""" ============ Thresholding ============ Thresholding is used to create a binary image. This example uses Otsu's method to calculate the threshold value. Otsu's method calculates an "optimal" threshold (marked by a red line in the histogram below) by maximizing the variance between two classes of pixels, which are separated by the threshold. Equivalently, this threshold minimizes the intra-class variance. Additionally an adaptive thresholding is applied. Also known as local or dynamic thresholding where the threshold value is the weighted mean for the local neighborhood of a pixel subtracted by a constant. Small filter block sizes are suitable for thresholding edges, large filter block sizes suitable for thresholding larger homogeneous regions. .. [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Otsu's_method """ import matplotlib.pyplot as plt from skimage.data import camera from skimage.filter import threshold_otsu, threshold_adaptive image = camera() #: Otsu thresholding thresh = threshold_otsu(image) otsu_binary = image > thresh plt.figure(figsize=(8, 6)) plt.subplot(2, 3, 1) plt.imshow(image, cmap=plt.cm.gray) plt.title('Original') plt.axis('off') plt.subplot(2, 3, 2, aspect='equal') plt.hist(image) plt.title('Histogram') plt.axvline(thresh, color='r') plt.subplot(2, 3, 3) plt.imshow(otsu_binary, cmap=plt.cm.gray) plt.title('Thresholded with Otsu') plt.axis('off') #: Adaptive thresholding plt.subplot(2, 3, 4) plt.imshow(threshold_adaptive(image, 11, 5, 'gaussian'), cmap=plt.cm.gray) plt.title('Adaptive edge thresholding') plt.axis('off') plt.subplot(2, 3, 5) plt.imshow(threshold_adaptive(image, 125, 7.5, 'gaussian'), cmap=plt.cm.gray) plt.title('Adaptive Gaussian') plt.axis('off') plt.subplot(2, 3, 6) plt.imshow(threshold_adaptive(image, 125, 7.5, 'mean'), cmap=plt.cm.gray) plt.title('Adaptive Mean') plt.axis('off') plt.show()