How to see image data using opencv in visual studio? - image

Question

I wrote an OPENCV project in VS2010 and the results were not the ones as I expected so I ran the debugger to see where is the problem. When I wanted to see the data inside the image loaded I didn't know how to do it so if I want to see the data inside my images what should I do?
It is pretty simple in matlab for seeing different channel of an image i.e.
a=imread('test.jpg');
p1 = a(:,:,1)
p2 = b(:,:,2)
.
.
In opencv I wrote the same thing but I don't know how to see all the element at once just like Matlab.
a= imread("test.jpg")
split(a,planes);
vector<Mat> T1;
T1 = planes[0];
// How can I see the data inside T1 when debugging the code ?

Answer 1

I think this is what you are looking for - it's a great Visual Studio add-on
https://bitbucket.org/sergiu/opencv-visualizers
Just download the installer, make sure VS is closed, run it, re-open VS and voila! Now, when you point to an OpenCV data structure, all kinds of nice info is showed.
Limitations: I saw some problems with multichannel images (it only shows the first channel) and it also has trouble displaying large matrices. If you want to see raw data in a big matrix, you can use the old good VS trick with debug variables: Stop at a breakpoint, go to Watch tab, and write there
((float*)myMat.data) ,10
Where float is the matrix type, myMat is your matrix, and 10 is the number of values you want to print. It will display the first 10 values at the memory location of myMat.data. If you do not correctly choose the data type, you'll see garbage. In my example, myMat is of type cv::Mat.
And never forget the power of visualizers:
imshow("Image", myMat);
If your data fits into an image. You can use the contrib module's colormap to enhance your visualizers.

Answer 2

I can't actually believe that nobody suggested Image Watch yet. It's the most amazing add-in ever. It shows you a view with all your Mat variables (images (gray and color), matrices) while debugging, there's useful stuff like zooming or contrast-stretching and you can even apply more complex functions directly in the plugin in real-time. It makes debugging of any kind of image operations a breeze and it's immensely helpful if you do calculations and linear algebra stuff with your cv::Mat matrices.

Answer 3

I recommend to use a NativeViewer extension. It actually displays the content of an image in a preview window, not only the properly formatted info.

Answer 4

If you don't want to use a plug-in or extension to Visual Studio, you can access the elements one by one in the debugging watch tab by typing this:
T1.data[T1.step.buf[0]*i + T1.step.buf[1]*j];
where i is the row you want to look at and j is the column.

Answer 5

after downloading imagewatch use the command in watch window
(imagesLoc._Myfirst)[0]
index of image in the vector

Answer 6

You can use the immediate window and the extenshion method like this one
/// <summary>
/// Displays image
/// </summary>
public static void Display (this Mat m, Rect rect = default, string windowName = "")
{
if (string.IsNullOrEmpty(windowName))
{
windowName = m.ToString();
}
var img = rect == default ? m : m.Crop(rect);
double coef = Math.Min(1600d / img.Width, 800d / img.Height);
Cv2.ImShow(windowName, img.Resize(new Size(coef * img.Width, (coef * img.Height) > 1 ? coef * img.Height : 1)));
Cv2.WaitKey();
}
Then you stop at a breakpoint and call yourImage.Display() in the immediate window.

Answer 7

If you can use CLion you can utilize the OpenCV Image Viewer plugin, which displays matrices while debugging just on click.
https://plugins.jetbrains.com/plugin/14371-opencv-image-viewer
Disclaimer: I'm an author of this plugin