Silveira Neto » code

OpenCV: adding two images

Silveira — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 04:55:05 +0000

This is a very simple example of how to open two images and display them added.

I got two pictures at project Commons from Wikimedia that were highlighted on Featured Pictures. I did a crop on both to have the same size, as I’m trying to make this example as simple as possible.

The first one is a photo of our Milky Way, taken at Paranal Observatory by Stéphane Guisard.

The second one is a California surfer inside wave, taken by Mila Zinkova.

In this simple OpenCV code below, we open the images, create a new one to display the result and use cvAdd to add them. We do not save the result or handle more than the ordinary case of two images with the same size.

#include 
#include 
#include 
 
int main( int argc, char **argv ){
    IplImage *surfer, *milkyway, *result;
    int key = 0;
    CvSize size;
 
    /* load images, check, get size (both should have the same) */
    surfer = cvLoadImage("surfer.jpg", CV_LOAD_IMAGE_COLOR);
    milkyway = cvLoadImage("milkyway.jpg", CV_LOAD_IMAGE_COLOR);
    if((!surfer)||(!milkyway)){
        printf("Could not open one or more images.");
        exit -1;
    }
    size = cvGetSize(surfer);
 
    /* create a empty image, same size, depth and channels of others */
    result = cvCreateImage(size, surfer->depth, surfer->nChannels);
    cvZero(result);
 
    /* result = surfer + milkyway (NULL mask)*/
    cvAdd(surfer, milkyway, result, NULL);
 
    /* create a window, display the result, wait for a key */
    cvNamedWindow("example", CV_WINDOW_AUTOSIZE);
    cvShowImage("example", result);
    cvWaitKey(0);
 
    /* free memory and get out */
    cvDestroyWindow("example");
    cvReleaseImage(&surfer);
    cvReleaseImage(&milkyway);
    cvReleaseImage(&result);
    return 0;
}
 
/* gcc add.c -o add `pkg-config opencv --libs --cflags` */

Compile it (on a well configured OpenCV development environment) and run it:

gcc add.c -o add `pkg-config opencv –libs –cflags`
./add

The result got pretty cool, a milky way surfer.

BumbaBot-1

Silveira — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 03:43:42 +0000

I got a simple motor from a broken domestic printer. It’s a Mitsumi m355P-9T stepping motor. Any other common stepping motor should fits. You can find one in printers, multifunction machines, copy machines, FAX, and such.

With a flexible cap of water bottle with a hole we make a connection between the motor axis and other objects.

With super glue I attached to the cap a little handcraft clay ox statue.

It’s a representation from a Brazilian folkloric character Boi Bumbá. In some traditional parties in Brazil, someone dress a structure-costume and dances in circular patterns interacting with the public.

Photos by Marcus Guimarães.

Controlling a stepper motor is not difficult. There’s a good documentation on how to that on the Arduino Stepper Motor Tutorial. Basically it’s about sending a logical signal for each coil in a circular order (that is also called full step).

Animation from rogercom.com.

You’ll probably also use a driver chip ULN2003A or similar to give to the motor more current than your Arduino can provide and also for protecting it from a power comming back from the motor. It’s a very easy find this tiny chip on electronics or automotive stores or also from broken printers where you probably found your stepped motor.

With a simple program you can already controlling your motor.

// Simple stepped motor spin
// by Silveira Neto, 2009, under GPLv3 license
// http://silveiraneto.net/2009/03/16/bumbabot-1/
int coil1 = 8;
int coil2 = 9;
int coil3 = 10;
int coil4 = 11;
int step = 0;
int interval = 100;
 
void setup() {
  pinMode(coil1, OUTPUT);
  pinMode(coil2, OUTPUT);
  pinMode(coil3, OUTPUT);
  pinMode(coil4, OUTPUT);
}
 
void loop() {
  digitalWrite(coil1, step==0?HIGH:LOW);
  digitalWrite(coil2, step==1?HIGH:LOW);
  digitalWrite(coil3, step==2?HIGH:LOW);
  digitalWrite(coil4, step==3?HIGH:LOW);
  delay(interval);
  step = (step+1)%4;
}

Writing a little bit more generally code we can create function to step forward and step backward.

My motor needs 48 steps to run a complete turn. So 360º/48 steps give us 7,5º per step. Arduino has a simple Stepper Motor Library but it doesn’t worked with me and it’s also oriented to steps and I’d need something oriented to angles instead. So I wrote some routines to do that.

For this first version of BumbaBot I mapped angles with letters to easy the communication between the programs.

Notice that it’s not the final version and there’s still some bugs!

// Stepped motor control by letters
// by Silveira Neto, 2009, under GPLv3 license
// http://silveiraneto.net/2009/03/16/bumbabot-1/
 
int coil1 = 8;
int coil2 = 9;
int coil3 = 10;
int coil4 = 11;
 
int delayTime = 50;
int steps = 48;
int step_counter = 0;
 
void setup(){
  pinMode(coil1, OUTPUT);
  pinMode(coil2, OUTPUT);
  pinMode(coil3, OUTPUT);
  pinMode(coil4, OUTPUT);
  Serial.begin(9600);
}
 
// tells motor to move a certain angle
void moveAngle(float angle){
  int i;
  int howmanysteps = angle/stepAngle();
  if(howmanysteps<0){
    howmanysteps = - howmanysteps;
  }
  if(angle>0){
    for(i = 0;i<howmanysteps; i++){
      step(i%4);
      delay(delayTime);
    }
  }else{
    for(i=0;i<howmanysteps;i++){
      backstep(i%4);
      delay(delayTime);
    }
  }
}
 
// tells motor to move to a certain angle
void moveToAngle(float angle){
  moveAngle(angle-actualAngle());
}
 
// actual stepper motor angle
float actualAngle(){
  return step_counter*stepAngle();
}
 
// angle made by each step
float stepAngle(){
  return 360.0/steps;
}
 
// backward step
void backstep(int coil){
  digitalWrite(coil1, (coil==3)?HIGH:LOW);
  digitalWrite(coil2, (coil==2)?HIGH:LOW);
  digitalWrite(coil3, (coil==1)?HIGH:LOW);
  digitalWrite(coil4, (coil==0)?HIGH:LOW);
  step_counter--;
}
 
// forward step
void step(int coil){
  digitalWrite(coil1, (coil==0)?HIGH:LOW);
  digitalWrite(coil2, (coil==1)?HIGH:LOW);
  digitalWrite(coil3, (coil==2)?HIGH:LOW);
  digitalWrite(coil4, (coil==3)?HIGH:LOW);
  step_counter++;
}
 
void loop() {
  byte val;
  if(Serial.available()){
    val = Serial.read();
    switch (val) {
      case 'A': moveToAngle(  0); break;
      case 'B': moveToAngle( 45); break;
      case 'C': moveToAngle( 90); break;
      case 'D': moveToAngle(135); break;
      case 'E': moveToAngle(180); break;
      case 'F': moveToAngle(225); break;
      case 'G': moveToAngle(270); break;
      case 'H': moveToAngle(315); break;
      case 'I': backstep(1); backstep(0); break;
      case 'J': step(0); step(1);   break;
    }
    Serial.print(val);
  }
}

In another post I wrote how create a Java program to talk with Arduino. We’ll use this to send messages to Arduino to it moves.

[put final video here]

To be continued… :)

Example of Unix commands implemented in Java

Silveira — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 23:42:31 +0000

I created some illustrative and simple implementations of common Unix commands. For those who are familiar with Unix-like systems them make easier to understand Java. For those who are familiar with Java them make easier to understand Unix-like systems. :-)

1. PWD

The first one is pwd that show the current working directory.

public class Jpwd {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        String pwd = System.getProperty("user.dir");
        System.out.println(pwd);
    }
}

Running this at /home/silveira directory gives us as output:

$ java Jpwd

/home/silveira

1. CAT

The command cat is usually utilized for displaying files.

import java.io.BufferedReader;
import java.io.FileNotFoundException;
import java.io.FileReader;
import java.io.IOException;
 
public class Jcat {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        if(args.length==1){
            try {
                FileReader fileReader = new FileReader(args[0]);
                BufferedReader in = new BufferedReader(fileReader);
                String line;
                while((line = in.readLine())!= null){
                    System.out.println(line);
                }
            } catch (FileNotFoundException ex) {
                System.out.println(args[0]+", file not found.");
            }
            catch (IOException ex) {
                System.out.println(args[0]+", input/output error.");
            }
        }
    }
}

$ java Jcat /etc/timezone

America/Fortaleza

3. LS

The command ls is to list files. The File API (java.io.File) is very flexible and portable, but in this example I want just list files and directories of the current directory.

import java.io.File;
 
public class Jls {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        File dir = new File(System.getProperty("user.dir"));
        String childs[] = dir.list();
        for(String child: childs){
            System.out.println(child);
        }
    }
}

Usage:

$ java Jpwd

/home/silveira/example

$ java Jls

directoryA

fileA

.somefile

~~4. CD~~

The cd command changes the current working directory.

import java.io.File;
 
public class Jcd {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        if(args.length==1){
            File dir = new File(args[0]);
            if(dir.isDirectory()==true) {
                System.setProperty("user.dir", dir.getAbsolutePath());
            } else {
                System.out.println(args[0] + "is not a directory.");
            }
        }
    }
}

Usage:

$ java Jpwd
/home/silveira
$ java Jcd /tmp
$ java Jpwd
/tmp

Java Calendar Examples

Silveira — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 14:15:05 +0000

import java.util.Calendar;
 
public class Main {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        Calendar today = Calendar.getInstance();
        System.out.println("Today is  " + today.getTime());
    }
}

In this simplest example of Calendar, the output would be

Today is : Tue Jul 01 10:56:14 BRT 2008

In the next example how to get information about the day inside the year, month and week.

import java.util.Calendar;
 
public class Main {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        Calendar today = Calendar.getInstance();
        int dof = today.get(Calendar.DAY_OF_YEAR);
        int dom = today.get(Calendar.DAY_OF_MONTH);
        int dow = today.get(Calendar.DAY_OF_WEEK);
        System.out.println("Today is the " + dof +"º day in this year,");
        System.out.println("the " + dom +"º day in this month");
        System.out.println("and the " + dow +"º day in this week.");
    }
}

The output could be

Today is the 183º day in this year,
the 1º day in this month
and the 3º day in this week.

The next example is about how to add (and subtract) a duration from a Calendar.

import java.util.Calendar;
 
public class Main {
    public static void main(String[] args) {
        Calendar today = Calendar.getInstance();
        System.out.println("Today is " + today.getTime());
 
        Calendar yesterday = (Calendar)today.clone();
        yesterday.add(Calendar.DATE, -1);
        System.out.println("Yesterday was " + yesterday.getTime());
 
        Calendar tomorow = (Calendar)today.clone();
        tomorow.add(Calendar.DATE, 1);
        System.out.println("Tomorow will be " + tomorow.getTime());
    }
}

A typical output would be

Today is Tue Jul 01 10:44:18 BRT 2008
Yesterday was Mon Jun 30 10:44:18 BRT 2008
Tomorow will be Wed Jul 02 10:44:18 BRT 2008

Integer.MAX_VALUE and Integer.MIN_VALUE

Silveira — Sat, 12 Apr 2008 01:09:52 +0000

You should know that variable values are cyclic in Java.

public class Test{
  public static void main(String args[]){
     System.out.println(Integer.MAX_VALUE);
     System.out.println(Integer.MIN_VALUE);
     int x = Integer.MAX_VALUE + 1;
     System.out.println(x);
  }
}

This produces:

2147483647
-2147483648
-2147483648

NumberFormatException Example

Silveira — Sat, 22 Mar 2008 02:42:20 +0000

NumberFormatException: Thrown to indicate that the application has attempted to convert a string to one of the numeric types, but that the string does not have the appropriate format.

An simple example:

public class SummationExample {
    public static void main(String args[]){
        int sum = 0;
        for(String arg: args){
            System.out.println("+" + arg);
            sum += Integer.parseInt(arg);
        }
        System.out.println("= " + sum);
    }
}

$ javac SummationExample.java
$ java SummationExample 1 2 3 4 5
+1
+2
+3
+4
+5
= 15

but

$ java SummationExample 1 2 3 4 five
+1
+2
+3
+4
+five
Exception in thread “main” java.lang.NumberFormatException: For input string: “five”
at java.lang.NumberFormatException.forInputString(NumberFormatException.java:48)
at java.lang.Integer.parseInt(Integer.java:447)
at java.lang.Integer.parseInt(Integer.java:497)
at SummationExample.main(SummationExample.java:6)

public class SummationExample {
    public static void main(String args[]){
        int sum = 0;
        for(String arg: args){
            try {
                sum += Integer.parseInt(arg);
                System.out.println("+" + arg);
            } catch (NumberFormatException e) {
                // nothing
            }
        }
        System.out.println("= " + sum);
    }
}

now

$ javac BetterSummationExample.java
$ java BetterSummationExample 1 2 3 4 5
+1
+2
+3
+4
+5
= 15

and also

$ java BetterSummationExample 1 2 3 4 five
+1
+2
+3
+4
= 10

Pointers to functions in C++

Silveira — Sun, 16 Mar 2008 23:11:57 +0000

I need to implements some codes in C++. Just remembering some concepts like pointers to functions.

A simple example:

#include 
#include 

using namespace std;

double evalFunction(double (*f)(double), double param){
    return f(param);
}

double function(double x){
    return x/2;
}

int main(int argc, char** argv) {
    cout << function(5.0) << endl;
    cout << evalFunction(function, 5.0) << endl;
    return (EXIT_SUCCESS);
}

Simple Java Chronometer

Silveira — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 03:27:50 +0000

A very simple Java chronometer code (inspired in the chronometer code in Opale project) you can use for simples measures.

In the main method there’s a example of use.

public final class Chronometer{
    private long begin, end;
 
    public void start(){
        begin = System.currentTimeMillis();
    }
 
    public void stop(){
        end = System.currentTimeMillis();
    }
 
    public long getTime() {
        return end-begin;
    }
 
    public long getMilliseconds() {
        return end-begin;
    }
 
    public double getSeconds() {
        return (end - begin) / 1000.0;
    }
 
    public double getMinutes() {
        return (end - begin) / 60000.0;
    }
 
    public double getHours() {
        return (end - begin) / 3600000.0;
    }
 
    public static void main(String[] arg) {
        Chronometer ch = new Chronometer();
 
        ch.start();
        for (int i = 1;i<10000000;i++) {}
        ch.stop();
        System.out.println(ch.getTime());
 
        ch.start();
        for (int i = 10000000;i>0;i--) {}
        ch.stop();
        System.out.println(ch.getTime());
    }
}

Compiling and running this code gives you something like:

191
12

Maybe you got surprised with this. The first loop, with 10 millions of steps is slower than the second, also with 10 millions of steps.

Why?

Some processors (like x86) have an zero-flag in their ALU. Using it is faster perform the question i≠0 than i

Think twice next time you write a big loop. :)

Java, listing system properties

Silveira — Mon, 10 Mar 2008 16:23:17 +0000

This code prints out your system properties.

import java.util.Properties;
 
public class PropertiesLister{
   public static void main (String args[]){
       Properties props = System.getProperties();
       props.list(System.out);
   }
}

In the machine I’m writing right now:

– listing properties –
java.runtime.name=Java(TM) SE Runtime Environment
sun.boot.library.path=/usr/lib/jvm/java-6-sun-1.6.0.00/jre/…
java.vm.version=1.6.0-b105
java.vm.vendor=Sun Microsystems Inc.
java.vendor.url=http://java.sun.com/
path.separator=:
java.vm.name=Java HotSpot(TM) Server VM
file.encoding.pkg=sun.io
user.country=BR
sun.java.launcher=SUN_STANDARD
sun.os.patch.level=unknown
java.vm.specification.name=Java Virtual Machine Specification
user.dir=/tmp
java.runtime.version=1.6.0-b105
java.awt.graphicsenv=sun.awt.X11GraphicsEnvironment
java.endorsed.dirs=/usr/lib/jvm/java-6-sun-1.6.0.00/jre/…
os.arch=i386
java.io.tmpdir=/tmp
line.separator=

java.vm.specification.vendor=Sun Microsystems Inc.
os.name=Linux
sun.jnu.encoding=UTF-8
java.library.path=/usr/lib/jvm/java-6-sun-1.6.0.00/jre/…
java.specification.name=Java Platform API Specification
java.class.version=50.0
sun.management.compiler=HotSpot Server Compiler
os.version=2.6.20-16-generic
user.home=/home/export/silveira
user.timezone=
java.awt.printerjob=sun.print.PSPrinterJob
file.encoding=UTF-8
java.specification.version=1.6
user.name=silveira
java.class.path=.
java.vm.specification.version=1.0
sun.arch.data.model=32
java.home=/usr/lib/jvm/java-6-sun-1.6.0.00/jre
java.specification.vendor=Sun Microsystems Inc.
user.language=pt
java.vm.info=mixed mode
java.version=1.6.0
java.ext.dirs=/usr/lib/jvm/java-6-sun-1.6.0.00/jre/…
sun.boot.class.path=/usr/lib/jvm/java-6-sun-1.6.0.00/jre/…
java.vendor=Sun Microsystems Inc.
file.separator=/
java.vendor.url.bug=http://java.sun.com/cgi-bin/bugreport…
sun.cpu.endian=little
sun.io.unicode.encoding=UnicodeLittle
sun.cpu.isalist=

Try out at your home. :)