Histograms
calcHist
Calculates a histogram of a set of arrays.
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C++: void calcHist(const Mat* images, int nimages, const int* channels, InputArray mask, OutputArray hist, int dims, const int* histSize, const float** ranges, bool uniform=true, bool accumulate=false )
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C++: void calcHist(const Mat* images, int nimages, const int* channels, InputArray mask, SparseMat& hist, int dims, const int* histSize, const float** ranges, bool uniform=true, bool accumulate=false )
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Python: cv2.calcHist(images, channels, mask, histSize, ranges[, hist[, accumulate]]) → hist
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C: void cvCalcHist(IplImage** image, CvHistogram* hist, int accumulate=0, const CvArr* mask=NULL )
Parameters: |
- images – Source arrays. They all should have the same depth, CV_8U or CV_32F , and the same size. Each of them can have an arbitrary number of channels.
- nimages – Number of source images.
- channels – List of the dims channels used to compute the histogram. The first array channels are numerated from 0 to images[0].channels()-1 , the second array channels are counted from images[0].channels() to images[0].channels() + images[1].channels()-1, and so on.
- mask – Optional mask. If the matrix is not empty, it must be an 8-bit array of the same size as images[i] . The non-zero mask elements mark the array elements counted in the histogram.
- hist – Output histogram, which is a dense or sparse dims -dimensional array.
- dims – Histogram dimensionality that must be positive and not greater than CV_MAX_DIMS (equal to 32 in the current OpenCV version).
- histSize – Array of histogram sizes in each dimension.
- ranges – Array of the dims arrays of the histogram bin boundaries in each dimension. When the histogram is uniform ( uniform =true), then for each dimension i it is enough to specify the lower (inclusive) boundary of the 0-th histogram bin and the upper (exclusive) boundary for the last histogram bin histSize[i]-1 . That is, in case of a uniform histogram each of ranges[i] is an array of 2 elements. When the histogram is not uniform ( uniform=false ), then each of ranges[i] contains histSize[i]+1 elements: . The array elements, that are not between and , are not counted in the histogram.
- uniform – Flag indicating whether the histogram is uniform or not (see above).
- accumulate – Accumulation flag. If it is set, the histogram is not cleared in the beginning when it is allocated. This feature enables you to compute a single histogram from several sets of arrays, or to update the histogram in time.
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The functions calcHist calculate the histogram of one or more
arrays. The elements of a tuple used to increment
a histogram bin are taken from the corresponding
input arrays at the same location. The sample below shows how to compute a 2D Hue-Saturation histogram for a color image.
#include <opencv2/imgproc.hpp>
#include <opencv2/highgui.hpp>
using namespace cv;
int main( int argc, char** argv )
{
Mat src, hsv;
if( argc != 2 || !(src=imread(argv[1], 1)).data )
return -1;
cvtColor(src, hsv, COLOR_BGR2HSV);
// Quantize the hue to 30 levels
// and the saturation to 32 levels
int hbins = 30, sbins = 32;
int histSize[] = {hbins, sbins};
// hue varies from 0 to 179, see cvtColor
float hranges[] = { 0, 180 };
// saturation varies from 0 (black-gray-white) to
// 255 (pure spectrum color)
float sranges[] = { 0, 256 };
const float* ranges[] = { hranges, sranges };
MatND hist;
// we compute the histogram from the 0-th and 1-st channels
int channels[] = {0, 1};
calcHist( &hsv, 1, channels, Mat(), // do not use mask
hist, 2, histSize, ranges,
true, // the histogram is uniform
false );
double maxVal=0;
minMaxLoc(hist, 0, &maxVal, 0, 0);
int scale = 10;
Mat histImg = Mat::zeros(sbins*scale, hbins*10, CV_8UC3);
for( int h = 0; h < hbins; h++ )
for( int s = 0; s < sbins; s++ )
{
float binVal = hist.at<float>(h, s);
int intensity = cvRound(binVal*255/maxVal);
rectangle( histImg, Point(h*scale, s*scale),
Point( (h+1)*scale - 1, (s+1)*scale - 1),
Scalar::all(intensity),
CV_FILLED );
}
namedWindow( "Source", 1 );
imshow( "Source", src );
namedWindow( "H-S Histogram", 1 );
imshow( "H-S Histogram", histImg );
waitKey();
}
Note
- An example for creating histograms of an image can be found at opencv_source_code/samples/cpp/demhist.cpp
- (Python) An example for creating color histograms can be found at opencv_source/samples/python2/color_histogram.py
- (Python) An example illustrating RGB and grayscale histogram plotting can be found at opencv_source/samples/python2/hist.py
calcBackProject
Calculates the back projection of a histogram.
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C++: void calcBackProject(const Mat* images, int nimages, const int* channels, InputArray hist, OutputArray backProject, const float** ranges, double scale=1, bool uniform=true )
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C++: void calcBackProject(const Mat* images, int nimages, const int* channels, const SparseMat& hist, OutputArray backProject, const float** ranges, double scale=1, bool uniform=true )
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Python: cv2.calcBackProject(images, channels, hist, ranges, scale[, dst]) → dst
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C: void cvCalcBackProject(IplImage** image, CvArr* backProject, const CvHistogram* hist)
Parameters: |
- images – Source arrays. They all should have the same depth, CV_8U or CV_32F , and the same size. Each of them can have an arbitrary number of channels.
- nimages – Number of source images.
- channels – The list of channels used to compute the back projection. The number of channels must match the histogram dimensionality. The first array channels are numerated from 0 to images[0].channels()-1 , the second array channels are counted from images[0].channels() to images[0].channels() + images[1].channels()-1, and so on.
- hist – Input histogram that can be dense or sparse.
- backProject – Destination back projection array that is a single-channel array of the same size and depth as images[0] .
- ranges – Array of arrays of the histogram bin boundaries in each dimension. See calcHist() .
- scale – Optional scale factor for the output back projection.
- uniform – Flag indicating whether the histogram is uniform or not (see above).
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The functions calcBackProject calculate the back project of the histogram. That is, similarly to calcHist , at each location (x, y) the function collects the values from the selected channels in the input images and finds the corresponding histogram bin. But instead of incrementing it, the function reads the bin value, scales it by scale , and stores in backProject(x,y) . In terms of statistics, the function computes probability of each element value in respect with the empirical probability distribution represented by the histogram. See how, for example, you can find and track a bright-colored object in a scene:
- Before tracking, show the object to the camera so that it covers almost the whole frame. Calculate a hue histogram. The histogram may have strong maximums, corresponding to the dominant colors in the object.
- When tracking, calculate a back projection of a hue plane of each input video frame using that pre-computed histogram. Threshold the back projection to suppress weak colors. It may also make sense to suppress pixels with non-sufficient color saturation and too dark or too bright pixels.
- Find connected components in the resulting picture and choose, for example, the largest component.
This is an approximate algorithm of the
CamShift() color object tracker.
compareHist
Compares two histograms.
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C++: double compareHist(InputArray H1, InputArray H2, int method)
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C++: double compareHist(const SparseMat& H1, const SparseMat& H2, int method)
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Python: cv2.compareHist(H1, H2, method) → retval
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C: double cvCompareHist(const CvHistogram* hist1, const CvHistogram* hist2, int method)
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The functions compareHist compare two dense or two sparse histograms using the specified method:
Correlation (method=CV_COMP_CORREL)
where
and
is a total number of histogram bins.
Chi-Square (method=CV_COMP_CHISQR)
Alternative Chi-Square (method=CV_COMP_CHISQR_ALT)
This alternative formula is regularly used for texture comparison. See e.g. [Puzicha1997].
Intersection (method=CV_COMP_INTERSECT)
Bhattacharyya distance (method=CV_COMP_BHATTACHARYYA or method=CV_COMP_HELLINGER). In fact, OpenCV computes Hellinger distance, which is related to Bhattacharyya coefficient.
Kullback-Leibler divergence (method=CV_COMP_KL_DIV).
The function returns
.
While the function works well with 1-, 2-, 3-dimensional dense histograms, it may not be suitable for high-dimensional sparse histograms. In such histograms, because of aliasing and sampling problems, the coordinates of non-zero histogram bins can slightly shift. To compare such histograms or more general sparse configurations of weighted points, consider using the
EMD() function.
EMD
Computes the “minimal work” distance between two weighted point configurations.
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C++: float EMD(InputArray signature1, InputArray signature2, int distType, InputArray cost=noArray(), float* lowerBound=0, OutputArray flow=noArray() )
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C: float cvCalcEMD2(const CvArr* signature1, const CvArr* signature2, int distance_type, CvDistanceFunction distance_func=NULL, const CvArr* cost_matrix=NULL, CvArr* flow=NULL, float* lower_bound=NULL, void* userdata=NULL )
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The function computes the earth mover distance and/or a lower boundary of the distance between the two weighted point configurations. One of the applications described in [RubnerSept98] is multi-dimensional histogram comparison for image retrieval. EMD is a transportation problem that is solved using some modification of a simplex algorithm, thus the complexity is exponential in the worst case, though, on average it is much faster. In the case of a real metric the lower boundary can be calculated even faster (using linear-time algorithm) and it can be used to determine roughly whether the two signatures are far enough so that they cannot relate to the same object.
equalizeHist
Equalizes the histogram of a grayscale image.
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C++: void equalizeHist(InputArray src, OutputArray dst)
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Python: cv2.equalizeHist(src[, dst]) → dst
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C: void cvEqualizeHist(const CvArr* src, CvArr* dst)
Parameters: |
- src – Source 8-bit single channel image.
- dst – Destination image of the same size and type as src .
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The function equalizes the histogram of the input image using the following algorithm:
Calculate the histogram
for src .
Normalize the histogram so that the sum of histogram bins is 255.
Compute the integral of the histogram:
Transform the image using
as a look-up table:
The algorithm normalizes the brightness and increases the contrast of the image.
CalcBackProjectPatch
Locates a template within an image by using a histogram comparison.
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C: void cvCalcBackProjectPatch(IplImage** images, CvArr* dst, CvSize patch_size, CvHistogram* hist, int method, double factor)
Parameters: |
- images – Source images (though, you may pass CvMat** as well).
- dst – Destination image.
- patch_size – Size of the patch slid though the source image.
- hist – Histogram.
- method – Comparison method passed to CompareHist() (see the function description).
- factor – Normalization factor for histograms that affects the normalization scale of the destination image. Pass 1 if not sure.
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The function calculates the back projection by comparing histograms of the source image patches with the given histogram. The function is similar to matchTemplate(), but instead of comparing the raster patch with all its possible positions within the search window, the function CalcBackProjectPatch compares histograms. See the algorithm diagram below:
CalcProbDensity
Divides one histogram by another.
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C: void cvCalcProbDensity(const CvHistogram* hist1, const CvHistogram* hist2, CvHistogram* dst_hist, double scale=255 )
Parameters: |
- hist1 – First histogram (the divisor).
- hist2 – Second histogram.
- dst_hist – Destination histogram.
- scale – Scale factor for the destination histogram.
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The function calculates the object probability density from two histograms as:
ClearHist
Clears the histogram.
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C: void cvClearHist(CvHistogram* hist)
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The function sets all of the histogram bins to 0 in case of a dense histogram and removes all histogram bins in case of a sparse array.
CopyHist
Copies a histogram.
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C: void cvCopyHist(const CvHistogram* src, CvHistogram** dst)
Parameters: |
- src – Source histogram.
- dst – Pointer to the destination histogram.
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The function makes a copy of the histogram. If the second histogram pointer *dst is NULL, a new histogram of the same size as src is created. Otherwise, both histograms must have equal types and sizes. Then the function copies the bin values of the source histogram to the destination histogram and sets the same bin value ranges as in src.
CreateHist
Creates a histogram.
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C: CvHistogram* cvCreateHist(int dims, int* sizes, int type, float** ranges=NULL, int uniform=1 )
Parameters: |
- dims – Number of histogram dimensions.
- sizes – Array of the histogram dimension sizes.
- type – Histogram representation format. CV_HIST_ARRAY means that the histogram data is represented as a multi-dimensional dense array CvMatND. CV_HIST_SPARSE means that histogram data is represented as a multi-dimensional sparse array CvSparseMat.
- ranges – Array of ranges for the histogram bins. Its meaning depends on the uniform parameter value. The ranges are used when the histogram is calculated or backprojected to determine which histogram bin corresponds to which value/tuple of values from the input image(s).
- uniform – Uniformity flag. If not zero, the histogram has evenly
spaced bins and for every ranges[i]
is an array of two numbers: lower and upper boundaries for the i-th
histogram dimension.
The whole range [lower,upper] is then split
into dims[i] equal parts to determine the i-th input
tuple value ranges for every histogram bin. And if uniform=0 ,
then the i-th element of the ranges array contains dims[i]+1 elements:
where and
are lower and upper
boundaries of the i-th input tuple value for the j-th
bin, respectively. In either case, the input values that are beyond
the specified range for a histogram bin are not counted by CalcHist() and filled with 0 by CalcBackProject().
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The function creates a histogram of the specified size and returns a pointer to the created histogram. If the array ranges is 0, the histogram bin ranges must be specified later via the function SetHistBinRanges(). Though CalcHist() and CalcBackProject() may process 8-bit images without setting bin ranges, they assume they are equally spaced in 0 to 255 bins.
GetMinMaxHistValue
Finds the minimum and maximum histogram bins.
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C: void cvGetMinMaxHistValue(const CvHistogram* hist, float* min_value, float* max_value, int* min_idx=NULL, int* max_idx=NULL )
Parameters: |
- hist – Histogram.
- min_value – Pointer to the minimum value of the histogram.
- max_value – Pointer to the maximum value of the histogram.
- min_idx – Pointer to the array of coordinates for the minimum.
- max_idx – Pointer to the array of coordinates for the maximum.
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The function finds the minimum and maximum histogram bins and their positions. All of output arguments are optional. Among several extremas with the same value the ones with the minimum index (in the lexicographical order) are returned. In case of several maximums or minimums, the earliest in the lexicographical order (extrema locations) is returned.
NormalizeHist
Normalizes the histogram.
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C: void cvNormalizeHist(CvHistogram* hist, double factor)
Parameters: |
- hist – Pointer to the histogram.
- factor – Normalization factor.
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The function normalizes the histogram bins by scaling them so that the sum of the bins becomes equal to factor.
ReleaseHist
Releases the histogram.
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C: void cvReleaseHist(CvHistogram** hist)
Parameters: |
- hist – Double pointer to the released histogram.
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The function releases the histogram (header and the data). The pointer to the histogram is cleared by the function. If *hist pointer is already NULL, the function does nothing.
SetHistBinRanges
Sets the bounds of the histogram bins.
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C: void cvSetHistBinRanges(CvHistogram* hist, float** ranges, int uniform=1 )
Parameters: |
- hist – Histogram.
- ranges – Array of bin ranges arrays. See CreateHist() for details.
- uniform – Uniformity flag. See CreateHist() for details.
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This is a standalone function for setting bin ranges in the histogram. For a more detailed description of the parameters ranges and uniform, see the CalcHist() function that can initialize the ranges as well. Ranges for the histogram bins must be set before the histogram is calculated or the backproject of the histogram is calculated.
ThreshHist
Thresholds the histogram.
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C: void cvThreshHist(CvHistogram* hist, double threshold)
Parameters: |
- hist – Pointer to the histogram.
- threshold – Threshold level.
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The function clears histogram bins that are below the specified threshold.
[RubnerSept98] |
- Rubner. C. Tomasi, L.J. Guibas. The Earth Mover’s Distance as a Metric for Image Retrieval. Technical Report STAN-CS-TN-98-86, Department of Computer Science, Stanford University, September 1998.
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[Puzicha1997] | Puzicha, J., Hofmann, T., and Buhmann, J. Non-parametric similarity measures for unsupervised texture segmentation and image retrieval. In Proc. IEEE Conf. Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition, San Juan, Puerto Rico, pp. 267-272, 1997. |