We Keep Coding

What is the range of improved Perlin noise?

I'm trying to find the theoretical output range of improved Perlin noise for 1, 2 and 3 dimensions. I'm aware of existing answers to this question, but they don't seem to accord with my practical findings.
If n is the number of dimensions then according to [1] it should be [-sqrt(n/4), sqrt(n/4)]. According to [2] (which refers to [3]) it should be [-0.5·sqrt(n), 0.5·sqrt(n)] (which amounts to the same thing).
This means that the ranges should be approximately:
Dimensions
Range
1
[-0.5, 0.5]
2
[-0.707, 0.707]
3
[-0.866, 0.866]
However when I run the following code (which uses Ken Perlin's own reference implementation of improved noise from his website), I get higher values for 2 and 3 dimensions, namely approximately:
Dimensions
Range
1
[-0.5, 0.5]
2
[-0.891, 0.999]
3
[-0.997, 0.999]
With different permutations I even sometimes get values slightly over 1.0 for 3 dimensions, and for some strange reason one of the bounds for two dimension always seems to be about 0.89 while the other is about 1.00.
I can't figure out whether this is due to a bug in my code (I don't see how since this is Ken Perlin's own code) or due to those discussions not being correct or not being applicable somehow, in which case I would like to know what the theoretical ranges are for improved Perlin noise.
Can you replicate this? Are the results wrong, or can you point me to a discussion of the theoretical values that accords with this outcome?
The code:
public class PerlinTest {
public static void main(String[] args) {
double lowest1DValue = Double.MAX_VALUE, highest1DValue = -Double.MAX_VALUE;
double lowest2DValue = Double.MAX_VALUE, highest2DValue = -Double.MAX_VALUE;
double lowest3DValue = Double.MAX_VALUE, highest3DValue = -Double.MAX_VALUE;
final Random random = new SecureRandom();
for (int i = 0; i < 10000000; i++) {
double value = noise(random.nextDouble() * 256.0, 0.0, 0.0);
if (value < lowest1DValue) {
lowest1DValue = value;
}
if (value > highest1DValue) {
highest1DValue = value;
}
value = noise(random.nextDouble() * 256.0, random.nextDouble() * 256.0, 0.0);
if (value < lowest2DValue) {
lowest2DValue = value;
}
if (value > highest2DValue) {
highest2DValue = value;
}
value = noise(random.nextDouble() * 256.0, random.nextDouble() * 256.0, random.nextDouble() * 256.0);
if (value < lowest3DValue) {
lowest3DValue = value;
}
if (value > highest3DValue) {
highest3DValue = value;
}
}
System.out.println("Lowest 1D value: " + lowest1DValue);
System.out.println("Highest 1D value: " + highest1DValue);
System.out.println("Lowest 2D value: " + lowest2DValue);
System.out.println("Highest 2D value: " + highest2DValue);
System.out.println("Lowest 3D value: " + lowest3DValue);
System.out.println("Highest 3D value: " + highest3DValue);
}
static public double noise(double x, double y, double z) {
int X = (int)Math.floor(x) & 255, // FIND UNIT CUBE THAT
Y = (int)Math.floor(y) & 255, // CONTAINS POINT.
Z = (int)Math.floor(z) & 255;
x -= Math.floor(x); // FIND RELATIVE X,Y,Z
y -= Math.floor(y); // OF POINT IN CUBE.
z -= Math.floor(z);
double u = fade(x), // COMPUTE FADE CURVES
v = fade(y), // FOR EACH OF X,Y,Z.
w = fade(z);
int A = p[X ]+Y, AA = p[A]+Z, AB = p[A+1]+Z, // HASH COORDINATES OF
B = p[X+1]+Y, BA = p[B]+Z, BB = p[B+1]+Z; // THE 8 CUBE CORNERS,
return lerp(w, lerp(v, lerp(u, grad(p[AA ], x , y , z ), // AND ADD
grad(p[BA ], x-1, y , z )), // BLENDED
lerp(u, grad(p[AB ], x , y-1, z ), // RESULTS
grad(p[BB ], x-1, y-1, z ))),// FROM 8
lerp(v, lerp(u, grad(p[AA+1], x , y , z-1 ), // CORNERS
grad(p[BA+1], x-1, y , z-1 )), // OF CUBE
lerp(u, grad(p[AB+1], x , y-1, z-1 ),
grad(p[BB+1], x-1, y-1, z-1 ))));
}
static double fade(double t) { return t * t * t * (t * (t * 6 - 15) + 10); }
static double lerp(double t, double a, double b) { return a + t * (b - a); }
static double grad(int hash, double x, double y, double z) {
int h = hash & 15; // CONVERT LO 4 BITS OF HASH CODE
double u = h<8 ? x : y, // INTO 12 GRADIENT DIRECTIONS.
v = h<4 ? y : h==12||h==14 ? x : z;
return ((h&1) == 0 ? u : -u) + ((h&2) == 0 ? v : -v);
}
static final int p[] = new int[512], permutation[] = { 151,160,137,91,90,15,
131,13,201,95,96,53,194,233,7,225,140,36,103,30,69,142,8,99,37,240,21,10,23,
190, 6,148,247,120,234,75,0,26,197,62,94,252,219,203,117,35,11,32,57,177,33,
88,237,149,56,87,174,20,125,136,171,168, 68,175,74,165,71,134,139,48,27,166,
77,146,158,231,83,111,229,122,60,211,133,230,220,105,92,41,55,46,245,40,244,
102,143,54, 65,25,63,161, 1,216,80,73,209,76,132,187,208, 89,18,169,200,196,
135,130,116,188,159,86,164,100,109,198,173,186, 3,64,52,217,226,250,124,123,
5,202,38,147,118,126,255,82,85,212,207,206,59,227,47,16,58,17,182,189,28,42,
223,183,170,213,119,248,152, 2,44,154,163, 70,221,153,101,155,167, 43,172,9,
129,22,39,253, 19,98,108,110,79,113,224,232,178,185, 112,104,218,246,97,228,
251,34,242,193,238,210,144,12,191,179,162,241, 81,51,145,235,249,14,239,107,
49,192,214, 31,181,199,106,157,184, 84,204,176,115,121,50,45,127, 4,150,254,
138,236,205,93,222,114,67,29,24,72,243,141,128,195,78,66,215,61,156,180
};
static { for (int i=0; i < 256 ; i++) p[256+i] = p[i] = permutation[i]; }
}

Ken’s not using unit vectors. As [1] says, with my emphasis:
Third, there are many different ways to select the random vectors at the grid cell corners. In Improved Perlin noise, instead of selecting any random vector, one of 12 vectors pointing to the edges of a cube are used instead. Here, I will talk strictly about a continuous range of angles since it is easier – however, the range of value of an implementation of Perlin noise using a restricted set of vectors will never be larger. Finally, the script in this repository assumes the vectors are of unit length. If they not, the range of value should be scaled according to the maximum vector length. Note that the vectors in Improved Perlin noise are not unit length.
For Ken’s improved noise, the maximum vector length is 1 in 1D and √2 in 2D, so the theoretical bounds are [−0.5, 0.5] in 1D and [−1, 1] in 2D. I don’t know why you’re not seeing the full range in 2D; if you shuffled the permutation I bet you would sometimes.
For 3D, the maximum vector length is still √2, but the extreme case identified by [1] isn’t a possible output, so the theoretical range of [−√(3/2), √(3/2)] is an overestimate. These folks tried to work it out exactly, and yes, the maximum absolute value does seem to be strictly greater than 1.

Find first red pixel and crop picture

I want to find with OpenCV first red pixel and cut rest of picture on right of it.
For this moment I wrote this code, but it work very slow:
int firstRedPixel = mat.Cols();
int len = 0;
for (int x = 0; x < mat.Rows(); x++)
{
for (int y = 0; y < mat.Cols(); y++)
{
double[] rgb = mat.Get(x, y);
double r = rgb[0];
double g = rgb[1];
double b = rgb[2];
if ((r > 175) && (r > 2 * g) && (r > 2 * b))
{
if (len == 3)
{
firstRedPixel = y - len;
break;
}
len++;
}
else
{
len = 0;
}
}
}
Any solutions?

You can:
1) find red pixels (see here)
2) get the bounding box of red pixels
3) crop your image
The code is in C++, but it's only OpenCV functions so it should not be difficult to port to Java:
#include <opencv2\opencv.hpp>
int main()
{
cv::Mat3b img = cv::imread("path/to/img");
// Find red pixels
// https://stackoverflow.com/a/32523532/5008845
cv::Mat3b bgr_inv = ~img;
cv::Mat3b hsv_inv;
cv::cvtColor(bgr_inv, hsv_inv, cv::COLOR_BGR2HSV);
cv::Mat1b red_mask;
inRange(hsv_inv, cv::Scalar(90 - 10, 70, 50), cv::Scalar(90 + 10, 255, 255), red_mask); // Cyan is 90
// Get the rect
std::vector<cv::Point> red_points;
cv::findNonZero(red_mask, red_points);
cv::Rect red_area = cv::boundingRect(red_points);
// Show green rectangle on red area
cv::Mat3b out = img.clone();
cv::rectangle(out, red_area, cv::Scalar(0, 255, 0));
// Define the non red area
cv::Rect not_red_area;
not_red_area.x = 0;
not_red_area.y = 0;
not_red_area.width = red_area.x - 1;
not_red_area.height = img.rows;
// Crop away red area
cv::Mat3b result = img(not_red_area);
return 0;
}

This is not the way to work with computer vision. I know this, because I did it the same way.
One way to achieve your goal would be to use template matching with a red bar that you cut out of your image, and thus locate the red border, and cut it away.
Another would be to transfer to HSV space, filter out red content, and use contour finding to locate a large red structure, as you need it.
There are plenty of ways to do this. Looping yourself over pixel-values rarely is the right approach though, and you won't take advantage of sophisticated vectorisation or algorithms that way.

image.getRaster().getDataBuffer() returns array of negative values

This answer suggests that it's over 10 times faster to loop pixel array instead of using BufferedImage.getRGB. Such difference is too important to by ignored in my computer vision program. For that reason, O rewritten my IntegralImage method to calculate integral image using the pixel array:
/* Generate an integral image. Every pixel on such image contains sum of colors or all the
pixels before and itself.
*/
public static double[][][] integralImage(BufferedImage image) {
//Cache width and height in variables
int w = image.getWidth();
int h = image.getHeight();
//Create the 2D array as large as the image is
//Notice that I use [Y, X] coordinates to comply with the formula
double integral_image[][][] = new double[h][w][3];
//Variables for the image pixel array looping
final int[] pixels = ((DataBufferInt) image.getRaster().getDataBuffer()).getData();
//final byte[] pixels = ((DataBufferByte) image.getRaster().getDataBuffer()).getData();
//If the image has alpha, there will be 4 elements per pixel
final boolean hasAlpha = image.getAlphaRaster() != null;
final int pixel_size = hasAlpha?4:3;
//If there's alpha it's the first of 4 values, so we skip it
final int pixel_offset = hasAlpha?1:0;
//Coordinates, will be iterated too
//It's faster than calculating them using % and multiplication
int x=0;
int y=0;
int pixel = 0;
//Tmp storage for color
int[] color = new int[3];
//Loop through pixel array
for(int i=0, l=pixels.length; i<l; i+=pixel_size) {
//Prepare all the colors in advance
color[2] = ((int) pixels[pixel + pixel_offset] & 0xff); // blue;
color[1] = ((int) pixels[pixel + pixel_offset + 1] & 0xff); // green;
color[0] = ((int) pixels[pixel + pixel_offset + 2] & 0xff); // red;
//For every color, calculate the integrals
for(int j=0; j<3; j++) {
//Calculate the integral image field
double A = (x > 0 && y > 0) ? integral_image[y-1][x-1][j] : 0;
double B = (x > 0) ? integral_image[y][x-1][j] : 0;
double C = (y > 0) ? integral_image[y-1][x][j] : 0;
integral_image[y][x][j] = - A + B + C + color[j];
}
//Iterate coordinates
x++;
if(x>=w) {
x=0;
y++;
}
}
//Return the array
return integral_image;
}
The problem is that if I use this debug output in the for loop:
if(x==0) {
System.out.println("rgb["+pixels[pixel+pixel_offset+2]+", "+pixels[pixel+pixel_offset+1]+", "+pixels[pixel+pixel_offset]+"]");
System.out.println("rgb["+color[0]+", "+color[1]+", "+color[2]+"]");
}
This is what I get:
rgb[0, 0, 0]
rgb[-16777216, -16777216, -16777216]
rgb[0, 0, 0]
rgb[-16777216, -16777216, -16777216]
rgb[0, 0, 0]
rgb[-16777216, -16777216, -16777216]
rgb[0, 0, 0]
rgb[-16777216, -16777216, -16777216]
rgb[0, 0, 0]
rgb[-16777216, -16777216, -16777216]
rgb[0, 0, 0]
rgb[-16777216, -16777216, -16777216]
rgb[0, 0, 0]
rgb[-16777216, -16777216, -16777216]
rgb[0, 0, 0]
...
So how should I properly retrieve pixel array for BufferedImage images?

A bug in the code above, that is easily missed, is that the for loop doesn't loop as you'd expect. The for loop updates i, while the loop body uses pixel for its array indexing. Thus, you will only ever see the values of pixel 1, 2 and 3.
Apart from that:
The "problem" with the negative pixel values, is most likely that the code assumes a BufferedImage that stores its pixels in "pixel interleaved" form, however, they are stored "pixel packed". That is, all samples (R, G, B and A) for one pixel is stored in a single sample, an int. This will be the case for all BufferedImage.TYPE_INT_* types (while the BufferedImage.TYPE_nBYTE_* types are stored interleaved).
It's completely normal to have negative values in the raster, this will happen for any pixel that is less than 50% transparent (more than or equal to 50% opaque), because of how the 4 samples are packed into the int, and because int is a signed type in Java.
In this case, use:
int[] color = new int[3];
for (int i = 0; i < pixels.length; i++) {
// Assuming TYPE_INT_RGB, TYPE_INT_ARGB or TYPE_INT_ARGB_PRE
// For TYPE_INT_BGR, you need to reverse the colors.
// You seem to ignore alpha, is that correct?
color[0] = ((pixels[i] >> 16) & 0xff); // red;
color[1] = ((pixels[i] >> 8) & 0xff); // green;
color[2] = ( pixels[i] & 0xff); // blue;
// The rest of the computations...
}
Another possibility, is that you have created a custom type image (BufferedImage.TYPE_CUSTOM) that really uses a 32 bit unsigned int per sample. This is possible, however, int is still a signed entity in Java, so you need to mask off the sign bit. To complicate this a little, in Java -1 & 0xFFFFFFFF == -1 because any computation on an int will still be an int, unless you explicitly say otherwise (doing the same on a byte or short value would have "scaled up" to int). To get a positive value, you need to use a long value like this: -1 & 0xFFFFFFFFL (which is 4294967295).
In this case, use:
long[] color = new long[3];
for(int i = 0; i < pixels.length / pixel_size; i += pixel_size) {
// Somehow assuming BGR order in input, and RGB output (color)
// Still ignoring alpha
color[0] = (pixels[i + pixel_offset + 2] & 0xFFFFFFFFL); // red;
color[1] = (pixels[i + pixel_offset + 1] & 0xFFFFFFFFL); // green;
color[2] = (pixels[i + pixel_offset ] & 0xFFFFFFFFL); // blue;
// The rest of the computations...
}
I don't know what type of image you have, so I can't say for sure which one is the problem, but it's one of those. :-)
PS: BufferedImage.getAlphaRaster() is a possibly an expensive and also inaccurate way to tell if the image has alpha. It's better to just use image.getColorModel().hasAlpha(). See also hasAlpha vs getAlphaRaster.

Color quantization with N out of M predefined colors

I am having a slightly odd problem trying to quantize and dither an RGB image. Ideally, I should be able to implement a suitable algorithm in Java or use a Java library, but references to implementations in other languages may be helpful as well.
The following is given as input:
image: 24-bit RGB bitmap
palette: a list of colors defined with their RGB values
max_cols: the maximum number of colours to be used in the output image
It is perhaps important, that both the size of the palette as well as the maximum number of allowed colours is not necessarily a power of 2 and may be greater than 255.
So, the goal is to take the image, select up to max_cols colours from the provided palette and output an image using only the picked colours and rendered using some kind of error-diffusion dithering. Which dithering algorithm to use is not that important, but it should be an error-diffusion variant (e.g. Floyd-Steinberg) and not simple halftone or ordered dithering.
Performance is not particularly important and the size of the expected data input is relatively small. The images would rarely be larger than 500x500 pixel, the provided palette may contain some 3-400 colours and the number of colours will usually be limited to less than 100. It is also safe to assume that the palette contains a wide selection of colours, covering variations of both hue, saturation and brightness.
The palette selection and dithering used by scolorq would be ideal, but it does not seem easy to adapt the algorithm to select colours from an already defined palette instead of arbitrary colours.
To be more precise, the problem where I am stuck is the selection of suitable colours from the provided palette. Assume that I e.g. use scolorq to create a palette with N colours and later replace the colours defined by scolorq with the closest colours from the provided palette, and then use these colours combined with error-diffused dithering. This will produce a result at least similar to the input image, but due to the unpredictable hues of the selected colours, the output image may get a strong, undesired colour cast. E.g. when using a grey-scale input image and a palette with only few neutral gray tones, but a great range of brown tones (or more generally, many colours with the same hue, low saturation and a great variation in the brightness), my colour selection algorithm seem to prefer these colours above the neutral greys since the brown tones are at least mathematically closer to the desired colour than the greys. The same problem remains even if I convert the RGB values to HSB and use different weights for the H, S and B channels when trying to find the nearest available colour.
Any suggestions how to implement this properly, or even better a library I can use to perform the task?
Since Xabster asked, I can also explain the goal with this excercise, although it has nothing to do with how the actual problem can be solved. The target for the output image is an embroidery or tapestry pattern. In the most simplest case, each pixel in the output image corresponds to a stitch made on some kind of carrier fabric. The palette corresponds to the available yarns, which usually come in several hundred colours. For practical reasons, it is however necessary to limit the number of colours used in the actual work. Googling for gobelin embroideries will give several examples.
And to clarify where the problem exactly lies... The solution can indeed be split into two separate steps:
selecting the optimal subset of the original palette
using the subset to render the output image
Here, the first step is the actual problem. If the palette selection works properly, I could simply use the selected colours and e.g. Floyd-Steinberg dithering to produce a reasonable result (which is rather trivial to implement).
If I understand the implementation of scolorq correctly, scolorq however combines these two steps, using knowledge of the dithering algorithm in the palette selection to create an even better result. That would of course be a preferred solution, but the algorithms used in scolorq work slightly beyond my mathematical knowledge.

OVERVIEW
This is a possible approach to the problem:
1) Each color from the input pixels is mapped to the closest color from the input color palette.
2) If the resulting palette is greater than the allowed maximum number of colors, the palette gets reduced to the maximum allowed number, by removing the colors, that are most similar with each other from the computed palette (I did choose the nearest distance for removal, so the resulting image remains high in contrast).
3) If the resulting palette is smaller than the allowed maximum number of colors, it gets filled with the most similar colors from the remaining colors of the input palette until the allowed number of colors is reached. This is done in the hope, that the dithering algorithm could make use of these colors during dithering. Note though that I didn't see much difference between filling or not filling the palette for the Floyd-Steinberg algorithm...
4) As a last step the input pixels get dithered with the computed palette.
IMPLEMENTATION
Below is an implementation of this approach.
If you want to run the source code, you will need this class: ImageFrame.java. You can set the input image as the only program argument, all other parameters must be set in the main method. The used Floyd-Steinberg algorithm is from Floyd-Steinberg dithering.
One can choose between 3 different reduction strategies for the palette reduction algorithm:
1) ORIGINAL_COLORS: This algorithm tries to stay as true to the input pixel colors as possible by searching for the two colors in the palette, that have the least distance. From these two colors it removes the one with the fewest mappings to pixels in the input map.
2) BETTER_CONTRAST: Works like ORIGINAL_COLORS, with the difference, that from the two colors it removes the one with the lowest average distance to the rest of the palette.
3) AVERAGE_DISTANCE: This algorithm always removes the colors with the lowest average distance from the pool. This setting can especially improve the quality of the resulting image for grayscale palettes.
Here is the complete code:
import java.awt.Color;
import java.awt.Image;
import java.awt.image.PixelGrabber;
import java.io.File;
import java.io.IOException;
import java.util.ArrayList;
import java.util.HashMap;
import java.util.HashSet;
import java.util.List;
import java.util.Map;
import java.util.Random;
import java.util.Set;
public class Quantize {
public static class RGBTriple {
public final int[] channels;
public RGBTriple() { channels = new int[3]; }
public RGBTriple(int color) {
int r = (color >> 16) & 0xFF;
int g = (color >> 8) & 0xFF;
int b = (color >> 0) & 0xFF;
channels = new int[]{(int)r, (int)g, (int)b};
}
public RGBTriple(int R, int G, int B)
{ channels = new int[]{(int)R, (int)G, (int)B}; }
}
/* The authors of this work have released all rights to it and placed it
in the public domain under the Creative Commons CC0 1.0 waiver
(http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/).
THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND,
EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF
MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT.
IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY
CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT,
TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE
SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.
Retrieved from: http://en.literateprograms.org/Floyd-Steinberg_dithering_(Java)?oldid=12476
*/
public static class FloydSteinbergDither
{
private static int plus_truncate_uchar(int a, int b) {
if ((a & 0xff) + b < 0)
return 0;
else if ((a & 0xff) + b > 255)
return (int)255;
else
return (int)(a + b);
}
private static int findNearestColor(RGBTriple color, RGBTriple[] palette) {
int minDistanceSquared = 255*255 + 255*255 + 255*255 + 1;
int bestIndex = 0;
for (int i = 0; i < palette.length; i++) {
int Rdiff = (color.channels[0] & 0xff) - (palette[i].channels[0] & 0xff);
int Gdiff = (color.channels[1] & 0xff) - (palette[i].channels[1] & 0xff);
int Bdiff = (color.channels[2] & 0xff) - (palette[i].channels[2] & 0xff);
int distanceSquared = Rdiff*Rdiff + Gdiff*Gdiff + Bdiff*Bdiff;
if (distanceSquared < minDistanceSquared) {
minDistanceSquared = distanceSquared;
bestIndex = i;
}
}
return bestIndex;
}
public static int[][] floydSteinbergDither(RGBTriple[][] image, RGBTriple[] palette)
{
int[][] result = new int[image.length][image[0].length];
for (int y = 0; y < image.length; y++) {
for (int x = 0; x < image[y].length; x++) {
RGBTriple currentPixel = image[y][x];
int index = findNearestColor(currentPixel, palette);
result[y][x] = index;
for (int i = 0; i < 3; i++)
{
int error = (currentPixel.channels[i] & 0xff) - (palette[index].channels[i] & 0xff);
if (x + 1 < image[0].length) {
image[y+0][x+1].channels[i] =
plus_truncate_uchar(image[y+0][x+1].channels[i], (error*7) >> 4);
}
if (y + 1 < image.length) {
if (x - 1 > 0) {
image[y+1][x-1].channels[i] =
plus_truncate_uchar(image[y+1][x-1].channels[i], (error*3) >> 4);
}
image[y+1][x+0].channels[i] =
plus_truncate_uchar(image[y+1][x+0].channels[i], (error*5) >> 4);
if (x + 1 < image[0].length) {
image[y+1][x+1].channels[i] =
plus_truncate_uchar(image[y+1][x+1].channels[i], (error*1) >> 4);
}
}
}
}
}
return result;
}
public static void generateDither(int[] pixels, int[] p, int w, int h){
RGBTriple[] palette = new RGBTriple[p.length];
for (int i = 0; i < palette.length; i++) {
int color = p[i];
palette[i] = new RGBTriple(color);
}
RGBTriple[][] image = new RGBTriple[w][h];
for (int x = w; x-- > 0; ) {
for (int y = h; y-- > 0; ) {
int index = y * w + x;
int color = pixels[index];
image[x][y] = new RGBTriple(color);
}
}
int[][] result = floydSteinbergDither(image, palette);
convert(result, pixels, p, w, h);
}
public static void convert(int[][] result, int[] pixels, int[] p, int w, int h){
for (int x = w; x-- > 0; ) {
for (int y = h; y-- > 0; ) {
int index = y * w + x;
int index2 = result[x][y];
pixels[index] = p[index2];
}
}
}
}
private static class PaletteColor{
final int color;
public PaletteColor(int color) {
super();
this.color = color;
}
#Override
public int hashCode() {
final int prime = 31;
int result = 1;
result = prime * result + color;
return result;
}
#Override
public boolean equals(Object obj) {
if (this == obj)
return true;
if (obj == null)
return false;
if (getClass() != obj.getClass())
return false;
PaletteColor other = (PaletteColor) obj;
if (color != other.color)
return false;
return true;
}
public List<Integer> indices = new ArrayList<>();
}
public static int[] getPixels(Image image) throws IOException {
int w = image.getWidth(null);
int h = image.getHeight(null);
int pix[] = new int[w * h];
PixelGrabber grabber = new PixelGrabber(image, 0, 0, w, h, pix, 0, w);
try {
if (grabber.grabPixels() != true) {
throw new IOException("Grabber returned false: " +
grabber.status());
}
} catch (InterruptedException e) {
e.printStackTrace();
}
return pix;
}
/**
* Returns the color distance between color1 and color2
*/
public static float getPixelDistance(PaletteColor color1, PaletteColor color2){
int c1 = color1.color;
int r1 = (c1 >> 16) & 0xFF;
int g1 = (c1 >> 8) & 0xFF;
int b1 = (c1 >> 0) & 0xFF;
int c2 = color2.color;
int r2 = (c2 >> 16) & 0xFF;
int g2 = (c2 >> 8) & 0xFF;
int b2 = (c2 >> 0) & 0xFF;
return (float) getPixelDistance(r1, g1, b1, r2, g2, b2);
}
public static double getPixelDistance(int r1, int g1, int b1, int r2, int g2, int b2){
return Math.sqrt(Math.pow(r2 - r1, 2) + Math.pow(g2 - g1, 2) + Math.pow(b2 - b1, 2));
}
/**
* Fills the given fillColors palette with the nearest colors from the given colors palette until
* it has the given max_cols size.
*/
public static void fillPalette(List<PaletteColor> fillColors, List<PaletteColor> colors, int max_cols){
while (fillColors.size() < max_cols) {
int index = -1;
float minDistance = -1;
for (int i = 0; i < fillColors.size(); i++) {
PaletteColor color1 = colors.get(i);
for (int j = 0; j < colors.size(); j++) {
PaletteColor color2 = colors.get(j);
if (color1 == color2) {
continue;
}
float distance = getPixelDistance(color1, color2);
if (index == -1 || distance < minDistance) {
index = j;
minDistance = distance;
}
}
}
PaletteColor color = colors.get(index);
fillColors.add(color);
}
}
public static void reducePaletteByAverageDistance(List<PaletteColor> colors, int max_cols, ReductionStrategy reductionStrategy){
while (colors.size() > max_cols) {
int index = -1;
float minDistance = -1;
for (int i = 0; i < colors.size(); i++) {
PaletteColor color1 = colors.get(i);
float averageDistance = 0;
int count = 0;
for (int j = 0; j < colors.size(); j++) {
PaletteColor color2 = colors.get(j);
if (color1 == color2) {
continue;
}
averageDistance += getPixelDistance(color1, color2);
count++;
}
averageDistance/=count;
if (minDistance == -1 || averageDistance < minDistance) {
minDistance = averageDistance;
index = i;
}
}
PaletteColor removed = colors.remove(index);
// find the color with the least distance:
PaletteColor best = null;
minDistance = -1;
for (int i = 0; i < colors.size(); i++) {
PaletteColor c = colors.get(i);
float distance = getPixelDistance(c, removed);
if (best == null || distance < minDistance) {
best = c;
minDistance = distance;
}
}
best.indices.addAll(removed.indices);
}
}
/**
* Reduces the given color palette until it has the given max_cols size.
* The colors that are closest in distance to other colors in the palette
* get removed first.
*/
public static void reducePalette(List<PaletteColor> colors, int max_cols, ReductionStrategy reductionStrategy){
if (reductionStrategy == ReductionStrategy.AVERAGE_DISTANCE) {
reducePaletteByAverageDistance(colors, max_cols, reductionStrategy);
return;
}
while (colors.size() > max_cols) {
int index1 = -1;
int index2 = -1;
float minDistance = -1;
for (int i = 0; i < colors.size(); i++) {
PaletteColor color1 = colors.get(i);
for (int j = i+1; j < colors.size(); j++) {
PaletteColor color2 = colors.get(j);
if (color1 == color2) {
continue;
}
float distance = getPixelDistance(color1, color2);
if (index1 == -1 || distance < minDistance) {
index1 = i;
index2 = j;
minDistance = distance;
}
}
}
PaletteColor color1 = colors.get(index1);
PaletteColor color2 = colors.get(index2);
switch (reductionStrategy) {
case BETTER_CONTRAST:
// remove the color with the lower average distance to the other palette colors
int count = 0;
float distance1 = 0;
float distance2 = 0;
for (PaletteColor c : colors) {
if (c != color1 && c != color2) {
count++;
distance1 += getPixelDistance(color1, c);
distance2 += getPixelDistance(color2, c);
}
}
if (count != 0 && distance1 != distance2) {
distance1 /= (float)count;
distance2 /= (float)count;
if (distance1 < distance2) {
// remove color 1;
colors.remove(index1);
color2.indices.addAll(color1.indices);
} else{
// remove color 2;
colors.remove(index2);
color1.indices.addAll(color2.indices);
}
break;
}
//$FALL-THROUGH$
default:
// remove the color with viewer mappings to the input pixels
if (color1.indices.size() < color2.indices.size()) {
// remove color 1;
colors.remove(index1);
color2.indices.addAll(color1.indices);
} else{
// remove color 2;
colors.remove(index2);
color1.indices.addAll(color2.indices);
}
break;
}
}
}
/**
* Creates an initial color palette from the given pixels and the given palette by
* selecting the colors with the nearest distance to the given pixels.
* This method also stores the indices of the corresponding pixels inside the
* returned PaletteColor instances.
*/
public static List<PaletteColor> createInitialPalette(int pixels[], int[] palette){
Map<Integer, Integer> used = new HashMap<>();
ArrayList<PaletteColor> result = new ArrayList<>();
for (int i = 0, l = pixels.length; i < l; i++) {
double bestDistance = Double.MAX_VALUE;
int bestIndex = -1;
int pixel = pixels[i];
int r1 = (pixel >> 16) & 0xFF;
int g1 = (pixel >> 8) & 0xFF;
int b1 = (pixel >> 0) & 0xFF;
for (int k = 0; k < palette.length; k++) {
int pixel2 = palette[k];
int r2 = (pixel2 >> 16) & 0xFF;
int g2 = (pixel2 >> 8) & 0xFF;
int b2 = (pixel2 >> 0) & 0xFF;
double dist = getPixelDistance(r1, g1, b1, r2, g2, b2);
if (dist < bestDistance) {
bestDistance = dist;
bestIndex = k;
}
}
Integer index = used.get(bestIndex);
PaletteColor c;
if (index == null) {
index = result.size();
c = new PaletteColor(palette[bestIndex]);
result.add(c);
used.put(bestIndex, index);
} else{
c = result.get(index);
}
c.indices.add(i);
}
return result;
}
/**
* Creates a simple random color palette
*/
public static int[] createRandomColorPalette(int num_colors){
Random random = new Random(101);
int count = 0;
int[] result = new int[num_colors];
float add = 360f / (float)num_colors;
for(float i = 0; i < 360f && count < num_colors; i += add) {
float hue = i;
float saturation = 90 +random.nextFloat() * 10;
float brightness = 50 + random.nextFloat() * 10;
result[count++] = Color.HSBtoRGB(hue, saturation, brightness);
}
return result;
}
public static int[] createGrayScalePalette(int count){
float[] grays = new float[count];
float step = 1f/(float)count;
grays[0] = 0;
for (int i = 1; i < count-1; i++) {
grays[i]=i*step;
}
grays[count-1]=1;
return createGrayScalePalette(grays);
}
/**
* Returns a grayscale palette based on the given shades of gray
*/
public static int[] createGrayScalePalette(float[] grays){
int[] result = new int[grays.length];
for (int i = 0; i < result.length; i++) {
float f = grays[i];
result[i] = Color.HSBtoRGB(0, 0, f);
}
return result;
}
private static int[] createResultingImage(int[] pixels,List<PaletteColor> paletteColors, boolean dither, int w, int h) {
int[] palette = new int[paletteColors.size()];
for (int i = 0; i < palette.length; i++) {
palette[i] = paletteColors.get(i).color;
}
if (!dither) {
for (PaletteColor c : paletteColors) {
for (int i : c.indices) {
pixels[i] = c.color;
}
}
} else{
FloydSteinbergDither.generateDither(pixels, palette, w, h);
}
return palette;
}
public static int[] quantize(int[] pixels, int widht, int heigth, int[] colorPalette, int max_cols, boolean dither, ReductionStrategy reductionStrategy) {
// create the initial palette by finding the best match colors from the given color palette
List<PaletteColor> paletteColors = createInitialPalette(pixels, colorPalette);
// reduce the palette size to the given number of maximum colors
reducePalette(paletteColors, max_cols, reductionStrategy);
assert paletteColors.size() <= max_cols;
if (paletteColors.size() < max_cols) {
// fill the palette with the nearest remaining colors
List<PaletteColor> remainingColors = new ArrayList<>();
Set<PaletteColor> used = new HashSet<>(paletteColors);
for (int i = 0; i < colorPalette.length; i++) {
int color = colorPalette[i];
PaletteColor c = new PaletteColor(color);
if (!used.contains(c)) {
remainingColors.add(c);
}
}
fillPalette(paletteColors, remainingColors, max_cols);
}
assert paletteColors.size() == max_cols;
// create the resulting image
return createResultingImage(pixels,paletteColors, dither, widht, heigth);
}
static enum ReductionStrategy{
ORIGINAL_COLORS,
BETTER_CONTRAST,
AVERAGE_DISTANCE,
}
public static void main(String args[]) throws IOException {
// input parameters
String imageFileName = args[0];
File file = new File(imageFileName);
boolean dither = true;
int colorPaletteSize = 80;
int max_cols = 3;
max_cols = Math.min(max_cols, colorPaletteSize);
// create some random color palette
// int[] colorPalette = createRandomColorPalette(colorPaletteSize);
int[] colorPalette = createGrayScalePalette(20);
ReductionStrategy reductionStrategy = ReductionStrategy.AVERAGE_DISTANCE;
// show the original image inside a frame
ImageFrame original = new ImageFrame();
original.setImage(file);
original.setTitle("Original Image");
original.setLocation(0, 0);
Image image = original.getImage();
int width = image.getWidth(null);
int heigth = image.getHeight(null);
int pixels[] = getPixels(image);
int[] palette = quantize(pixels, width, heigth, colorPalette, max_cols, dither, reductionStrategy);
// show the reduced image in another frame
ImageFrame reduced = new ImageFrame();
reduced.setImage(width, heigth, pixels);
reduced.setTitle("Quantized Image (" + palette.length + " colors, dither: " + dither + ")");
reduced.setLocation(100, 100);
}
}
POSSIBLE IMPROVEMENTS
1) The used Floyd-Steinberg algorithm does currently only work for palettes with a maximum size of 256 colors. I guess this could be fixed easily, but since the used FloydSteinbergDither class requires quite a lot of conversions at the moment, it would certainly be better to implement the algorithm from scratch so it fits the color model that is used in the end.
2) I believe using another dithering algorithm like scolorq would perhaps be better. On the "To Do List" at the end of their homepage they write:
[TODO:] The ability to fix some colors to a predetermined set (supported by the algorithm but not the current implementation)
So it seems using a fixed palette should be possible for the algorithm. The Photoshop/Gimp plugin Ximagic seems to implement this functionality using scolorq. From their homepage:
Ximagic Quantizer is a Photoshop plugin for image color quantization (color reduction) & dithering.
Provides: Predefined palette quantization
3) The algorithm to fill the palette could perhaps be improved - e.g. by filling the palette with colors depending on their average distance (like in the reduction algorithm). But this should be tested depending on the finally used dithering algorithm.

EDIT: I think I may have answered a slightly different question. jarnbjo pointed out something that may be wrong with my solution, and I realized I misunderstood the question. I'm leaving my answer here for posterity, though.
I may have a solution to this in Matlab. To find the closest color, I used the weights given by Albert Renshaw in a comment here. I used the HSV colorspace, but all inputs to the code were in standard RGB. Greyscale iamges were converted to 3-channel greyscale images.
To select the best colors to use, I seeded kmeans with the test sample palette and then reset the centroids to be the values they were closest to in the sample pallet.
function imo = recolor(im,new_colors,max_colors)
% Convert to HSV
im2 = rgb2hsv(im);
new_colors = rgb2hsv(new_colors);
% Get number of colors in palette
num_colors = uint8(size(new_colors,1));
% Reshape image so every row is a diferent pixel, and every column a channel
% this is necessary for kmeans in Matlab
im2 = reshape(im2, size(im,1)*size(im,2),size(im,3));
% Seed kmeans with sample pallet, drop empty clusters
[IDX, C] = kmeans(im2,max_colors,'emptyaction','drop');
% For each pixel, IDX tells which cluster in C it corresponds to
% C contains the centroids of each cluster
% Because centroids are adjusted from seeds, we need to select which original color
% in the palette it corresponds to. We cannot be sure that the centroids in C correspond
% to their seed values
% Note that Matlab starts indexing at 1 instead of 0
for i=1:size(C,1)
H = C(i,1);
S = C(i,2);
V = C(i,3);
bdel = 100;
% Find which color in the new_colors palette is closest
for j=1:size(new_colors,1)
H2 = new_colors(j,1);
S2 = new_colors(j,2);
V2 = new_colors(j,3);
dH = (H2-H)^2*0.475;
dS = (S2-S)^2*0.2875;
dV = (V2-V)^2*0.2375;
del = sqrt(dH+dS+dV);
if isnan(del)
continue
end
% update if the new delta is lower than the best
if del<bdel
bdel = del;
C(i,:) = new_colors(j,:);
end
end
end
% Update the colors, this is equal to the following
% for i=1:length(imo)
% imo(i,:) = C(IDX(i),:)
imo = C(IDX,:);
% put it back in its original shape
imo = reshape(imo, size(im));
imo = hsv2rgb(imo);
imshow(imo);
The problem with it right now as I have it written is that it is very slow for color images (Lenna took several minutes).
Is this along the lines of what you are looking for?
Examples.
If you don't understand all the Matlab notation, let me know.

First of all I'd like to insist on the fact that this is no advanced distance color computation.
So far I assumed the first palette is one you either configured or precalculated from an image.
Here, I only configured it and focused on the subpalette extraction problem. I did not use an algorithm, it's highly probable that it may not be the best.
Store an image into a canvas 2d context which will serve as a buffer, I'll refer to it as ctxHidden
Store pixels data of ctxHidden into a variable called img
Loop through entire img with function constraintImageData(img, palette) which accepts as argument img and the palette to transform current img pixels to given colors with the help of the distance function nearestColor(palette, r, g, b, a). Note that this function returns a witness, which basically counts how many times each colors of the palette being used at least once. My example also applies a Floyd-Steinberg dithering, even though you mentionned it was not a problem.
Use the witness to sort descending by colors apparition frequency (from the palette)
Extract these colors from the initial palette to get a subpalette according to maxColors (or max_colors)
Draw the image with the final subpalette, from ctxHidden original data.
You must expect your final image to give you squishy results if maxColors is too low or if your original palette is too distant from the original image colors.
I did a jsfiddle with processing.js, and it is clearly not necessary here but I started using it so I left it as is.
Now here is what the code looks like (the second canvas is the result, applying the final subpalette with a delay of 3 seconds)
var image = document.getElementById('original'),
palettePanel = document.getElementById('palette'),
subPalettePanel = document.getElementById('subpalette'),
canvas = document.getElementById('main'),
maxColors = 12,
palette = [
0x7F8FB1FF,
0x000000FF,
0x404c00FF,
0xe46501FF,
0x722640FF,
0x40337fFF,
0x666666FF,
0x0e5940FF,
0x1bcb01FF,
0xbfcc80FF,
0x333333FF,
0x0033CCFF,
0x66CCFFFF,
0xFF6600FF,
0x000033FF,
0xFFCC00FF,
0xAA0033FF,
0xFF00FFFF,
0x00FFFFFF,
0x123456FF
],
nearestColor = function (palette, r, g, b, a) {
var rr, gg, bb, aa, color, closest,
distr, distg, distb, dista,
dist,
minDist = Infinity;
for (var i = 0; i < l; i++) {
color = palette[i];
rr = palette[i] >> 24 & 0xFF;
gg = palette[i] >> 16 & 0xFF;
bb = palette[i] >> 8 & 0xFF;
aa = palette[i] & 0xFF;
if (closest === undefined) {
closest = color;
}
// compute abs value
distr = Math.abs(rr - r);
distg = Math.abs(gg - g);
distb = Math.abs(bb - b);
dista = Math.abs(aa - a);
dist = (distr + distg + distb + dista * .5) / 3.5;
if (dist < minDist) {
closest = color;
minDist = dist;
}
}
return closest;
},
subpalette = [],
i, l = palette.length,
r, g, b, a,
img,
size = 5,
cols = palettePanel.width / size,
drawPalette = function (p, palette) {
var i, l = palette.length;
p.setup = function () {
p.size(50,50);
p.background(255);
p.noStroke();
for (i = 0; i < l; i++) {
r = palette[i] >> 24 & 0xFF;
g = palette[i] >> 16 & 0xFF;
b = palette[i] >> 8 & 0xFF;
a = palette[i] & 0xFF;
p.fill(r,g,b,a);
p.rect (i%cols*size, ~~(i/cols)*size, size, size);
}
}
},
constraintImageDataToPalette = function (img, palette) {
var i, l, x, y, index,
pixel, x, y,
right, bottom, bottomLeft, bottomRight,
color,
r, g, b, a, i, l,
pr, pg, pb, pa,
rErrorBase,
gErrorBase,
bErrorBase,
aErrorBase,
index,
w = img.width,
w4 = w*4,
h = img.height,
witness = {};
for (i = 0, l = w*h*4; i < l; i += 4) {
x = (i%w);
y = ~~(i/w);
index = x + y*w;
right = index + 4,
bottomLeft = index - 4 + w4,
bottom = index + w4,
bottomRight = index + w4 + 4,
pixel = img.data;
r = pixel[index];
g = pixel[index+1];
b = pixel[index+2];
a = pixel[index+3];
color = nearestColor(palette, r,g,b,a);
witness[color] = (witness[color] || 0) + 1;
// explode channels
pr = color >> 24 & 0xFF;
pg = color >> 16 & 0xFF;
pb = color >> 8 & 0xFF;
pa = color & 0xFF;
// set new color
pixel[index] = pr;
pixel[index+1] = pg;
pixel[index+2] = pb;
pixel[index+3] = pa;
// calculate error
rErrorBase = (r - pr);
gErrorBase = (g - pg);
bErrorBase = (b - pb);
aErrorBase = (a - pa);
///*
// diffuse error right 7/16 = 0.4375
pixel[right] += 0.4375 * rErrorBase;
pixel[right+1] += 0.4375 * gErrorBase;
pixel[right+2] += 0.4375 * bErrorBase;
pixel[right+3] += 0.4375 * aErrorBase;
// diffuse error bottom-left 3/16 = 0.1875
pixel[bottomLeft] += 0.1875 * rErrorBase;
pixel[bottomLeft+1] += 0.1875 * gErrorBase;
pixel[bottomLeft+2] += 0.1875 * bErrorBase;
pixel[bottomLeft+3] += 0.1875 * aErrorBase;
// diffuse error bottom 5/16 = 0.3125
pixel[bottom] += 0.3125 * rErrorBase;
pixel[bottom+1] += 0.3125 * gErrorBase;
pixel[bottom+2] += 0.3125 * bErrorBase;
pixel[bottom+3] += 0.3125 * aErrorBase;
//diffuse error bottom-right 1/16 = 0.0625
pixel[bottomRight] += 0.0625 * rErrorBase;
pixel[bottomRight+1] += 0.0625 * gErrorBase;
pixel[bottomRight+2] += 0.0625 * bErrorBase;
pixel[bottomRight+3] += 0.0625 * aErrorBase;
//*/
}
return witness;
};
new Processing(palettePanel, function (p) { drawPalette(p, palette); });
image.onload = function () {
var l = palette.length;
new Processing(canvas, function (p) {
// argb 24 bits colors
p.setup = function () {
p.size(300, 200);
p.background(0);
p.noStroke();
var ctx = canvas.getContext('2d'),
ctxHidden = document.getElementById('buffer').getContext('2d'),
img, log = [],
witness = {};
ctxHidden.drawImage(image, 0, 0);
img = ctxHidden.getImageData(0, 0, canvas.width, canvas.height);
// constraint colors to largest palette
witness = constraintImageDataToPalette(img, palette);
// show which colors have been picked from the panel
new Processing(subPalettePanel, function (p) { drawPalette(p, Object.keys(witness)); });
ctx.putImageData(img, 0, 0);
var colorsWeights = [];
for (var key in witness) {
colorsWeights.push([+key, witness[key]]);
}
// sort descending colors by most presents ones
colorsWeights.sort(function (a, b) {
return b[1] - a[1];
});
// get the max_colors first of the colors picked to ensure a higher probability of getting a good color
subpalette = colorsWeights
.slice(0, maxColors)
.map(function (colorValueCount) {
// return the actual color code
return colorValueCount[0];
});
// reset image we previously modified
img = ctxHidden.getImageData(0, 0, canvas.width, canvas.height);
// this time constraint with new subpalette
constraintImageDataToPalette(img, subpalette);
// wait 3 seconds to apply new palette and show exactly how it changed
setTimeout(function () {
new Processing(subPalettePanel, function (p) { drawPalette(p, subpalette); });
ctx.putImageData(img, 0, 0);
}, 3000);
};
});
};
NOTE: I have no experience in java image computation, so I used javascript instead. I tried to comment my code, if you have any question about it I'll answer and explain it.

Below is presented an approach implemented in Java using Marvin Framework. It might be a starting point for solving your problem.
Input:
Palette P with M colors.
Number of Colors N.
Image G
Steps:
Apply the Palette P to the image G by replacing the pixels color to the most similar color (less distance in RGB space) in the palette. The output image has the distribution of palette colors by usage.
Compute an histogram containing each color in the palette and how many times it is used in the image (number of pixels).
Sort the palette by pixel usage, most to less used.
Select the N first items in the sorted list and generate a new palette.
Apply this new palette to the image.
Below is presented the output of this approach.
Original image:
(source: sourceforge.net)
Palette, and the image quantitized with 32, 8, 4 colors:
Source code:
public class ColorQuantizationExample {
public ColorQuantizationExample(){
MarvinImage imageOriginal = MarvinImageIO.loadImage("./res/quantization/lena.jpg");
MarvinImage imageOutput = new MarvinImage(imageOriginal.getWidth(), imageOriginal.getHeight());
Set<Color> palette = loadPalette("./res/quantization/palette_7.png");
quantitize(imageOriginal, imageOutput, palette, 32);
MarvinImageIO.saveImage(imageOutput, "./res/quantization/lena_7_32.jpg");
quantitize(imageOriginal, imageOutput, palette, 8);
MarvinImageIO.saveImage(imageOutput, "./res/quantization/lena_7_8.jpg");
quantitize(imageOriginal, imageOutput, palette, 4);
MarvinImageIO.saveImage(imageOutput, "./res/quantization/lena_7_4.jpg");
palette = loadPalette("./res/quantization/palette_8.png");
quantitize(imageOriginal, imageOutput, palette, 32);
MarvinImageIO.saveImage(imageOutput, "./res/quantization/lena_8_32.jpg");
quantitize(imageOriginal, imageOutput, palette, 8);
MarvinImageIO.saveImage(imageOutput, "./res/quantization/lena_8_8.jpg");
quantitize(imageOriginal, imageOutput, palette, 4);
MarvinImageIO.saveImage(imageOutput, "./res/quantization/lena_8_4.jpg");
}
/**
* Load a set of colors from a palette image.
*/
private Set<Color> loadPalette(String path){
Set<Color> ret = new HashSet<Color>();
MarvinImage image = MarvinImageIO.loadImage(path);
String key;
for(int y=0; y<image.getHeight(); y++){
for(int x=0; x<image.getWidth(); x++){
Color c = new Color
(
image.getIntComponent0(x, y),
image.getIntComponent1(x, y),
image.getIntComponent2(x, y)
);
ret.add(c);
}
}
return ret;
}
private void quantitize(MarvinImage imageIn, MarvinImage imageOut, Set<Color> palette, int colors){
applyPalette(imageIn, imageOut, palette);
HashMap<Color, Integer> hist = getColorHistogram(imageOut);
List<Map.Entry<Color, Integer>> list = new LinkedList<Map.Entry<Color, Integer>>( hist.entrySet() );
Collections.sort( list, new Comparator<Map.Entry<Color, Integer>>()
{
#Override
public int compare( Map.Entry<Color, Integer> o1, Map.Entry<Color, Integer> o2 )
{
return (o1.getValue() > o2.getValue() ? -1: 1);
}
} );
Set<Color> newPalette = reducedPalette(list, colors);
applyPalette(imageOut.clone(), imageOut, newPalette);
}
/**
* Apply a palette to an image.
*/
private void applyPalette(MarvinImage imageIn, MarvinImage imageOut, Set<Color> palette){
Color color;
for(int y=0; y<imageIn.getHeight(); y++){
for(int x=0; x<imageIn.getWidth(); x++){
int red = imageIn.getIntComponent0(x, y);
int green = imageIn.getIntComponent1(x, y);
int blue = imageIn.getIntComponent2(x, y);
color = getNearestColor(red, green, blue, palette);
imageOut.setIntColor(x, y, 255, color.getRed(), color.getGreen(), color.getBlue());
}
}
}
/**
* Reduce the palette colors to a given number. The list is sorted by usage.
*/
private Set<Color> reducedPalette(List<Map.Entry<Color, Integer>> palette, int colors){
Set<Color> ret = new HashSet<Color>();
for(int i=0; i<colors; i++){
ret.add(palette.get(i).getKey());
}
return ret;
}
/**
* Compute color histogram
*/
private HashMap<Color, Integer> getColorHistogram(MarvinImage image){
HashMap<Color, Integer> ret = new HashMap<Color, Integer>();
for(int y=0; y<image.getHeight(); y++){
for(int x=0; x<image.getWidth(); x++){
Color c = new Color
(
image.getIntComponent0(x, y),
image.getIntComponent1(x, y),
image.getIntComponent2(x, y)
);
if(ret.get(c) == null){
ret.put(c, 0);
}
ret.put(c, ret.get(c)+1);
}
}
return ret;
}
private Color getNearestColor(int red, int green, int blue, Set<Color> palette){
Color nearestColor=null, c;
double nearestDistance=Integer.MAX_VALUE;
double tempDist;
Iterator<Color> it = palette.iterator();
while(it.hasNext()){
c = it.next();
tempDist = distance(red, green, blue, c.getRed(), c.getGreen(), c.getBlue());
if(tempDist < nearestDistance){
nearestDistance = tempDist;
nearestColor = c;
}
}
return nearestColor;
}
private double distance(int r1, int g1, int b1, int r2, int g2, int b2){
double dist= Math.pow(r1-r2,2) + Math.pow(g1-g2,2) + Math.pow(b1-b2,2);
return Math.sqrt(dist);
}
public static void main(String args[]){
new ColorQuantizationExample();
}
}

Gradient color lookup in Java

I have a list of values from 0-1. I want to convert this list to an image by using a gradient that converts these floating point values to RGB values. Are there any tools in Java that provide you with this functionality?

0 should be mapped 0
1 should be mapped 255
keep in mind that you need 3 of them to make a color
so multiply by 255 the floating number and cast it to int.

Perhaps GradientPaint can do what you want. It's unclear how you want a list of floating point values to be converted into a gradient. Normally a gradient consists of two colors and some mechanism that interpolates between those colors. GradientPaint implements a linear gradient.

Say you have an array made of 64 000 triples corresponding to RGB values, like this:
final Random rand = new Random();
final float[] f = new float[320*200*3];
for (int i = 0; i < f.length; i++) {
f[i] = rand.nextFloat(); // <-- generates a float between [0...1.0[
}
And say you have a BufferedImage that has a size of 320x200 (64 000 pixels) of type INT_ARGB (8 bits per value + 8 bits for the alpha level):
final BufferedImage bi = new BufferedImage( 320, 200, BufferedImage.TYPE_INT_ARGB );
Then you can convert you float array to RGB value and fill the image doing this:
for (int x = 0; x < 320; x++) {
for (int y = 0; y < 200; y++) {
final int r = (int) (f[x+y*200*3] * 255.0);
final int g = (int) (f[x+y*200*3+1] * 255.0);
final int b = (int) (f[x+y*200*3+2] * 255.0);
bi.setRGB( x, y, 0xFF000000 | (r << 16) | (g << 8) | b );
}
}
Note that would you display this image it would appear gray but if you zoom in it you'll see it's actually made of perfectly random colorful pixels. It's just that the random number generator is so good that it all looks gray on screen :)