Chapter 5
Machine Vision
©
National Instruments Corporation
5-25
IMAQ Vision for LabWindows/CVI User Manual
reference pattern in all cases, you have selected a good template.
Otherwise, refine the current template, or select a better template until both
training and testing are successful.
Finding Points Using Color Location
Color location algorithms provide a quick way to locate regions in an image
with specific colors.
Use color location when your application:
•
Requires the location and the number of regions in an image with their
specific color information
•
Relies on the cumulative color information in the region, instead of the
color arrangement in the region
•
Does not require the orientation of the region
•
Does not always require the location with sub-pixel accuracy
•
Does not require shape information for the region
Follow these general steps to find features in an image using color location:
1.
Define a reference pattern in the form of a template image.
2.
Use the reference pattern to train the color location algorithm with
imaqLearnColorPattern()
.
3.
Define an image or an area of an image as the search area. A small
search area reduces the time to find the features.
4.
Set the
featureMode
element of the
imaqMatchColorPattern()
options
parameter to
IMAQ_COLOR_FEATURES
.
5.
Set the tolerances and parameters to specify how the algorithm
operates at run time using the
options
parameter of
imaqMatchColorPattern()
.
6.
Test the color location algorithm on test images using
imaqMatchColorPattern()
.
7.
Verify the results using a ranking method.
You can save the template image using
imaqWriteVisionFile()
.