bwboundaries

Trace object boundaries in binary image

Syntax

B = bwboundaries(BW)

B = bwboundaries(BW,conn)

B = bwboundaries(___,options)

B = bwboundaries(___,Name=Value)

[B,L] = bwboundaries(___)

[B,L,n,A] = bwboundaries(___)

Description

B = bwboundaries(BW) traces the exterior boundaries of objects, as well as boundaries of holes inside these objects, in the binary image BW. bwboundaries also traces the exterior and hole boundaries of children objects completely enclosed by parent objects. The function returns B, a cell array of boundary pixel locations.

The figure illustrates these components.

B = bwboundaries(BW,conn) specifies the connectivity conn to use when tracing object boundaries.

B = bwboundaries(___,options) traces the exterior boundaries of objects and specifies whether you want to include the boundaries of holes by setting options as either "holes" or "noholes".

B = bwboundaries(___,Name=Value) specifies the trace style and the order of returned vertex coordinates using name-value arguments (since R2023a).

[B,L] = bwboundaries(___) also returns a label matrix L that labels the objects and holes.

[B,L,n,A] = bwboundaries(___) also returns n, the number of objects found, and A, an adjacency matrix.

Examples

Overlay Region Boundaries on Image

Read grayscale image into the workspace.

I = imread('rice.png');

Convert grayscale image to binary image using local adaptive thresholding.

BW = imbinarize(I);

Calculate boundaries of regions in image and overlay the boundaries on the image.

[B,L] = bwboundaries(BW,'noholes');
imshow(label2rgb(L, @jet, [.5 .5 .5]))
hold on
for k = 1:length(B)
   boundary = B{k};
   plot(boundary(:,2), boundary(:,1), 'w', 'LineWidth', 2)
end

Overlay Region Boundaries on Image and Annotate with Region Numbers

Read binary image into the workspace.

BW = imread('blobs.png');

Calculate boundaries of regions in the image.

[B,L,N,A] = bwboundaries(BW);

Display the image with the boundaries overlaid. Add the region number next to every boundary (based on the label matrix). Use the zoom tool to read individual labels.

imshow(BW); hold on;
colors=['b' 'g' 'r' 'c' 'm' 'y'];
for k=1:length(B),
  boundary = B{k};
  cidx = mod(k,length(colors))+1;
  plot(boundary(:,2), boundary(:,1),...
       colors(cidx),'LineWidth',2);

  %randomize text position for better visibility
  rndRow = ceil(length(boundary)/(mod(rand*k,7)+1));
  col = boundary(rndRow,2); row = boundary(rndRow,1);
  h = text(col+1, row-1, num2str(L(row,col)));
  set(h,'Color',colors(cidx),'FontSize',14,'FontWeight','bold');
end

Display the adjacency matrix using the spy function.

figure
spy(A);

Display Object Boundaries in Red and Hole Boundaries in Green

Read binary image into workspace.

BW = imread('blobs.png');

Calculate boundaries.

[B,L,N] = bwboundaries(BW);

Display object boundaries in red and hole boundaries in green.

imshow(BW); hold on;
for k=1:length(B),
   boundary = B{k};
   if(k > N)
     plot(boundary(:,2), boundary(:,1), 'g','LineWidth',2);
   else
     plot(boundary(:,2), boundary(:,1), 'r','LineWidth',2);
   end
end

Display Parent Boundaries in Red and Holes in Green

Read image into workspace.

BW = imread('blobs.png');

Display parent boundaries in red and their holes in green.

[B,L,N,A] = bwboundaries(BW); 
figure; imshow(BW); hold on; 
% Loop through object boundaries  
for k = 1:N 
    % Boundary k is the parent of a hole if the k-th column 
    % of the adjacency matrix A contains a non-zero element 
    if (nnz(A(:,k)) > 0) 
        boundary = B{k}; 
        plot(boundary(:,2),... 
            boundary(:,1),'r','LineWidth',2); 
        % Loop through the children of boundary k 
        for l = find(A(:,k))' 
            boundary = B{l}; 
            plot(boundary(:,2),... 
                boundary(:,1),'g','LineWidth',2); 
        end 
    end 
end

Input Arguments

BW — Binary image

2-D numeric matrix | 2-D logical matrix

Binary image, specified as a 2-D logical or numeric matrix. For numeric input, any nonzero pixels are considered to be 1 (true).

Data Types: single | double | int8 | int16 | int32 | int64 | uint8 | uint16 | uint32 | uint64 | logical

conn — Pixel connectivity

8 (default) | 4

Pixel connectivity, specified as one of the values in this table.

Value	Meaning
Two-Dimensional Connectivities
4	Pixels are connected if their edges touch. Two adjoining pixels are part of the same object if they are both on and are connected along the horizontal or vertical direction.	Current pixel is shown in gray.
8	Pixels are connected if their edges or corners touch. Two adjoining pixels are part of the same object if they are both on and are connected along the horizontal, vertical, or diagonal direction.	Current pixel is shown in gray.

Data Types: double

options — Determine whether to search for both parent and child boundaries

"holes" (default) | "noholes"

Determine whether to search for both parent and child boundaries, specified as either of the following:

Option	Meaning
"holes"	Search for both object and hole boundaries. This is the default.
"noholes"	Search only for object (parent and child) boundaries. This can provide better performance.

Data Types: char | string

Name-Value Arguments

Specify optional pairs of arguments as Name1=Value1,...,NameN=ValueN, where Name is the argument name and Value is the corresponding value. Name-value arguments must appear after other arguments, but the order of the pairs does not matter.

Example: B = bwboundaries(BW,TraceStyle="pixeledge") traces the boundary of objects in binary image BW along the outer edge of boundary pixels.

TraceStyle — Trace style

"pixelcenter" (default) | "pixeledge"

Since R2023a

Trace style along the boundary, specified as "pixelcenter" or "pixeledge".

Trace Style	Meaning
"pixelcenter"	Trace the boundary as a polygon connecting the centers of the boundary pixels.
"pixeledge"	Trace the boundary as a polygon along the outer edge of the boundary pixels.

CoordinateOrder — Order of returned vertex coordinates

"yx" (default) | "xy"

Since R2023a

Order of the returned vertex coordinates, specified as "yx" or "xy".

Trace Style	Meaning
"yx"	Return boundary vertices as (y, x) coordinates, which is the same order as (row, column) coordinates
"xy"	Return boundary vertices as (x, y) coordinates

Output Arguments

B — Coordinates of boundary vertices

p-by-1 cell array

Coordinates of the boundary vertices, returned as a p-by-1 cell array, where p is the number of objects and holes. The first n cells in B are object boundaries and the remaining cells are hole boundaries.

Each cell in the cell array contains a q-by-2 matrix. Each row in the matrix contains the coordinates of a vertex along the boundary. q is the number of boundary vertices for the corresponding region.

L — Label matrix

2-D matrix of nonnegative integers

Label matrix of contiguous regions, returned as a 2-D matrix of nonnegative integers. The kth region includes all elements in L that have value k. The number of objects and holes represented by L is equal to max(L(:)). The zero-valued elements of L make up the background.

Data Types: double

n — Number of objects found

nonnegative integer

Number of objects found, returned as a nonnegative integer.

Data Types: double

A — Parent-child dependencies between boundaries and holes

square, sparse, logical matrix

Parent-child dependencies between boundaries and holes, returned as a square, sparse, logical matrix with side of length max(L(:)). The rows and columns of A correspond to the positions of boundaries stored in B. A(i,j)=1 means that object i is a child of object j. The boundaries that enclose or are enclosed by the k-th boundary can be found using A as follows:

enclosing_boundary  = find(A(k,:));
enclosed_boundaries = find(A(:,k));

Data Types: double

Algorithms

The bwboundaries function implements the Moore-Neighbor tracing algorithm modified by Jacob's stopping criteria. This function is based on the boundaries function presented in the first edition of Digital Image Processing Using MATLAB [1].

References

[1] Gonzalez, R. C., R. E. Woods, and S. L. Eddins, Digital Image Processing Using MATLAB, New Jersey, Pearson Prentice Hall, 2004.

Extended Capabilities

C/C++ Code Generation

Generate C and C++ code using MATLAB® Coder™.

Usage notes and limitations:

• bwboundaries supports the generation of C code (requires MATLAB^® Coder™). Note that if you choose the generic MATLAB Host Computer target platform, bwboundaries generates code that uses a precompiled, platform-specific shared library. Use of a shared library preserves performance optimizations but limits the target platforms for which code can be generated. For more information, see Types of Code Generation Support in Image Processing Toolbox.

• The conn argument must be a compile-time constant.

• The options argument must be a compile-time constant.

• The return value A can only be a full matrix, not a sparse matrix.

GPU Code Generation

Generate CUDA® code for NVIDIA® GPUs using GPU Coder™.

Usage notes and limitations:

• The conn argument must be a compile-time constant.

• The options argument must be a compile-time constant.

• The return value A can only be a full matrix, not a sparse matrix.

Version History

Introduced before R2006a

R2023a: New TraceStyle and CoordinateOrder name-value arguments

The TraceStyle name-value argument adds support for tracing the boundary along the exterior edge of boundary pixels. Before, the function traced the boundary only through the centers of boundary pixels.

The CoordinateOrder name-value argument adds support for returning boundary coordinates in (x, y) order. Before, the function returned boundary coordinates only in (y, x) order.