|
| 1 | +# Contour Detection |
| 2 | + |
| 3 | +Contours can be explained simply as a curve joining all the continuous points (along the boundary), having same color or intensity. The contours are a useful tool for shape analysis and object detection and recognition. |
| 4 | + |
| 5 | +- For better accuracy, use binary images. So before finding contours, apply threshold or canny edge detection. |
| 6 | + |
| 7 | +- Since OpenCV 3.2, `findContours()` no longer modifies the source image but returns a modified image as the first of three return parameters. |
| 8 | + |
| 9 | +- In OpenCV, finding contours is like finding white object from black background. So remember, object to be found should be white and background should be black. |
| 10 | + |
| 11 | +</br> |
| 12 | + |
| 13 | +Let's see how to find contours of a binary image: |
| 14 | + |
| 15 | +``` |
| 16 | +def getContours(img,imgContour): |
| 17 | + contours, hierarchy = cv2.findContours(img, cv2.RETR_EXTERNAL, cv2.CHAIN_APPROX_NONE) |
| 18 | +``` |
| 19 | + |
| 20 | +See, there are three arguments in `cv.findContours()` function, first one is source image, second is contour retrieval mode, third is contour approximation method. And it outputs a modified image, the contours and hierarchy. contours is a Python list of all the contours in the image. Each individual contour is a Numpy array of (x,y) coordinates of boundary points of the object. |
| 21 | + |
| 22 | +</br> |
| 23 | + |
| 24 | +## How to draw the contours? |
| 25 | + |
| 26 | +To draw the contours, `cv.drawContours` function is used. It can also be used to draw any shape provided you have its boundary points. |
| 27 | + |
| 28 | +Its first argument is source image, second argument is the contours which should be passed as a Python list, third argument is index of contours (useful when drawing individual contour. To draw all contours, pass -1) and remaining arguments are color, thickness etc. |
| 29 | + |
| 30 | +- To draw all the contours in an image: |
| 31 | +``` |
| 32 | +cv.drawContours(img, contours, -1, (0,255,0), 3) |
| 33 | +``` |
| 34 | + |
| 35 | +- To draw an individual contour, say 4th contour: |
| 36 | +``` |
| 37 | +cv.drawContours(img, contours, 3, (0,255,0), 3) |
| 38 | +``` |
| 39 | + |
| 40 | +</br> |
| 41 | + |
| 42 | +## Contour Approximation Method |
| 43 | + |
| 44 | +I have used this method in `getContours()` function. |
| 45 | +What does it denote actually? |
| 46 | + |
| 47 | +We know that contours are the boundaries of a shape with same intensity. It stores the (x,y) coordinates of the boundary of a shape. But does it store all the coordinates ? That is specified by this contour approximation method. |
| 48 | + |
| 49 | +If you pass `cv.CHAIN_APPROX_NONE`, all the boundary points are stored. But actually do we need all the points? For eg, you found the contour of a straight line. Do you need all the points on the line to represent that line? No, we need just two end points of that line. This is what `cv.CHAIN_APPROX_SIMPLE` does. It removes all redundant points and compresses the contour, thereby saving memory. |
| 50 | + |
| 51 | +Below image of a rectangle demonstrate this technique. Just draw a circle on all the coordinates in the contour array (drawn in blue color). First image shows points I got with `cv.CHAIN_APPROX_NONE` (734 points) and second image shows the one with `cv.CHAIN_APPROX_SIMPLE` (only 4 points). See, how much memory it saves!!! |
| 52 | + |
| 53 | +</br> |
| 54 | + |
| 55 | + |
| 56 | + |
| 57 | +</br> |
| 58 | + |
| 59 | +Note: In this script, I have used `cv2.CHAIN_APPROX_NONE`. |
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