :, 1].argmax()][0])
cj_list = [cj_bottom, cj_left, cj_right, cj_top]
for pt1 in ci_list:
for pt2 in cj_list:
dist = int(np.linalg.norm(np.array(pt1) - np.array(pt2))) #dist = sqrt( (x2 - x1)**2 + (y2 - y1)**2 )
if dist < min_dist:
min_dist = dist
cl = []
cl.append([pt1, pt2, min_dist])
if len(cl) > 0:
cv2.line(img1, cl[0][0], cl[0][1], (255, 255, 255), thickness = 5)
4. Post-processing
Since the final output is not perfect, you can perform additional morphology operations and then skeletonize it.

Image Processing: Mapping a scanned image on a template image with many identical features

Problem description
We are trying to match a scanned image onto a template image:
Example of a scanned image:
Example of a template image:
The template image contains a collection of hearts varying in size and contour properties (closed, open left and open right). Each heart in the template is a Region of Interest for which we know the location, size, and contour type. Our goal is to match a scanned onto the template so that we can extract these ROIs in the scanned image. In the scanned image, some of these hearts are crossed, and they will be presented to a classifier that decides if they are crossed or not.
Our approach
Following a tutorial on PyImageSearch, we have attempted to use ORB to find matching keypoints (code included below). This should allow us to compute a perspective transform matrix that maps the scanned image on the template image.
We have tried some preprocessing steps such as thresholding and/or blurring the scanned image. We have also tried to increase the maximum number of features as much as possible.
The problem
The method fails to work for our image set. This can be seen in the following image:
It appears that a lot of keypoints are mapped to the wrong part of the template image, so the transform matrix is not calculated correctly.
Is ORB the right technique to use here, or are there parameters of the algorithm that could be fine-tuned to improve performance? It feels like we are missing out on something simple that should make it work, but we really don't know how to go forward with this approach :).
We are trying out an alternative technique where we cross-correlate the scan with individual heart shapes. This should give an image with peaks at the heart locations. By drawing a bounding box around these peaks we hope to map that bounding box on the bounding box of the template (I can elaborat on this upon request)
Any suggestions are greatly appreciated!
import cv2 as cv
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
import numpy as np
# Preprocessing parameters
THRESHOLD = True
BLUR = False
# ORB parameters
MAX_FEATURES = 4048
KEEP_PERCENT = .01
SHOW_DEBUG = True
# Convert both the input image and template to grayscale
scan_file = r'scan.jpg'
template_file = r'template.jpg'
scan = cv.imread(scan_file)
template = cv.imread(template_file)
scan_gray = cv.cvtColor(scan, cv.COLOR_BGR2GRAY)
template_gray = cv.cvtColor(template, cv.COLOR_BGR2GRAY)
if THRESHOLD:
_, scan_gray = cv.threshold(scan_gray, 127, 255, cv.THRESH_BINARY)
_, template_gray = cv.threshold(template_gray, 127, 255, cv.THRESH_BINARY)
if BLUR:
scan_gray = cv.blur(scan_gray, (5, 5))
template_gray = cv.blur(template_gray, (5, 5))
# Use ORB to detect keypoints and extract (binary) local invariant features
orb = cv.ORB_create(MAX_FEATURES)
(kps_template, desc_template) = orb.detectAndCompute(template_gray, None)
(kps_scan, desc_scan) = orb.detectAndCompute(scan_gray, None)
# Match the features
#method = cv.DESCRIPTOR_MATCHER_BRUTEFORCE_HAMMING
#matcher = cv.DescriptorMatcher_create(method)
#matches = matcher.match(desc_scan, desc_template)
bf = cv.BFMatcher(cv.NORM_HAMMING)
matches = bf.match(desc_scan, desc_template)
# Sort the matches by their distances
matches = sorted(matches, key = lambda x : x.distance)
# Keep only the top matches
keep = int(len(matches) * KEEP_PERCENT)
matches = matches[:keep]
if SHOW_DEBUG:
matched_visualization = cv.drawMatches(scan, kps_scan, template, kps_template, matches, None)
plt.imshow(matched_visualization)
Based on the clarifications provided by #it_guy, I have attempted to find all the crossed hearts using just the scanned image. I would have to try the algorithm on more images to check whether this approach will generalize or not.
Binarize the scanned image.
gray_image = cv2.cvtColor(rgb_image, cv2.COLOR_BGR2GRAY)
ret, thresh = cv2.threshold(gray_image, 180, 255, cv2.THRESH_BINARY_INV)
Perform dilation to close small gaps in the outline of the hearts, and the curves representing crosses. Note - The structuring element np.ones((1,2), np.uint8 can be changed by running the algorithm through multiple images and finding the most suitable structuring element.
closing_original = cv2.morphologyEx(original_binary, cv2.MORPH_DILATE, np.ones((1,2), np.uint8)).
Find all the contours in the image. The contours include all hearts and the triangle at the bottom. We eliminate other contours like dots by placing constraints on the height and width of contours to filter them. Further, we also use contour hierachies to eliminate inner contours in cross hearts.
contours_original, hierarchy_original = cv2.findContours(closing_original, cv2.RETR_CCOMP, cv2.CHAIN_APPROX_SIMPLE)
We iterate through each of the filtered contours.
Contour with normal heart -
Contour with crossed heart -
Let us observe the difference between these two types of hearts. If we look at the transition from white-to-black pixel and black-to-white pixel ( from top to bottom ) inside the normal heart, we see that for majority of the image columns the number of such transitions are 4. ( Top border - 2 transitions, bottom border - 2 transitions )
white-to-black pixel - (255, 255, 0, 0, 0)
black-to-white pixel - (0, 0, 255, 255, 255)
But, in the case of the crossed heart, the number of transitions for majority of the columns must be 6, since the crossed curve / line adds two more transitions inside the heart (black-to-white first, then white-to-black). Hence, among all image columns which have greater than or equal to 4 such transitions, if more than 40% of the columns have 6 transitions, then the given contour represents a crossed contour. Result -
Code -
import cv2
import numpy as np
def convert_to_binary(rgb_image):
gray_image = cv2.cvtColor(rgb_image, cv2.COLOR_BGR2GRAY)
ret, thresh = cv2.threshold(gray_image, 180, 255, cv2.THRESH_BINARY_INV)
return gray_image, thresh
original = cv2.imread('original.jpg')
height, width = original.shape[:2]
original_gray, original_binary = convert_to_binary(original) # Get binary image
cv2.imwrite("binary.jpg", original_binary)
closing_original = cv2.morphologyEx(original_binary, cv2.MORPH_DILATE, np.ones((1,2), np.uint8)) # Close small gaps in the binary image
cv2.imwrite("closed.jpg", closing_original)
contours_original, hierarchy_original = cv2.findContours(closing_original, cv2.RETR_CCOMP, cv2.CHAIN_APPROX_SIMPLE) # Get all the contours
bounding_rects_original = [cv2.boundingRect(c) for c in contours_original] # Get all contour bounding boxes
orig_boxes = list()
all_contour_image = original.copy()
for i, (x, y, w, h) in enumerate(bounding_rects_original):
if h > height / 2 or w > width / 2: # Eliminate extremely large contours
continue
if h < w / 2 or w < h / 2: # Eliminate vertical / horuzontal lines
continue
if w * h < 200: # Eliminate small area contours
continue
if hierarchy_original[0][i][3] != -1: # Eliminate contours created by heart crosses
continue
orig_boxes.append((x, y, w, h))
cv2.rectangle(all_contour_image, (x,y), (x + w, y + h), (0, 255, 0), 3)
# cv2.imshow("warped", closing_original)
cv2.imwrite("all_contours.jpg", all_contour_image)
final_image = original.copy()
for x, y, w, h in orig_boxes:
cropped_image = closing_original[y - 2 :y + h + 2, x: x + w] # Get the heart binary image
col_pixel_diffs = np.abs(np.diff(cropped_image.T.astype(np.int16))/255) # Obtain all consecutive pixel differences in all the columns
column_sums = np.sum(col_pixel_diffs, axis=1) # Get the sum of each column's transitions. This results in an array of size equal
# to the number of columns, each element representing the number of black-white and white-black transitions.
percent_crosses = np.sum(column_sums >= 6)/ np.sum(column_sums >= 4) # Percentage of columns with 6 transitions among columns with 4 transitions
if percent_crosses > 0.4: # Crossed heart criterion
cv2.rectangle(final_image, (x,y), (x + w, y + h), (0, 255, 0), 3)
cv2.imwrite("crossed_heart.jpg", cropped_image)
else:
cv2.imwrite("normal_heart.jpg", cropped_image)
cv2.imwrite("all_crossed_hearts.jpg", final_image)
This approach can be tested on more images to find its accuracy.

How to get the area of the contours?

I have a picture like this:
And then I transform it into binary image and use canny to detect edge of the picture:
gray = cv.cvtColor(image, cv.COLOR_RGB2GRAY)
edge = Image.fromarray(edges)
And then I get the result as:
I want to get the area of 2 like this:
My solution is to use HoughLines to find lines in the picture and calculate the area of triangle formed by lines. However, this way is not precise because the closed area is not a standard triangle. How to get the area of region 2?
A simple approach using floodFill and countNonZero could be the following code snippet. My standard quote on contourArea from the help:
The function computes a contour area. Similarly to moments, the area is computed using the Green formula. Thus, the returned area and the number of non-zero pixels, if you draw the contour using drawContours or fillPoly, can be different. Also, the function will most certainly give a wrong results for contours with self-intersections.
Code:
import cv2
import numpy as np
# Input image
img = cv2.imread('images/YMMEE.jpg', cv2.IMREAD_GRAYSCALE)
# Needed due to JPG artifacts
_, temp = cv2.threshold(img, 128, 255, cv2.THRESH_BINARY)
# Dilate to better detect contours
temp = cv2.dilate(temp, cv2.getStructuringElement(cv2.MORPH_ELLIPSE, (3, 3)))
# Find largest contour
cnts, _ = cv2.findContours(temp, cv2.RETR_EXTERNAL , cv2.CHAIN_APPROX_NONE)
largestCnt = []
for cnt in cnts:
if (len(cnt) > len(largestCnt)):
largestCnt = cnt
# Determine center of area of largest contour
M = cv2.moments(largestCnt)
x = int(M["m10"] / M["m00"])
y = int(M["m01"] / M["m00"])
# Initiale mask for flood filling
width, height = temp.shape
mask = img2 = np.ones((width + 2, height + 2), np.uint8) * 255
mask[1:width, 1:height] = 0
# Generate intermediate image, draw largest contour, flood filled
temp = np.zeros(temp.shape, np.uint8)
temp = cv2.drawContours(temp, largestCnt, -1, 255, cv2.FILLED)
_, temp, mask, _ = cv2.floodFill(temp, mask, (x, y), 255)
temp = cv2.morphologyEx(temp, cv2.MORPH_OPEN, cv2.getStructuringElement(cv2.MORPH_ELLIPSE, (3, 3)))
# Count pixels in desired region
area = cv2.countNonZero(temp)
# Put result on original image
img = cv2.putText(img, str(area), (x, y), cv2.FONT_HERSHEY_COMPLEX_SMALL, 1, 255)
cv2.imshow('Input', img)
cv2.imshow('Temp image', temp)
cv2.waitKey(0)
Temporary image:
Result image:
Caveat: findContours has some problems one the right side, where the line is very close to the bottom image border, resulting in possibly omitting some pixels.
Disclaimer: I'm new to Python in general, and specially to the Python API of OpenCV (C++ for the win). Comments, improvements, highlighting Python no-gos are highly welcome!
There is a very simple way to find this area, if you take some assumptions that are met in the example image:
The area to be found is bounded on top by a line
Any additional lines in the image are above the line of interest
There are no discontinuities in the line
In this case, the area of the region of interest is given by the sum of the lengths from the bottom of the image to the first set pixel. We can compute this with:
import numpy as np
import matplotlib.pyplot as pp
img = pp.imread('/home/cris/tmp/YMMEE.jpg')
img = np.flip(img, axis=0)
pos = np.argmax(img, axis=0)
area = np.sum(pos)
print('Area = %d\n'%area)
This prints Area = 22040.
np.argmax finds the first set pixel on each column of the image, returning the index. By first using np.flip, we flip this axis so that the first pixel is actually the one on the bottom. The index corresponds to the number of pixels between the bottom of the image and the line (not including the set pixel).
Thus, we're computing the area under the line. If you need to include the line itself in the area, add pos.shape[0] to the area (i.e. the number of columns).

Color levels in OpenCV

I want to do something similar to the levels function in Photoshop, but can't find the right openCV functions.
Basically I want to stretch the greys in an image to go from almost white to practically black instead of from almost white to slightly greyer, while leaving white as white and black as black (I am using greyscale images).
The following python code fully implements Photoshop Adjustments -> Levels dialog.
Change the values for each channel to the desired ones.
img is input rgb image of np.uint8 type.
inBlack = np.array([0, 0, 0], dtype=np.float32)
inWhite = np.array([255, 255, 255], dtype=np.float32)
inGamma = np.array([1.0, 1.0, 1.0], dtype=np.float32)
outBlack = np.array([0, 0, 0], dtype=np.float32)
outWhite = np.array([255, 255, 255], dtype=np.float32)
img = np.clip( (img - inBlack) / (inWhite - inBlack), 0, 255 )
img = ( img ** (1/inGamma) ) * (outWhite - outBlack) + outBlack
img = np.clip( img, 0, 255).astype(np.uint8)
I think this is a function mapping input levels to output levels as shown below in the figure.
For example, the orange curve is a straight line from (a, c) to (b, d), blue curve is a straight line from (a, d) to (b, c) and green curve is a non-linear function from (a,c) to (b, d).
We can define the blue curve as (x - a)/(y - d) = (a - b)/(d - c).
Limiting values of a, b, c and d depend on the range supported by the channel that you are applying this transformation to. For gray scale this is [0, 255].
For example, if you want a transformation like (a, d) = (10, 200), (b, c) = (250, 50) for a gray scale image,
y = -150*(x-10)/240 + 200 for x [10, 250]
y = x for [0, 10) and (250, 255] if you want remaining values unchanged.
You can use a lookup table in OpenCV (LUT function) to calculate the output levels and apply this transformation to your image or the specific channel. You can apply any piecewise transformation this way.
I don't know what are the "Photoshop levels". But from description, I think you should try the following:
Convert your image to YUV using cvtColor. Y will represent the intensity plane. (You can also use Lab, Luv, or any similar colorspace with separate intensity component).
Split the planes using split, so that the intensity plane will be a separate image.
Call equalizeHist on the intensity plane
Merge the planes back together using merge
Details on histogram equalization can be found here
Also note, that there's an implementation of somewhat improved histogram equalization method - CLAHE (but I can't find a better link than this, also #berak suggested a good link on the topic)

How to find corners on a Image using OpenCv

I´m trying to find the corners on a image, I don´t need the contours, only the 4 corners. I will change the perspective using 4 corners.
I´m using Opencv, but I need to know the steps to find the corners and what function I will use.
My images will be like this:(without red points, I will paint the points after)
EDITED:
After suggested steps, I writed the code: (Note: I´m not using pure OpenCv, I´m using javaCV, but the logic it´s the same).
// Load two images and allocate other structures (I´m using other image)
IplImage colored = cvLoadImage(
"res/scanteste.jpg",
CV_LOAD_IMAGE_UNCHANGED);
IplImage gray = cvCreateImage(cvGetSize(colored), IPL_DEPTH_8U, 1);
IplImage smooth = cvCreateImage(cvGetSize(colored), IPL_DEPTH_8U, 1);
//Step 1 - Convert from RGB to grayscale (cvCvtColor)
cvCvtColor(colored, gray, CV_RGB2GRAY);
//2 Smooth (cvSmooth)
cvSmooth( gray, smooth, CV_BLUR, 9, 9, 2, 2);
//3 - cvThreshold - What values?
cvThreshold(gray,gray, 155, 255, CV_THRESH_BINARY);
//4 - Detect edges (cvCanny) -What values?
int N = 7;
int aperature_size = N;
double lowThresh = 20;
double highThresh = 40;
cvCanny( gray, gray, lowThresh*N*N, highThresh*N*N, aperature_size );
//5 - Find contours (cvFindContours)
int total = 0;
CvSeq contour2 = new CvSeq(null);
CvMemStorage storage2 = cvCreateMemStorage(0);
CvMemStorage storageHull = cvCreateMemStorage(0);
total = cvFindContours(gray, storage2, contour2, Loader.sizeof(CvContour.class), CV_RETR_CCOMP, CV_CHAIN_APPROX_NONE);
if(total > 1){
while (contour2 != null && !contour2.isNull()) {
if (contour2.elem_size() > 0) {
//6 - Approximate contours with linear features (cvApproxPoly)
CvSeq points = cvApproxPoly(contour2,Loader.sizeof(CvContour.class), storage2, CV_POLY_APPROX_DP,cvContourPerimeter(contour2)*0.005, 0);
cvDrawContours(gray, points,CvScalar.BLUE, CvScalar.BLUE, -1, 1, CV_AA);
}
contour2 = contour2.h_next();
}
}
So, I want to find the cornes, but I don´t know how to use corners function like cvCornerHarris and others.
First, check out /samples/c/squares.c in your OpenCV distribution. This example provides a square detector, and it should be a pretty good start on how to detect corner-like features. Then, take a look at OpenCV's feature-oriented functions like cvCornerHarris() and cvGoodFeaturesToTrack().
The above methods can return many corner-like features - most will not be the "true corners" you are looking for. In my application, I had to detect squares that had been rotated or skewed (due to perspective). My detection pipeline consisted of:
Convert from RGB to grayscale (cvCvtColor)
Smooth (cvSmooth)
Threshold (cvThreshold)
Detect edges (cvCanny)
Find contours (cvFindContours)
Approximate contours with linear features (cvApproxPoly)
Find "rectangles" which were structures that: had polygonalized contours possessing 4 points, were of sufficient area, had adjacent edges were ~90 degrees, had distance between "opposite" vertices was of sufficient size, etc.
Step 7 was necessary because a slightly noisy image can yield many structures that appear rectangular after polygonalization. In my application, I also had to deal with square-like structures that appeared within, or overlapped the desired square. I found the contour's area property and center of gravity to be helpful in discerning the proper rectangle.
At a first glance, for a human eye there are 4 corners. But in computer vision, a corner is considered to be a point that has large gradient change in intensity across its neighborhood. The neighborhood can be a 4 pixel neighborhood or an 8 pixel neighborhood.
In the equation provided to find the gradient of intensity, it has been considered for 4-pixel neighborhood SEE DOCUMENTATION.
Here is my approach for the image in question. I have the code in python as well:
path = r'C:\Users\selwyn77\Desktop\Stack\corner'
filename = 'env.jpg'
img = cv2.imread(os.path.join(path, filename))
gray = cv2.cvtColor(img,cv2.COLOR_BGR2GRAY) #--- convert to grayscale
It is a good choice to always blur the image to remove less possible gradient changes and preserve the more intense ones. I opted to choose the bilateral filter which unlike the Gaussian filter doesn't blur all the pixels in the neighborhood. It rather blurs pixels which has similar pixel intensity to that of the central pixel. In short it preserves edges/corners of high gradient change but blurs regions that have minimal gradient changes.
bi = cv2.bilateralFilter(gray, 5, 75, 75)
cv2.imshow('bi',bi)
To a human it is not so much of a difference compared to the original image. But it does matter. Now finding possible corners:
dst = cv2.cornerHarris(bi, 2, 3, 0.04)
dst returns an array (the same 2D shape of the image) with eigen values obtained from the final equation mentioned HERE.
Now a threshold has to be applied to select those corners beyond a certain value. I will use the one in the documentation:
#--- create a black image to see where those corners occur ---
mask = np.zeros_like(gray)
#--- applying a threshold and turning those pixels above the threshold to white ---
mask[dst>0.01*dst.max()] = 255
cv2.imshow('mask', mask)
The white pixels are regions of possible corners. You can find many corners neighboring each other.
To draw the selected corners on the image:
img[dst > 0.01 * dst.max()] = [0, 0, 255] #--- [0, 0, 255] --> Red ---
cv2.imshow('dst', img)
(Red colored pixels are the corners, not so visible)
In order to get an array of all pixels with corners:
coordinates = np.argwhere(mask)
UPDATE
Variable coor is an array of arrays. Converting it to list of lists
coor_list = [l.tolist() for l in list(coor)]
Converting the above to list of tuples
coor_tuples = [tuple(l) for l in coor_list]
I have an easy and rather naive way to find the 4 corners. I simply calculated the distance of each corner to every other corner. I preserved those corners whose distance exceeded a certain threshold.
Here is the code:
thresh = 50
def distance(pt1, pt2):
(x1, y1), (x2, y2) = pt1, pt2
dist = math.sqrt( (x2 - x1)**2 + (y2 - y1)**2 )
return dist
coor_tuples_copy = coor_tuples
i = 1
for pt1 in coor_tuples:
print(' I :', i)
for pt2 in coor_tuples[i::1]:
print(pt1, pt2)
print('Distance :', distance(pt1, pt2))
if(distance(pt1, pt2) < thresh):
coor_tuples_copy.remove(pt2)
i+=1
Prior to running the snippet above coor_tuples had all corner points:
[(4, 42),
(4, 43),
(5, 43),
(5, 44),
(6, 44),
(7, 219),
(133, 36),
(133, 37),
(133, 38),
(134, 37),
(135, 224),
(135, 225),
(136, 225),
(136, 226),
(137, 225),
(137, 226),
(137, 227),
(138, 226)]
After running the snippet I was left with 4 corners:
[(4, 42), (7, 219), (133, 36), (135, 224)]
UPDATE 2
Now all you have to do is just mark these 4 points on a copy of the original image.
img2 = img.copy()
for pt in coor_tuples:
cv2.circle(img2, tuple(reversed(pt)), 3, (0, 0, 255), -1)
cv2.imshow('Image with 4 corners', img2)
Here's an implementation using cv2.goodFeaturesToTrack() to detect corners. The approach is
Convert image to grayscale
Perform canny edge detection
Detect corners
Optionally perform 4-point perspective transform to get top-down view of image
Using this starting image,
After converting to grayscale, we perform canny edge detection
Now that we have a decent binary image, we can use cv2.goodFeaturesToTrack()
corners = cv2.goodFeaturesToTrack(canny, 4, 0.5, 50)
For the parameters, we give it the canny image, set the maximum number of corners to 4 (maxCorners), use a minimum accepted quality of 0.5 (qualityLevel), and set the minimum possible Euclidean distance between the returned corners to 50 (minDistance). Here's the result
Now that we have identified the corners, we can perform a 4-point perspective transform to obtain a top-down view of the object. We first order the points clockwise then draw the result onto a mask.
Note: We could have just found contours on the Canny image instead of doing this step to create the mask, but pretend we only had the 4 corner points to work with
Next we find contours on this mask and filter using cv2.arcLength() and cv2.approxPolyDP(). The idea is that if the contour has 4 points, then it must be our object. Once we have this contour, we perform a perspective transform
Finally we rotate the image depending on the desired orientation. Here's the result
Code for only detecting corners
import cv2
image = cv2.imread('1.png')
gray = cv2.cvtColor(image, cv2.COLOR_BGR2GRAY)
canny = cv2.Canny(gray, 120, 255, 1)
corners = cv2.goodFeaturesToTrack(canny,4,0.5,50)
for corner in corners:
x,y = corner.ravel()
cv2.circle(image,(x,y),5,(36,255,12),-1)
cv2.imshow('canny', canny)
cv2.imshow('image', image)
cv2.waitKey()
Code for detecting corners and performing perspective transform
import cv2
import numpy as np
def rotate_image(image, angle):
# Grab the dimensions of the image and then determine the center
(h, w) = image.shape[:2]
(cX, cY) = (w / 2, h / 2)
# grab the rotation matrix (applying the negative of the
# angle to rotate clockwise), then grab the sine and cosine
# (i.e., the rotation components of the matrix)
M = cv2.getRotationMatrix2D((cX, cY), -angle, 1.0)
cos = np.abs(M[0, 0])
sin = np.abs(M[0, 1])
# Compute the new bounding dimensions of the image
nW = int((h * sin) + (w * cos))
nH = int((h * cos) + (w * sin))
# Adjust the rotation matrix to take into account translation
M[0, 2] += (nW / 2) - cX
M[1, 2] += (nH / 2) - cY
# Perform the actual rotation and return the image
return cv2.warpAffine(image, M, (nW, nH))
def order_points_clockwise(pts):
# sort the points based on their x-coordinates
xSorted = pts[np.argsort(pts[:, 0]), :]
# grab the left-most and right-most points from the sorted
# x-roodinate points
leftMost = xSorted[:2, :]
rightMost = xSorted[2:, :]
# now, sort the left-most coordinates according to their
# y-coordinates so we can grab the top-left and bottom-left
# points, respectively
leftMost = leftMost[np.argsort(leftMost[:, 1]), :]
(tl, bl) = leftMost
# now, sort the right-most coordinates according to their
# y-coordinates so we can grab the top-right and bottom-right
# points, respectively
rightMost = rightMost[np.argsort(rightMost[:, 1]), :]
(tr, br) = rightMost
# return the coordinates in top-left, top-right,
# bottom-right, and bottom-left order
return np.array([tl, tr, br, bl], dtype="int32")
def perspective_transform(image, corners):
def order_corner_points(corners):
# Separate corners into individual points
# Index 0 - top-right
# 1 - top-left
# 2 - bottom-left
# 3 - bottom-right
corners = [(corner[0][0], corner[0][1]) for corner in corners]
top_r, top_l, bottom_l, bottom_r = corners[0], corners[1], corners[2], corners[3]
return (top_l, top_r, bottom_r, bottom_l)
# Order points in clockwise order
ordered_corners = order_corner_points(corners)
top_l, top_r, bottom_r, bottom_l = ordered_corners
# Determine width of new image which is the max distance between
# (bottom right and bottom left) or (top right and top left) x-coordinates
width_A = np.sqrt(((bottom_r[0] - bottom_l[0]) ** 2) + ((bottom_r[1] - bottom_l[1]) ** 2))
width_B = np.sqrt(((top_r[0] - top_l[0]) ** 2) + ((top_r[1] - top_l[1]) ** 2))
width = max(int(width_A), int(width_B))
# Determine height of new image which is the max distance between
# (top right and bottom right) or (top left and bottom left) y-coordinates
height_A = np.sqrt(((top_r[0] - bottom_r[0]) ** 2) + ((top_r[1] - bottom_r[1]) ** 2))
height_B = np.sqrt(((top_l[0] - bottom_l[0]) ** 2) + ((top_l[1] - bottom_l[1]) ** 2))
height = max(int(height_A), int(height_B))
# Construct new points to obtain top-down view of image in
# top_r, top_l, bottom_l, bottom_r order
dimensions = np.array([[0, 0], [width - 1, 0], [width - 1, height - 1],
[0, height - 1]], dtype = "float32")
# Convert to Numpy format
ordered_corners = np.array(ordered_corners, dtype="float32")
# Find perspective transform matrix
matrix = cv2.getPerspectiveTransform(ordered_corners, dimensions)
# Return the transformed image
return cv2.warpPerspective(image, matrix, (width, height))
image = cv2.imread('1.png')
original = image.copy()
gray = cv2.cvtColor(image, cv2.COLOR_BGR2GRAY)
canny = cv2.Canny(gray, 120, 255, 1)
corners = cv2.goodFeaturesToTrack(canny,4,0.5,50)
c_list = []
for corner in corners:
x,y = corner.ravel()
c_list.append([int(x), int(y)])
cv2.circle(image,(x,y),5,(36,255,12),-1)
corner_points = np.array([c_list[0], c_list[1], c_list[2], c_list[3]])
ordered_corner_points = order_points_clockwise(corner_points)
mask = np.zeros(image.shape, dtype=np.uint8)
cv2.fillPoly(mask, [ordered_corner_points], (255,255,255))
mask = cv2.cvtColor(mask, cv2.COLOR_BGR2GRAY)
cnts = cv2.findContours(mask, cv2.RETR_EXTERNAL, cv2.CHAIN_APPROX_SIMPLE)
cnts = cnts[0] if len(cnts) == 2 else cnts[1]
for c in cnts:
peri = cv2.arcLength(c, True)
approx = cv2.approxPolyDP(c, 0.015 * peri, True)
if len(approx) == 4:
transformed = perspective_transform(original, approx)
result = rotate_image(transformed, -90)
cv2.imshow('canny', canny)
cv2.imshow('image', image)
cv2.imshow('mask', mask)
cv2.imshow('transformed', transformed)
cv2.imshow('result', result)
cv2.waitKey()
find contours with RETR_EXTERNAL option.(gray -> gaussian filter -> canny edge -> find contour)
find the largest size contour -> this will be the edge of the rectangle
find corners with little calculation
Mat m;//image file
findContours(m, contours_, hierachy_, RETR_EXTERNAL);
auto it = max_element(contours_.begin(), contours_.end(),
[](const vector<Point> &a, const vector<Point> &b) {
return a.size() < b.size(); });
Point2f xy[4] = {{9000,9000}, {0, 1000}, {1000, 0}, {0,0}};
for(auto &[x, y] : *it) {
if(x + y < xy[0].x + xy[0].y) xy[0] = {x, y};
if(x - y > xy[1].x - xy[1].y) xy[1] = {x, y};
if(y - x > xy[2].y - xy[2].x) xy[2] = {x, y};
if(x + y > xy[3].x + xy[3].y) xy[3] = {x, y};
}
xy[4] will be the four corners.
I was able to extract four corners this way.
Apply houghlines to the canny image - you will get a list of points
apply convex hull to this set of points

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