Get pixel values in RGB images using PixelList in MATLAB - matlab

Question

I am trying to get pixel intensity values from regions of interest in RGB images.
I segmented the image and saved the regions of interest (ROI) using regionprops 'PixelList' in MATLAB, as shown below:
In this example I am using "onion.png" image built in MATLAB. (But in reality I have hundreds of images, and each of them have several ROIs hence why I'm saving the ROIs separately.)
%SEGMENTATION PROGRAM:
a=imread('C:\Program Files\MATLAB\MATLAB Production Server\R2015a\toolbox\images\imdata\onion.png');warning('off', 'Images:initSize:adjustingMag');
figure; imshow(a,[]);
nrows = size(a,1);ncols = size(a,2);
zr=ones(nrows,ncols); %matrix of ones
r=a(:,:,1);g=a(:,:,2);b=a(:,:,3); %get RGB values
rr=double(r);gg=double(g);bb=double(b);% convert to double to avoid uint8 sums
bgd=(rr+bb)./(2*gg); %calculation RGB ratio of background
zr1=bgd>1.15; %matrix containing background as 1 and ROI as 0
% remake binary image for holes command which requires white object to fill % (this step is not relevant for this example, but it is for my data)
zr2=zr1<0.5;
zr3=imfill(zr2, 'holes');
figure;imshow(zr3); pause;
roi=regionprops(zr3,'Centroid','PixelList','Area');
ar=[roi.Area];
% find sort order , largest first
[as, ia]=sort(ar(1,:),'descend');
for w=1:length(roi); xy(w,:)=roi(w).Centroid;end
% use sort index to put cenrtoid list in same order
xy1=xy(ia,:);
%and pixel id list
for w=1:length(roi)
roi2(w).PixelList=roi(ia(w)).PixelList;
end
%extract centriod positions as two colums
%SAVE PIXEL LIST FOR EACH ROI IN A SEPARATE FILE
for ww=1:w;
k=roi2(ww).PixelList;
save('onion_PL','k');
end
How do I use this pixel list to get the intensity values in the original image? More specifically, I need to get the ratio of pixels in Green channel over Red ("grr=rdivide(gg,rr);"), but only in the region of interest labeled with PixelList. Here's my code so far:
%PL is the PixelList output we got above.
a=imread('C:\Program Files\MATLAB\MATLAB Production Server\R2015a\toolbox\images\imdata\onion.png');warning('off', 'Images:initSize:adjustingMag');
PL=dir(['*PL.mat']); %load file PixelList files. "dir" is a variable with directory path containing the pixelist files. In this example, we saved "onion_PL.mat"
for m=1:length(PL);
load(PL(m).name);
ex=[]; %empty matrix to hold the extracted values
for mm=1:length(k);
%INSERT ANSWER HERE
end
This next bit is wrong because it's based on the entire image ("a"), but it contains the calculations that I would like to perform in the ROIs
figure; imshow(a,[]);
pause;
nrows = size(a,1);ncols = size(a,2);
zr=ones(nrows,ncols); %matrix of ones
r=a(:,:,1);g=a(:,:,2);b=a(:,:,3); %get RGB values
rr=double(r);gg=double(g);bb=double(b);% convert to double to avoid uint8 sums
grr=rdivide(gg,rr);
I am brand new to MATLAB, so my code is not the greatest... Any suggestions will be greatly appreciated. Thank you in advance!

Answer 1

The loop you are looking for seems simple:
grr = zeros(nrows, ncols); % Initialize grr with zeros.
for mm = 1:length(k)
x = k(mm, 1); % Get the X (column) coordinate.
y = k(mm, 2); % Get the Y (row) coordinate.
grr(y, x) = gg(y, x) / rr(y, x);
end
A more efficient solution is using sub2ind for converting the x,y coordinates to linear indices:
% Convert k to linear indices.
kInd = sub2ind([nrows, ncols], k(:,2), k(:,1));
% Update only the indices in the PixelList.
grr(kInd) = rdivide(gg(kInd), rr(kInd));
In your given code sample there are 5 PixelLists.
I don't know how do you want to "arrange" the result.
In my code sample, I am saving the 5 results to 5 mat files.
Here is an executable code sample:
close all
%SEGMENTATION PROGRAM:
a=imread('onion.png');warning('off', 'Images:initSize:adjustingMag');
figure; imshow(a,[]);
nrows = size(a,1);ncols = size(a,2);
zr=ones(nrows,ncols); %matrix of ones
r=a(:,:,1);g=a(:,:,2);b=a(:,:,3); %get RGB values
rr=double(r);gg=double(g);bb=double(b);% convert to double to avoid uint8 sums
bgd=(rr+bb)./(2*gg); %calculation RGB ratio of background
zr1=bgd>1.15; %matrix containing background as 1 and ROI as 0
% remake binary image for holes command which requires white object to fill % (this step is not relevant for this example, but it is for my data)
zr2=zr1<0.5;
zr3=imfill(zr2, 'holes');
figure;imshow(zr3); %pause;
roi=regionprops(zr3,'Centroid','PixelList','Area');
ar=[roi.Area];
% find sort order , largest first
[as, ia]=sort(ar(1,:),'descend');
for w=1:length(roi); xy(w,:)=roi(w).Centroid;end
% use sort index to put cenrtoid list in same order
xy1=xy(ia,:);
%and pixel id list
for w=1:length(roi)
roi2(w).PixelList=roi(ia(w)).PixelList;
end
%extract centroid positions as two columns
%SAVE PIXEL LIST FOR EACH ROI IN A SEPARATE FILE
for ww=1:w
k=roi2(ww).PixelList;
%save('onion_PL', 'k');
save(['onion', num2str(ww), '_PL'], 'k'); % Store in multiple files - onion1_PL.mat, onion2_PL.mat, ... onion5_PL.mat
end
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
clear % Use clear for testing - the variables are going to be read from the mat file.
%PL is the PixelList output we got above.
a=imread('onion.png');warning('off', 'Images:initSize:adjustingMag');
nrows = size(a,1);ncols = size(a,2);
zr=ones(nrows,ncols); %matrix of ones
r=a(:,:,1);g=a(:,:,2);b=a(:,:,3); %get RGB values
rr=double(r);gg=double(g);bb=double(b);% convert to double to avoid uint8 sums
grr=rdivide(gg,rr);
PL=dir('*PL.mat'); %load file PixelList files. "dir" is a variable with directory path containing the pixelist files. In this example, we saved "onion_PL.mat"
for m = 1:length(PL)
load(PL(m).name);
ex=[]; %empty matrix to hold the extracted values
%for mm=1:length(k)
%INSERT ANSWER HERE
grr = zeros(nrows, ncols); % Initialize grr with zeros.
for mm = 1:length(k)
x = k(mm, 1); % Get the X (column) coordinate.
y = k(mm, 2); % Get the Y (row) coordinate.
grr(y, x) = gg(y, x) / rr(y, x);
end
% Instead of using a loop, it's more efficient to use sub2ind
if false
% Convert k to linear indices.
kInd = sub2ind([nrows, ncols], k(:,2), k(:,1));
% Update only the indices in the PixelList.
grr(kInd) = rdivide(gg(kInd), rr(kInd));
end
figure;imshow(grr);title(['grr of m=', num2str(m)]) % Show grr for testing.
save(['grr', num2str(m)], 'grr'); % Save grr for testing.
imwrite(imadjust(grr, stretchlim(grr)), ['grr', num2str(m), '.png']); % Store grr as image for testing
end
First two grr matrices as images (used for testing):
grr1.png:
grr2.png: