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otsuthresh

Global histogram threshold using Otsu's method

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Syntax

T = otsuthresh(counts)
[T,EM] = otsuthresh(counts)

Description

T = otsuthresh(counts) computes a global threshold T from histogram counts, counts, using Otsu's method [1]. Otsu's method chooses a threshold that minimizes the intraclass variance of the thresholded black and white pixels. The global threshold T can be used with imbinarize to convert a grayscale image to a binary image.

example

[T,EM] = otsuthresh(counts) returns the effectiveness metric, EM, which indicates the effectiveness of the thresholding.

Examples

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Open Live Script

Read image into the workspace.

I = imread('coins.png');

Calculate a 16-bin histogram for the image. 

[counts,x] = imhist(I,16);
stem(x,counts)

Figure contains an axes object. The axes object contains an object of type stem.

Compute a global threshold using the histogram counts.

T = otsuthresh(counts);

Create a binary image using the computed threshold and display the image.

BW = imbinarize(I,T);
figure
imshow(BW)

Figure contains an axes object. The hidden axes object contains an object of type image.

Input Arguments

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Histogram counts, specified as a vector of nonnegative numbers.

Data Types: single | double | int8 | int16 | int32 | int64 | uint8 | uint16 | uint32 | uint64

Output Arguments

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Global threshold, returned as a numeric scalar in the range [0, 1].

Data Types: double

Effectiveness metric of the threshold, returned as a numeric scalar in the range [0, 1]. The lower bound is attainable only by histogram counts with all data in a single non-zero bin. The upper bound is attainable only by histogram counts with two non-zero bins.

Data Types: double

References

[1] Otsu, N., "A Threshold Selection Method from Gray-Level Histograms." IEEE Transactions on Systems, Man, and Cybernetics. Vol. 9, No. 1, 1979, pp. 62–66.

Extended Capabilities

GPU Code Generation
Generate CUDA® code for NVIDIA® GPUs using GPU Coder™.

Version History

Introduced in R2016a

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See Also

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