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Crosshair

Crosshair region of interest

Since R2019b

Description

A Crosshair object specifies the position of a crosshair region-of-interest (ROI). You can customize the appearance and interactive behavior of the ROI.

For more information about using this ROI, including keyboard shortcuts, see Tips.

A horizontal line and a vertical line intersect to form a crosshair.

Creation

There are two ways to create a Crosshair object. For more information, see Create ROI Shapes.

  • Use the drawcrosshair function. Use this function when you want to create the ROI and set the appearance in a single command. You can specify the position of the ROI interactively by drawing the ROI over an image using the mouse, or programmatically by using name-value arguments.

  • Use the images.roi.Crosshair function described here. Use this function when you want to specify the appearance and behavior of the ROI before you specify the position of the ROI. After creating the object, you can specify the position interactively by using the draw function or programmatically by modifying properties of the object.

Description

example

roi = images.roi.Crosshair creates a Crosshair object with default properties.

roi = images.roi.Crosshair(ax) creates the ROI in the axes specified by ax.

roi = images.roi.Crosshair(___,Name,Value) sets properties of the ROI using name-value arguments. You can specify multiple name-value arguments. Enclose each property name in single quotes.

Example: images.roi.Crosshair('Color','y') creates a yellow colored Crosshair object.

Input Arguments

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Parent of ROI, specified as an Axes object or a UIAxes object. For information about using an ROI in a UIAxes, including important limitations, see Using ROIs in Apps Created with App Designer.

Properties

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ROI color, specified as an RGB triplet, a color name, or a short color name.

You can specify any color using an RGB triplet. An RGB triplet is a 3-element row vector whose elements specify the intensities of the red, green, and blue components of the color. The intensities must be in the range [0, 1].

You can specify some common colors by name as a string scalar or character vector. This table lists the named color options and the equivalent RGB triplets.

Color NameShort NameRGB TripletAppearance
"red""r"[1 0 0]

A rectangle colored pure red

"green""g"[0 1 0]

A rectangle colored pure green

"blue""b"[0 0 1]

A rectangle colored pure blue

"cyan" "c"[0 1 1]

A rectangle colored pure cyan

"magenta""m"[1 0 1]

A rectangle colored pure magenta

"yellow""y"[1 1 0]

A rectangle colored pure yellow

"black""k"[0 0 0]

A rectangle colored black

"white""w"[1 1 1]

A rectangle colored white

Here are the RGB triplets for the default colors that MATLAB® uses in many types of plots.

RGB TripletAppearance
[0 0.4470 0.7410]

A rectangle colored medium blue

[0.8500 0.3250 0.0980]

A rectangle colored reddish-orange

[0.9290 0.6940 0.1250]

A rectangle colored dark yellow

[0.4940 0.1840 0.5560]

A rectangle colored dark purple

[0.4660 0.6740 0.1880]

A rectangle colored light green

[0.3010 0.7450 0.9330]

A rectangle colored light blue

[0.6350 0.0780 0.1840]

A rectangle colored dark red

Example: "Color","r"

Example: "Color","green"

Example: "Color",[0 0.4470 0.7410]

Context menu that displays when you right-click the ROI, specified as a ContextMenu object. You can create a custom context menu by using the uicontextmenu function and then configuring context menu properties.

Context menu provides an option to delete the ROI, specified as a numeric or logical 1 (true) or 0 (false). When the value is true, you can delete the ROI interactively using the context menu. When the value is false, the context menu option to delete the ROI is disabled.

In both cases, you can delete the ROI outside of the context menu by using the delete function.

Area of the axes in which you can interactively place the ROI, specified as one of the values in this table.

ValueDescription
"auto"The drawing area is the current axes limits (default).
"unlimited"The drawing area has no boundary and ROIs can be drawn or dragged to extend beyond the axes limits.
[x,y,w,h]The drawing area is restricted to a rectangular region beginning at (x,y), and extending to width w and height h.

Visibility of the ROI handle in the Children property of the parent, specified as one of the values in this table.

ValueDescription
"on"The object handle is always visible (default).
"off"The object handle is hidden at all times.
"callback" The object handle is visible from within callbacks or functions invoked by callbacks, but not from within functions invoked from the command line.

Interactivity of the ROI, specified as one of the values in this table.

ValueDescription
'all'The ROI is fully interactable.
'none'The ROI is not interactable, and no drag points are visible.

ROI label, specified as a character vector or string scalar. By default, the ROI has no label ('').

Transparency of the text background, specified as a number in the range [0, 1]. When set to 1, the text background is completely opaque. When set to 0, the text background is completely transparent.

Label text color, specified as an RGB triplet, a color name, or a short color name.

You can specify any color using an RGB triplet. An RGB triplet is a 3-element row vector whose elements specify the intensities of the red, green, and blue components of the color. The intensities must be in the range [0, 1].

You can specify some common colors by name as a string scalar or character vector. This table lists the named color options and the equivalent RGB triplets.

Color NameShort NameRGB TripletAppearance
"red""r"[1 0 0]

A rectangle colored pure red

"green""g"[0 1 0]

A rectangle colored pure green

"blue""b"[0 0 1]

A rectangle colored pure blue

"cyan" "c"[0 1 1]

A rectangle colored pure cyan

"magenta""m"[1 0 1]

A rectangle colored pure magenta

"yellow""y"[1 1 0]

A rectangle colored pure yellow

"black""k"[0 0 0]

A rectangle colored black

"white""w"[1 1 1]

A rectangle colored white

Here are the RGB triplets for the default colors that MATLAB uses in many types of plots.

RGB TripletAppearance
[0 0.4470 0.7410]

A rectangle colored medium blue

[0.8500 0.3250 0.0980]

A rectangle colored reddish-orange

[0.9290 0.6940 0.1250]

A rectangle colored dark yellow

[0.4940 0.1840 0.5560]

A rectangle colored dark purple

[0.4660 0.6740 0.1880]

A rectangle colored light green

[0.3010 0.7450 0.9330]

A rectangle colored light blue

[0.6350 0.0780 0.1840]

A rectangle colored dark red

Example: "LabelTextColor","r"

Example: "LabelTextColor","green"

Example: "LabelTextColor",[0 0.4470 0.7410]

Label visibility, specified as one of these values.

ValueDescription
"on"Label is visible when the ROI is visible.
"hover"Label is visible only when the mouse is hovering over the ROI.
"off"Label is not visible.

Width of the ROI border, specified as a positive number in points. The default value is three times the number of points per screen pixel, such that the border is three pixels wide.

ROI parent, specified as an Axes or UIAxes object. For information about using an ROI in a UIAxes, including important limitations, see Using ROIs in Apps Created with App Designer.

Position of the ROI, specified as a 1-by-2 numeric vector of the form [x y]. The values x and y specify the x- and y-coordinates of the location where the horizontal line crosses the vertical line in the crosshair ROI. This value changes automatically when you draw or move the ROI.

Selection state of the ROI, specified as a numeric or logical 0 (false) or 1 (true). You can also set this property interactively. For example, clicking on the ROI selects the ROI and sets this property to true. Similarly, pressing the Ctrl key and clicking the ROI deselects the ROI and sets the value of this property to false.

Color of the ROI when selected, specified as an RGB triplet, a color name, a short color name, or "none". If you specify "none", then the value of Color defines the color of the ROI for all states, selected or not.

You can specify any color using an RGB triplet. An RGB triplet is a 3-element row vector whose elements specify the intensities of the red, green, and blue components of the color. The intensities must be in the range [0, 1].

You can specify some common colors by name as a string scalar or character vector. This table lists the named color options and the equivalent RGB triplets.

Color NameShort NameRGB TripletAppearance
"red""r"[1 0 0]

A rectangle colored pure red

"green""g"[0 1 0]

A rectangle colored pure green

"blue""b"[0 0 1]

A rectangle colored pure blue

"cyan" "c"[0 1 1]

A rectangle colored pure cyan

"magenta""m"[1 0 1]

A rectangle colored pure magenta

"yellow""y"[1 1 0]

A rectangle colored pure yellow

"black""k"[0 0 0]

A rectangle colored black

"white""w"[1 1 1]

A rectangle colored white

Here are the RGB triplets for the default colors that MATLAB uses in many types of plots.

RGB TripletAppearance
[0 0.4470 0.7410]

A rectangle colored medium blue

[0.8500 0.3250 0.0980]

A rectangle colored reddish-orange

[0.9290 0.6940 0.1250]

A rectangle colored dark yellow

[0.4940 0.1840 0.5560]

A rectangle colored dark purple

[0.4660 0.6740 0.1880]

A rectangle colored light green

[0.3010 0.7450 0.9330]

A rectangle colored light blue

[0.6350 0.0780 0.1840]

A rectangle colored dark red

Example: "SelectedColor","r"

Example: "SelectedColor","green"

Example: "SelectedColor",[0 0.4470 0.7410]

Color of the ROI stripe, specified as an RGB triplet, a color name, a short color name, or "none". If you specify "none", then the ROI edge is a solid color specified by Color. Otherwise, the edge of the ROI is striped, with colors alternating between the colors specified by Color and StripeColor.

You can specify any color using an RGB triplet. An RGB triplet is a 3-element row vector whose elements specify the intensities of the red, green, and blue components of the color. The intensities must be in the range [0, 1].

You can specify some common colors by name as a string scalar or character vector. This table lists the named color options and the equivalent RGB triplets.

Color NameShort NameRGB TripletAppearance
"red""r"[1 0 0]

A rectangle colored pure red

"green""g"[0 1 0]

A rectangle colored pure green

"blue""b"[0 0 1]

A rectangle colored pure blue

"cyan" "c"[0 1 1]

A rectangle colored pure cyan

"magenta""m"[1 0 1]

A rectangle colored pure magenta

"yellow""y"[1 1 0]

A rectangle colored pure yellow

"black""k"[0 0 0]

A rectangle colored black

"white""w"[1 1 1]

A rectangle colored white

Here are the RGB triplets for the default colors that MATLAB uses in many types of plots.

RGB TripletAppearance
[0 0.4470 0.7410]

A rectangle colored medium blue

[0.8500 0.3250 0.0980]

A rectangle colored reddish-orange

[0.9290 0.6940 0.1250]

A rectangle colored dark yellow

[0.4940 0.1840 0.5560]

A rectangle colored dark purple

[0.4660 0.6740 0.1880]

A rectangle colored light green

[0.3010 0.7450 0.9330]

A rectangle colored light blue

[0.6350 0.0780 0.1840]

A rectangle colored dark red

Example: "StripeColor","r"

Example: "StripeColor","green"

Example: "StripeColor",[0 0.4470 0.7410]

Tag to associate with the ROI, specified as a character vector or string scalar. Use the tag value to find the ROI object in a hierarchy of objects using the findobj function.

Data to associate with the ROI, specified as any MATLAB data. For example, you can specify a scalar, vector, matrix, cell array, string, character array, table, or structure. The Crosshair object does not use this data.

ROI visibility, specified as "on" or "off", or as a numeric or logical 1 (true) or 0 (false). A value of "on" is equivalent to true, and "off" is equivalent to false. The value is stored as an on/off logical value of type OnOffSwitchState.

ValueDescription
"on"Display the ROI.
"off"Hide the ROI without deleting it. You still can access the properties of an invisible ROI.

Object Functions

addlistenerCreate event listener bound to event source
beginDrawingFromPointBegin drawing ROI from specified point
bringToFrontBring ROI to front of Axes stacking order
drawBegin drawing ROI interactively
waitBlock MATLAB command line until ROI operation is finished

Examples

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Read an image into the workspace and display it.

I = imread('baby.jpg');
figure;
imshow(I)

Place a crosshair ROI on the image programmatically. When you specify the position of the ROI, you must specify the axes.

h = images.roi.Crosshair(gca,'Position',[100,100]);

Read an image into the workspace.

img = imread("coins.png");

Display the image in a figure.

figure
hAx = gca;
imObj = imshow(img,Parent=hAx);
imObj.Parent.Visible = "on";

Create a crosshair ROI associated with the image. The crosshair does not have a position yet and therefore does not display on the image.

h = images.roi.Crosshair(Parent=hAx,LineWidth=1,Color="y");

Set up a listener to get notification when the ROI moves over the image. Because the code displays the value of the pixel under the crosshair, you must pass the image as an argument to the listener.

addlistener(h,MovingROI=@(src,data)displayInfo(src,data,hAx,img));

Begin drawing the ROI interactively. After you place the crosshair, you can then drag the crosshair to a new position. The title of the figure updates with the value of the pixel under the center of the crosshair.

draw(h)

This figure shows a sample appearance of the image with title during interactive movement of the crosshair ROI.

Define the displayInfo function called by the listener when a MovingROI event occurs.

function displayInfo(~,data,hAx,img)
    pos = ceil(data.CurrentPosition);
    title(hAx,"Pixel Value: "+num2str(img(pos(2),pos(1))))
end

More About

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Tips

  • To draw the ROI interactively using the draw or drawcrosshair function, position the cursor over the image and click the mouse to draw the ROI.

  • The ROI supports the following interactivity, including keyboard shortcuts.

    TaskDescription
    Cancel drawing operation.Press Esc. The function returns a valid ROI object with an empty Position property.
    Move the ROI.Position the cursor over the center of the crosshair ROI (where the two lines cross) and click and drag the crosshair. Another way to move the crosshair ROI is to position the cursor anywhere on one of the two lines and click. The other line in the crosshair jumps to the new crosshair center position.
    Delete the ROI.Position the cursor over the ROI, right-click, and then choose Delete Crosshair from the context menu. You can also delete the ROI programmatically by using the delete function.
  • For information about using an ROI in an app created with App Designer, see Using ROIs in Apps Created with App Designer.

Version History

Introduced in R2019b

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