OpenCV  4.10.0
Open Source Computer Vision
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OpenCV iOS - Image Processing

Table of Contents

Prev Tutorial: OpenCV iOS Hello
Next Tutorial: OpenCV iOS - Video Processing

Original author Charu Hans
Compatibility OpenCV >= 3.0

Goal

In this tutorial we will learn how to do basic image processing using OpenCV in iOS.

Introduction

In OpenCV all the image processing operations are usually carried out on the Mat structure. In iOS however, to render an image on screen it have to be an instance of the UIImage class. To convert an OpenCV Mat to an UIImage we use the Core Graphics framework available in iOS. Below is the code needed to convert back and forth between Mat's and UIImage's.

- (cv::Mat)cvMatFromUIImage:(UIImage *)image
{
CGColorSpaceRef colorSpace = CGImageGetColorSpace(image.CGImage);
CGFloat cols = image.size.width;
CGFloat rows = image.size.height;
cv::Mat cvMat(rows, cols, CV_8UC4); // 8 bits per component, 4 channels (color channels + alpha)
CGContextRef contextRef = CGBitmapContextCreate(cvMat.data, // Pointer to data
cols, // Width of bitmap
rows, // Height of bitmap
8, // Bits per component
cvMat.step[0], // Bytes per row
colorSpace, // Colorspace
kCGImageAlphaNoneSkipLast |
kCGBitmapByteOrderDefault); // Bitmap info flags
CGContextDrawImage(contextRef, CGRectMake(0, 0, cols, rows), image.CGImage);
CGContextRelease(contextRef);
return cvMat;
}
n-dimensional dense array class
Definition mat.hpp:812
#define CV_8UC4
Definition interface.h:91
"black box" representation of the file storage associated with a file on disk.
Definition core.hpp:102
- (cv::Mat)cvMatGrayFromUIImage:(UIImage *)image
{
CGColorSpaceRef colorSpace = CGImageGetColorSpace(image.CGImage);
CGFloat cols = image.size.width;
CGFloat rows = image.size.height;
cv::Mat cvMat(rows, cols, CV_8UC1); // 8 bits per component, 1 channels
CGContextRef contextRef = CGBitmapContextCreate(cvMat.data, // Pointer to data
cols, // Width of bitmap
rows, // Height of bitmap
8, // Bits per component
cvMat.step[0], // Bytes per row
colorSpace, // Colorspace
kCGImageAlphaNoneSkipLast |
kCGBitmapByteOrderDefault); // Bitmap info flags
CGContextDrawImage(contextRef, CGRectMake(0, 0, cols, rows), image.CGImage);
CGContextRelease(contextRef);
return cvMat;
}
#define CV_8UC1
Definition interface.h:88

After the processing we need to convert it back to UIImage. The code below can handle both gray-scale and color image conversions (determined by the number of channels in the if statement).

cv::Mat greyMat;
cv::cvtColor(inputMat, greyMat, COLOR_BGR2GRAY);
void cvtColor(InputArray src, OutputArray dst, int code, int dstCn=0)
Converts an image from one color space to another.

After the processing we need to convert it back to UIImage.

-(UIImage *)UIImageFromCVMat:(cv::Mat)cvMat
{
NSData *data = [NSData dataWithBytes:cvMat.data length:cvMat.elemSize()*cvMat.total()];
CGColorSpaceRef colorSpace;
if (cvMat.elemSize() == 1) {
colorSpace = CGColorSpaceCreateDeviceGray();
} else {
colorSpace = CGColorSpaceCreateDeviceRGB();
}
CGDataProviderRef provider = CGDataProviderCreateWithCFData((__bridge CFDataRef)data);
// Creating CGImage from cv::Mat
CGImageRef imageRef = CGImageCreate(cvMat.cols, //width
cvMat.rows, //height
8, //bits per component
8 * cvMat.elemSize(), //bits per pixel
cvMat.step[0], //bytesPerRow
colorSpace, //colorspace
kCGImageAlphaNone|kCGBitmapByteOrderDefault,// bitmap info
provider, //CGDataProviderRef
NULL, //decode
false, //should interpolate
kCGRenderingIntentDefault //intent
);
// Getting UIImage from CGImage
UIImage *finalImage = [UIImage imageWithCGImage:imageRef];
CGImageRelease(imageRef);
CGDataProviderRelease(provider);
CGColorSpaceRelease(colorSpace);
return finalImage;
}

Output

Check out an instance of running code with more Image Effects on YouTube .