Count colours in HSV

Hello I would like to know how to count unique colours in HSV. I need an algotithm not a ready function. I try to do it by creating 3 dimensional matrix (1000,1000,1000) amd iterally putting there one to values of H ,S and V but it's but the matrix is too big and kill my memory.

Do you have any ideas?

Answer 1

[Image Analyst]

You don't do this in HSV space. You do it in RGB space. With uint8 pixel values, you can have as many as 16.7 million unique colors, or as many colors as you have pixels, if the number of pixels is less than 16.7 million. So you make up an RGB histogram. Here, run this demo:

% Creates a 3D scatter plot of an RGB color gamut of a color image.

clc;    % Clear the command window.
close all;  % Close all figures (except those of imtool.)
imtool close all;  % Close all imtool figures.
clear;  % Erase all existing variables.
workspace;  % Make sure the workspace panel is showing.
format longg;
format compact;
fontSize = 20;

% Read in a standard MATLAB color demo image.
folder = fullfile(matlabroot, '\toolbox\images\imdemos');
baseFileName = 'peppers.png';
% Get the full filename, with path prepended.
fullFileName = fullfile(folder, baseFileName);
if ~exist(fullFileName, 'file')
  % Didn't find it there.  Check the search path for it.
  fullFileName = baseFileName; % No path this time.
  if ~exist(fullFileName, 'file')
    % Still didn't find it.  Alert user.
    errorMessage = sprintf('Error: %s does not exist.', fullFileName);
    uiwait(warndlg(errorMessage));
    return;
  end
end
rgbImage = imread(fullFileName);
% Get the dimensions of the image.  numberOfColorBands should be = 3.
[rows columns numberOfColorBands] = size(rgbImage);
% Display the original color image.
imshow(rgbImage);
title('Original Color Image', 'FontSize', fontSize);
% Enlarge figure to full screen.
set(gcf, 'units','normalized','outerposition',[0 0 1 1]);

% Extract the individual red, green, and blue color channels.
redChannel = rgbImage(:, :, 1);
greenChannel = rgbImage(:, :, 2);
blueChannel = rgbImage(:, :, 3);

% Construct the 3D color gamut.
gamut3D = zeros(256,256,256);
for column = 1: columns
  for row = 1 : rows
    rIndex = redChannel(row, column) + 1;
    gIndex = greenChannel(row, column) + 1;
    bIndex = blueChannel(row, column) + 1;
    gamut3D(rIndex, gIndex, bIndex) = gamut3D(rIndex, gIndex, bIndex) + 1;
  end
end

% Get a list of non-zero colors so we can put it into scatter3()
% so that we can visualize the colors that are present.
r = zeros(256, 1);
g = zeros(256, 1);
b = zeros(256, 1);
nonZeroPixel = 1;
for red = 1 : 256
  for green = 1: 256
    for blue = 1: 256
      if (gamut3D(red, green, blue) > 1)
        % Record the RGB position of the color.
        r(nonZeroPixel) = red;
        g(nonZeroPixel) = green;
        b(nonZeroPixel) = blue;
        nonZeroPixel = nonZeroPixel + 1;
      end
    end
  end
end
figure;
scatter3(r, g, b, 3);
xlabel('R', 'FontSize', fontSize);
ylabel('G', 'FontSize', fontSize);
zlabel('B', 'FontSize', fontSize);

[Jonasz]

Ok but I have to do this in HSV it's my task. I know hot to do it in RGB and i need to compare this result with HSV ? Any ideas ?

[Image Analyst]

To do it in HSV you'd need to figure out what the unique values that H, S, and V take on - you might want to use unique for this. Then iterate over those like I did over RGB in RGB space. If you do it correctly, you will get exactly the same number of unique colors.