How to convert uint16 monochrome image to RGB image

Hi,

I want to convert unit16 type monochrome image to RGB image. After searching online I did the following. Following commands work if the image is normal 8 bit, but not for 16 bit. It does the conversion, but I cant view the image using imshow command. Can someone help pls?

X = dicomread('C:\Users\...\Documents\HDR\DiCOM_Images\MR-MONO2-16-knee');

X=256x256 int16

gbImage = repmat(X,[1 1 3]);

gbImage=256x256x3 int16

imShow(gbImage, []); no image

[Walter Roberson]

What about

image(gbImage)

?

[Chami]

Not working! Thanks anyway...

Answer 1

[Image Analyst]

Try this:

X = mat2gray(X);
rgbImage = cat(3, X, X, X);
imshow(rgbImage); % No [] needed - it doesn't apply for RGB images.

[Chami]

Thanks !

This works. But this converts the matrix X from unit16 into double type. I want to keep uint16 format/type throughout this conversion process if possible. Or double type can keep all the information and can I convert back to uint16 back again?

Thanks & Regards

[Image Analyst]

MATLAB does not support 16 bit RGB images, I don't believe, at least not as far as for displaying them.