Filling a region of a grayscale image with a colour corresponding to colorbar

Hi all, I have a task in which I want to draw around certain areas of an image and fill those areas with a semi-transparent colour (so I can see the colour and a bit of the image underneath). I then need the assign each region with a particular colour that corresponds to a colorbar. Any ideas of how to implement this? Image Analyst posted a great Demo for the freehand drawing of a masked colour filled region in the code below. However, in my case I would like to a) have the mask semi-transparent and b) assign the colour to a colorbar and show it. For example if I have a range of numbers from 0 to 50, I would like to represent this on a colourbar and set the filled region to a value of 20 on the colourbar for instance.

Many thanks

Image Analyst Code:

% Demo to have the user freehand draw an irregular shape over a gray scale image.
% Then it creates new image with a specified color inside the drawn shape.

clc;  % Clear command window.
clear;  % Delete all variables.
close all;  % Close all figure windows except those created by imtool.
imtool close all;  % Close all figure windows created by imtool.
workspace;  % Make sure the workspace panel is showing.
fontSize = 16;

% Read in a standard MATLAB gray scale demo image.
folder = fullfile(matlabroot, '\toolbox\images\imdemos');
baseFileName = 'cameraman.tif';
% Get the full filename, with path prepended.
fullFileName = fullfile(folder, baseFileName);
% Check if file exists.
if ~exist(fullFileName, 'file')
  % File doesn't exist -- 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 in the search path folders.', fullFileName);
    uiwait(warndlg(errorMessage));
    return;
  end
end
grayImage = imread(fullFileName);
[rows, columns, numberOfColorChannels] = size(grayImage);
imshow(grayImage, []);
axis on;
title('Original Grayscale Image', 'FontSize', fontSize);
set(gcf, 'Position', get(0,'Screensize')); % Maximize figure.
message = sprintf('Left click and hold to begin drawing.\nSimply lift the mouse button to finish');
uiwait(msgbox(message));
hFH = imfreehand();
% Create a binary image ("mask") from the ROI object.
binaryImage = hFH.createMask();
xy = hFH.getPosition;

% Now make it smaller so we can show more images.
subplot(2, 2, 1);
imshow(grayImage, []);
axis on;
drawnow;
title('Original Grayscale Image', 'FontSize', fontSize);

% Display the freehand mask.
subplot(2, 2, 2);
imshow(binaryImage);
axis on;
title('Binary mask of the region', 'FontSize', fontSize);

% If it's grayscale, convert to color
if numberOfColorChannels < 3
  rgbImage = cat(3, grayImage, grayImage, grayImage);
else
  % It's really an RGB image already.
  rgbImage = grayImage;
end
% Extract the individual red, green, and blue color channels.
redChannel = rgbImage(:, :, 1);
greenChannel = rgbImage(:, :, 2);
blueChannel = rgbImage(:, :, 3);

% Specify the color we want to make this area.
desiredColor = [146, 40, 146]; % Purple
% Make the red channel that color
redChannel(binaryImage) = desiredColor(1);
greenChannel(binaryImage) = desiredColor(2);
blueChannel(binaryImage) = desiredColor(3);
% Recombine separate color channels into a single, true color RGB image.
rgbImage = cat(3, redChannel, greenChannel, blueChannel);
% Display the image.
subplot(2, 2, 3);
imshow(rgbImage);
title('Image with color inside the mask region', 'FontSize', fontSize);

Resulting image:

Answer 1

[yanqi liu]

yes，sir，use Image Analyst method，can get

% Demo to have the user freehand draw an irregular shape over a gray scale image.
% Then it creates new image with a specified color inside the drawn shape.

clc;  % Clear command window.
clear;  % Delete all variables.
close all;  % Close all figure windows except those created by imtool.
imtool close all;  % Close all figure windows created by imtool.
map = colormap(jet(256));

workspace;  % Make sure the workspace panel is showing.
fontSize = 16;

% Read in a standard MATLAB gray scale demo image.
folder = fullfile(matlabroot, '\toolbox\images\imdemos');
baseFileName = 'cameraman.tif';
% Get the full filename, with path prepended.
fullFileName = fullfile(folder, baseFileName);
% Check if file exists.
if ~exist(fullFileName, 'file')
    % File doesn't exist -- 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 in the search path folders.', fullFileName);
        uiwait(warndlg(errorMessage));
        return;
    end
end
grayImage = imread(fullFileName);
[rows, columns, numberOfColorChannels] = size(grayImage);
imshow(grayImage, []);
axis on;
title('Original Grayscale Image', 'FontSize', fontSize);
set(gcf, 'Position', get(0,'Screensize')); % Maximize figure.
message = sprintf('Left click and hold to begin drawing.\nSimply lift the mouse button to finish');
uiwait(msgbox(message));
hFH = imfreehand();
% Create a binary image ("mask") from the ROI object.
binaryImage = hFH.createMask();
xy = hFH.getPosition;

% Now make it smaller so we can show more images.
subplot(2, 2, 1);
imshow(grayImage, []);
axis on;
drawnow;
title('Original Grayscale Image', 'FontSize', fontSize);

% Display the freehand mask.
subplot(2, 2, 2);
imshow(binaryImage);
axis on;
title('Binary mask of the region', 'FontSize', fontSize);

% If it's grayscale, convert to color
if numberOfColorChannels < 3
    rgbImage = cat(3, grayImage, grayImage, grayImage);
else
    % It's really an RGB image already.
    rgbImage = grayImage;
end
% Extract the individual red, green, and blue color channels.
redChannel = rgbImage(:, :, 1);
greenChannel = rgbImage(:, :, 2);
blueChannel = rgbImage(:, :, 3);

% Specify the color we want to make this area.
%desiredColor = [146, 40, 146]; % Purple
target=grayImage(binaryImage);
index = round(mean(double(target)));
desiredColor = round(255*map(index,:));
% Make the red channel that color
redChannel(binaryImage) = desiredColor(1);
greenChannel(binaryImage) = desiredColor(2);
blueChannel(binaryImage) = desiredColor(3);
% Recombine separate color channels into a single, true color RGB image.
rgbImage = cat(3, redChannel, greenChannel, blueChannel);
% Display the image.
subplot(2, 2, 3);
imshow(rgbImage);
title('Image with color inside the mask region', 'FontSize', fontSize);
colorbar

[Manny Kins]

Many thanks for your response and help yanqi liu, this is very helpful! Is there any way to make the coloured fill semi transparent? In my case I would like to see what is also underneath the filled region, is there a way to control the transparency?

[yanqi liu]

yes，sir，may be use

% Demo to have the user freehand draw an irregular shape over a gray scale image.
% Then it creates new image with a specified color inside the drawn shape.

clc;  % Clear command window.
clear;  % Delete all variables.
close all;  % Close all figure windows except those created by imtool.
imtool close all;  % Close all figure windows created by imtool.
map = colormap(jet(256));

workspace;  % Make sure the workspace panel is showing.
fontSize = 16;

% Read in a standard MATLAB gray scale demo image.
folder = fullfile(matlabroot, '\toolbox\images\imdemos');
baseFileName = 'cameraman.tif';
% Get the full filename, with path prepended.
fullFileName = fullfile(folder, baseFileName);
% Check if file exists.
if ~exist(fullFileName, 'file')
    % File doesn't exist -- 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 in the search path folders.', fullFileName);
        uiwait(warndlg(errorMessage));
        return;
    end
end
grayImage = imread(fullFileName);
[rows, columns, numberOfColorChannels] = size(grayImage);
imshow(grayImage, []);
axis on;
title('Original Grayscale Image', 'FontSize', fontSize);
set(gcf, 'Position', get(0,'Screensize')); % Maximize figure.
message = sprintf('Left click and hold to begin drawing.\nSimply lift the mouse button to finish');
uiwait(msgbox(message));
hFH = imfreehand();
% Create a binary image ("mask") from the ROI object.
binaryImage = hFH.createMask();
xy = hFH.getPosition;

% Now make it smaller so we can show more images.
subplot(2, 2, 1);
imshow(grayImage, []);
axis on;
drawnow;
title('Original Grayscale Image', 'FontSize', fontSize);
origin_image = grayImage;

% Display the freehand mask.
subplot(2, 2, 2);
imshow(binaryImage);
axis on;
title('Binary mask of the region', 'FontSize', fontSize);

% If it's grayscale, convert to color
if numberOfColorChannels < 3
    rgbImage = cat(3, grayImage, grayImage, grayImage);
else
    % It's really an RGB image already.
    rgbImage = grayImage;
end
% Extract the individual red, green, and blue color channels.
redChannel = rgbImage(:, :, 1);
greenChannel = rgbImage(:, :, 2);
blueChannel = rgbImage(:, :, 3);

% Specify the color we want to make this area.
%desiredColor = [146, 40, 146]; % Purple
target=grayImage(binaryImage);
index = round(mean(double(target)));
desiredColor = round(255*map(index,:));
% Make the red channel that color
redChannel(binaryImage) = desiredColor(1);
greenChannel(binaryImage) = desiredColor(2);
blueChannel(binaryImage) = desiredColor(3);
% Recombine separate color channels into a single, true color RGB image.
rgbImage = cat(3, redChannel, greenChannel, blueChannel);
% Display the image.
subplot(2, 2, 3);
imshow(rgbImage);
title('Image with color inside the mask region', 'FontSize', fontSize);
colorbar
subplot(2, 2, 4);
imshow(origin_image, []); hold on;
h = imshow(rgbImage);
set(h, 'AlphaData', 0.3);
title('Image with color inside the mask region', 'FontSize', fontSize);