Automatic generation of multiple X vs. hh:mm:ss data from an image containing multiple plot

Hello everyone,

I have an image that contains X positions (in meters) for multiple cars (on the y-axis) vs. the time (in hh:mm:ss format) (on the x-axis). It looks sth. like this:

I would like to generate all the data for all files in a automatized way. Unfortunately the only tool I found is GRABIT but I have to put all the points manually which is hedious if I am having many cars. So if anyone have any recommendation how to do it faster it would really help alot. Thanks.

Edit: I found two more tools scan2data & digitize07 in the add-ons. But they also do the same thing as Grabit.

[Stephen23]

"I fount two more tools"

Using the tags makes it easy to find lots of similar tools:

https://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/fileexchange/?term=tag:digitize

[mgf_04]

Thank you, I believe I found similar tools but I had to try each one of them to see which one is better. So I decided to use https://automeris.io/WebPlotDigitizer/ instead, because is very easy especially for alot of graphs. But I had to convert the hh:mm:ss to seconds using https://www.inchcalculator.com/seconds-to-time-calculator/ then to reconvert them again to hh:mm:ss after I got the points.

Answer 1

[DGM]

This probably doesn't matter anymore if you've already done what you need, but it's what I prefer:

https://www.mathworks.com/matlabcentral/answers/1929130-searching-for-a-line-of-pixels-in-an-image

I haven't found any transcription tools that I find to be comfortable or convenient. There's often some little issue that makes them either inapplicable or terribly cumbersome. If they're using default view controls in MATLAB, then "terribly cumbersome" is terribly common.

The given link is an example using manual spline fitting and an alternative demonstration of how it could be done using image processing. Included is a discussion of the weaknesses of using image processing methods, as well as some of the particular shortcomings of GRABIT and other tools. Make of that what you will.

I sure hope you had more than that tiny image to work with.