I detected the peaks using a local maximum filter. Here is the result on your first dataset of 4 paws:
I also ran it on the second dataset of 9 paws and it worked as well.
Here is how you do it:
import numpy as np
from scipy.ndimage.filters import maximum_filter
from scipy.ndimage.morphology import generate_binary_structure, binary_erosion
import matplotlib.pyplot as pp
#for some reason I had to reshape. Numpy ignored the shape header.
paws_data = np.loadtxt("paws.txt").reshape(4,11,14)
#getting a list of images
paws = [p.squeeze() for p in np.vsplit(paws_data,4)]
def detect_peaks(image):
"""
Takes an image and detect the peaks usingthe local maximum filter.
Returns a boolean mask of the peaks (i.e. 1 when
the pixel's value is the neighborhood maximum, 0 otherwise)
"""
# define an 8-connected neighborhood
neighborhood = generate_binary_structure(2,2)
#apply the local maximum filter; all pixel of maximal value
#in their neighborhood are set to 1
local_max = maximum_filter(image, footprint=neighborhood)==image
#local_max is a mask that contains the peaks we are
#looking for, but also the background.
#In order to isolate the peaks we must remove the background from the mask.
#we create the mask of the background
background = (image==0)
#a little technicality: we must erode the background in order to
#successfully subtract it form local_max, otherwise a line will
#appear along the background border (artifact of the local maximum filter)
eroded_background = binary_erosion(background, structure=neighborhood, border_value=1)
#we obtain the final mask, containing only peaks,
#by removing the background from the local_max mask (xor operation)
detected_peaks = local_max ^ eroded_background
return detected_peaks
#applying the detection and plotting results
for i, paw in enumerate(paws):
detected_peaks = detect_peaks(paw)
pp.subplot(4,2,(2*i+1))
pp.imshow(paw)
pp.subplot(4,2,(2*i+2) )
pp.imshow(detected_peaks)
pp.show()
All you need to do after is use scipy.ndimage.measurements.label
on the mask to label all distinct objects. Then you'll be able to play with them individually.
Note that the method works well because the background is not noisy. If it were, you would detect a bunch of other unwanted peaks in the background. Another important factor is the size of the neighborhood. You will need to adjust it if the peak size changes (the should remain roughly proportional).
An alternative approach would be to extract features (keypoints) using the scale-invariant feature transform (SIFT) or Speeded Up Robust Features (SURF).
You can find a nice OpenCV
code example in Java
, C++
, and Python
on this page: Features2D + Homography to find a known object
Both algorithms are invariant to scaling and rotation. Since they work with features, you can also handle occlusion (as long as enough keypoints are visible).
Image source: tutorial example
The processing takes a few hundred ms for SIFT, SURF is bit faster, but it not suitable for real-time applications. ORB uses FAST which is weaker regarding rotation invariance.
The original papers
Best Answer
Well, basically you need to detect circles. Have you seen
cvHoughCircles()
? Are you allowed to use it?This page has good info on how detecting stuff with OpenCV. You might be more interested on section 2.5.
This is a small demo I just wrote to detect coins in this picture. Hopefully you can use some part of the code to your advantage.
Input:
Outputs:
The detection of the circles depend a lot on the parameters of
cvHoughCircles()
. Note that in this demo I used Canny as well.