How can I crop several and random batches from an image? - image

Question

I have an image of size (224 x 224) and I want to extract a number of random patches from the original image using Matlab (let say 5 patches). One of these patch should be at the centre of the original image. The patch size is (128 x 128).
I have tried this to crop just the centre patch:
II = imread('img.png')
[p3, p4] = size(II);
q1 = 50; // size of the crop box
i3_start = floor((p3-q1)/2); % or round instead of floor; using neither gives warning
i3_stop = i3_start + q1;
i4_start = floor((p4-q1)/2);
i4_stop = i4_start + q1;
II = II(i3_start:i3_stop, i4_start:i4_stop, :);
figure ,imshow(II);

Answer 1

I've tried to accomplish this in the following way:
A=imread('Lena.bmp');%sample image
rnd_x = randperm(size(A,1)-128,5);%choose 5 tandom unique points on x-axis
rnd_y = randperm(size(A,2)-128,5);%choose 5 tandom unique points on y-axis
for ii = 1:5
piece{ii} = A((rnd_x(ii):(rnd_x(ii)+127)),(rnd_y(ii):(rnd_y(ii)+127)),1:3);%Convert chosen numbers to image pieces
figure(ii)
imshow(piece{ii});
end
This takes image like this:
This gives 5 pics like this:
Here our image size is 512x512. So, if we want to cut the 128x128 piece from it, we need to seek from 385x385 grid (512-127). We find 5 random points on the grid expressed in rnd_x and rnd_y. Finally, we take the found points as the upper-left corners of the pieces and construct 128x128 images from them. The 5 pieces are recorded in piece cell array.
EDIT: forgot to add how to extract the center patch. The following code performs the task:
A=imread('Lena.bmp');%sample image
if mod(size(A,1),2)
A = A(1:(end-1),:,:);
end
if mod(size(A,2),2)
A = A(:,1:(end-1),:);
end
while size(A,1) > 128
A = A(2:(end-1),:,:);
end
while size(A,2) > 128
A = A(:,2:(end-1),:);
end
imshow(A)
The code removes one pixel from each side until we get the 128-pixel image.

Answer 2

Careful! In your code, if you load a color image (3 channels) and call size with only two outputs, you will have an incorrect value for p4.
Use three outputs when loading images to avoid this problem:
[nrows ncols nchannels] = size(II);
Your code correctly extracts a (q1 x q1) from the center of the image.
If you want a random patch just generate a random integer for the top-left column of the patch with the correct range to ensure that it doesn't fall outside the image. You can generate random integers using the function randi.
i3_start = randi(floor((p3-q1));
i4_start = randi(floor((p4-q1));
The rest of the code is the same. If you want several patches you can generate several values when calling the randi function with a second and third parameter for the desired number of rows and columns. And then process each patch inside a for loop.
BTW: In the third line you have an invalid Matlab comment (use % for comments). Also you should name your variables with more intuitive names.
Eg: [nrows ncols nchannels] = size(II);