How to Display an Image Using OpenCV

In this project, I will show you how to display an image using OpenCV.

You Will Need 

  • Python 3.7+

Directions

Let’s say you have an image like the one below. The file name is 1.jpg.

1

To display it using OpenCV, go to your favorite IDE or text editor and create the following Python program:

# Display a color image using OpenCV
import numpy as np
import cv2

# Load an color image in grayscale
img = cv2.imread('1.jpg',1)

cv2.imshow('image',img)
cv2.waitKey(0)
cv2.destroyAllWindows()

Save the program into the same directory as 1.jpg.

Run the file.

run-display-image

Watch the image display to your computer. That’s it!

display-squirrel-picJPG

How to Annotate Images Using OpenCV

In this project, we will learn how to annotate images using OpenCV — a popular and powerful open source library for image processing and computer vision.

OpenCV is a cross-platform library with wrappers for Python, Ruby, C#, JavaScript, and other languages designed for real-time image processing. OpenCV has methods for image I/O, filtering, motion tracking, segmentation, 3D reconstruction, as well as machine learning techniques such as boosting, support vector machines, and deep learning.

Requirements

  • Design a software application using Python and OpenCV that allows users to click in an image, annotate a number of points within an image, and export the annotated points into a CSV file.
    • Code must be implemented in Python and using OpenCV
    • The input image and output CSV files will be provided as parameters.
      • Example: python annotate_images.py cat_dog.jpg cat_dog.csv

You Will Need 

  • Python 3.7

Input Images

baby
cat_dog
prague

Directions

To run the program, open up an Anaconda Prompt terminal

Go to the proper directory.

Type python annotate_images.py cat_dog.jpg cat_dog.csv to run the program.

Here is the code:

import cv2 # Import the OpenCV library
import numpy as np # Import Numpy library
import pandas as pd # Import Pandas library
import sys # Enables the passing of arguments

# Project: Annotate Images Using OpenCV
# Author: Addison Sears-Collins
# Date created: 9/11/2019
# Python version: 3.7
# Description: This program allows users to click in an image, annotate a 
#   number of points within an image, and export the annotated points into
#   a CSV file.

# Define the file name of the image
INPUT_IMAGE = sys.argv[1] # "cat_dog.jpg"
IMAGE_NAME = INPUT_IMAGE[:INPUT_IMAGE.index(".")]
OUTPUT_IMAGE = IMAGE_NAME + "_annotated.jpg"
output_csv_file = sys.argv[2]

# Load the image and store into a variable
# -1 means load unchanged
image = cv2.imread(INPUT_IMAGE, -1)

# Create lists to store all x, y, and annotation values
x_vals = []
y_vals = []
annotation_vals = []

# Dictionary containing some colors
colors = {'blue': (255, 0, 0), 'green': (0, 255, 0), 'red': (0, 0, 255), 
          'yellow': (0, 255, 255),'magenta': (255, 0, 255), 
          'cyan': (255, 255, 0), 'white': (255, 255, 255), 'black': (0, 0, 0), 
          'gray': (125, 125, 125), 
          'rand': np.random.randint(0, high=256, size=(3,)).tolist(), 
          'dark_gray': (50, 50, 50), 'light_gray': (220, 220, 220)}

def draw_circle(event, x, y, flags, param):
    """
    Draws dots on double clicking of the left mouse button
    """
    # Store the height and width of the image
    height = image.shape[0]
    width = image.shape[1]

    if event == cv2.EVENT_LBUTTONDBLCLK:
        # Draw the dot
        cv2.circle(image, (x, y), 5, colors['magenta'], -1)

        # Annotate the image
        txt = input("Describe this pixel using one word (e.g. dog) and press ENTER: ")

        # Append values to the list
        x_vals.append(x)
        y_vals.append(y)
        annotation_vals.append(txt)

        # Print the coordinates and the annotation to the console
        print("x = " + str(x) + "  y = " + str(y) + "  Annotation = " + txt + "\n")

        # Set the position of the text part of the annotation
        text_x_pos = None
        text_y_pos = y

        if x < (width/2):
            text_x_pos = int(x + (width * 0.075))
        else:
            text_x_pos = int(x - (width * 0.075))
 
        # Write text on the image
        cv2.putText(image, txt, (text_x_pos,text_y_pos), cv2.FONT_HERSHEY_SIMPLEX, 1, colors['magenta'], 2)

        cv2.imwrite(OUTPUT_IMAGE, image)

        # Prompt user for another annotation
        print("Double click another pixel or press 'q' to quit...\n")

print("Welcome to the Image Annotation Program!\n")
print("Double click anywhere inside the image to annotate that point...\n")

# We create a named window where the mouse callback will be established
cv2.namedWindow('Image mouse')

# We set the mouse callback function to 'draw_circle':
cv2.setMouseCallback('Image mouse', draw_circle)

while True:
    # Show image 'Image mouse':
    cv2.imshow('Image mouse', image)

    # Continue until 'q' is pressed:
    if cv2.waitKey(20) & 0xFF == ord('q'):
        break

# Create a dictionary using lists
data = {'X':x_vals,'Y':y_vals,'Annotation':annotation_vals}

# Create the Pandas DataFrame
df = pd.DataFrame(data)
print()
print(df)
print()

# Export the dataframe to a csv file
df.to_csv(path_or_buf = output_csv_file, index = None, header=True) 

# Destroy all generated windows:
cv2.destroyAllWindows()

Output Images

baby_annotated
cat_dog_annotated
prague_annotated

CSV Output

Here is the output for the csv file for the baby photo above:

baby-csv

How to Create an Image Histogram Using OpenCV

Given an image as input, how do we get the corresponding histogram using OpenCV? First, let us take a look at what a histogram is, then let us take a look at how to create one given an image. 

What is a Histogram?

A histogram is another way of looking at an image. It is a graph that shows pixel brightness values on the x-axis (e.g. 0 [black] to 255 [white] for grayscale images) and the corresponding number (i.e. frequency) of pixels (for each brightness value) on the y-axis. 

How to Create an Image Histogram Using OpenCV

There are two links I particularly like that show how to create the image histogram given an input image.

  1. Geeks for Geeks
  2. OpenCV Python Tutorials

I like these tutorials because they lead the reader through all the essentials of how to find and analyze image histograms, step-by-step. This process boils down to the following code:

# Import the required libraries
import cv2  # Open CV
from matplotlib import pyplot as plt  #Matplotlib for plotting  
 
# Read the input image
img = cv2.imread('example.jpg',0) 
 
# Calculate the frequency of pixels in the brightness range 0 - 255
histr = cv2.calcHist([img],[0],None,[256],[0,256]) 
 
# Plot the histogram and display
plt.plot(histr) 
plt.show()