Yes, the very frequently asked "How do I split an image into blocks?" question. See my demo:
% Demo to divide a color image up into blocks.
clc; % Clear the command window.
close all; % Close all figures (except those of imtool.)
workspace; % Make sure the workspace panel is showing.
fontSize = 20;
% Read in a standard MATLAB color demo image.
folder = fullfile(matlabroot, '\toolbox\images\imdemos');
baseFileName = 'peppers.png';
fullFileName = fullfile(folder, baseFileName);
% Get the full filename, with path prepended.
fullFileName = fullfile(folder, baseFileName);
if ~exist(fullFileName, 'file')
% 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.', fullFileName);
uiwait(warndlg(errorMessage));
return;
end
end
% Read the image from disk.
rgbImage = imread(fullFileName);
% Test code if you want to try it with a gray scale image.
% Uncomment line below if you want to see how it works with a gray scale image.
% rgbImage = rgb2gray(rgbImage);
% Display image full screen.
imshow(rgbImage);
% Enlarge figure to full screen.
set(gcf, 'units','normalized','outerposition',[0 0 1 1]);
drawnow;
% Get the dimensions of the image. numberOfColorBands should be = 3.
[rows columns numberOfColorBands] = size(rgbImage)
%==========================================================================
% The first way to divide an image up into blocks is by using mat2cell().
blockSizeR = 150; % Rows in block.
blockSizeC = 100; % Columns in block.
% Figure out the size of each block in rows.
% Most will be blockSizeR but there may be a remainder amount of less than that.
wholeBlockRows = floor(rows / blockSizeR);
blockVectorR = [blockSizeR * ones(1, wholeBlockRows), rem(rows, blockSizeR)];
% Figure out the size of each block in columns.
wholeBlockCols = floor(columns / blockSizeC);
blockVectorC = [blockSizeC * ones(1, wholeBlockCols), rem(columns, blockSizeC)];
% Create the cell array, ca.
% Each cell (except for the remainder cells at the end of the image)
% in the array contains a blockSizeR by blockSizeC by 3 color array.
% This line is where the image is actually divided up into blocks.
if numberOfColorBands > 1
% It's a color image.
ca = mat2cell(rgbImage, blockVectorR, blockVectorC, numberOfColorBands);
else
ca = mat2cell(rgbImage, blockVectorR, blockVectorC);
end
% Now display all the blocks.
plotIndex = 1;
numPlotsR = size(ca, 1);
numPlotsC = size(ca, 2);
for r = 1 : numPlotsR
for c = 1 : numPlotsC
fprintf('plotindex = %d, c=%d, r=%d\n', plotIndex, c, r);
% Specify the location for display of the image.
subplot(numPlotsR, numPlotsC, plotIndex);
% Extract the numerical array out of the cell
% just for tutorial purposes.
rgbBlock = ca{r,c};
imshow(rgbBlock); % Could call imshow(ca{r,c}) if you wanted to.
[rowsB columnsB numberOfColorBandsB] = size(rgbBlock);
% Make the caption the block number.
caption = sprintf('Block #%d of %d\n%d rows by %d columns', ...
plotIndex, numPlotsR*numPlotsC, rowsB, columnsB);
title(caption);
drawnow;
% Increment the subplot to the next location.
plotIndex = plotIndex + 1;
end
end
% Display the original image in the upper left.
subplot(4, 6, 1);
imshow(rgbImage);
title('Original Image');
%==============================================================================
% Another way to split the image up into blocks is to use indexing.
% Read in a standard MATLAB gray scale demo image.
folder = fullfile(matlabroot, '\toolbox\images\imdemos');
baseFileName = 'cameraman.tif';
fullFileName = fullfile(folder, baseFileName);
% Get the full filename, with path prepended.
fullFileName = fullfile(folder, baseFileName);
if ~exist(fullFileName, 'file')
% 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.', fullFileName);
uiwait(warndlg(errorMessage));
return;
end
end
grayImage = imread(fullFileName);
% Get the dimensions of the image. numberOfColorBands should be = 1.
[rows columns numberOfColorBands] = size(grayImage);
% Display the original gray scale image.
figure;
subplot(2, 2, 1);
imshow(grayImage, []);
title('Original Grayscale Image', 'FontSize', fontSize);
% Enlarge figure to full screen.
set(gcf, 'units','normalized','outerposition',[0 0 1 1]);
% Divide the image up into 4 blocks.
% Let's assume we know the block size and that all blocks will be the same size.
blockSizeR = 128; % Rows in block.
blockSizeC = 128; % Columns in block.
% Figure out the size of each block.
wholeBlockRows = floor(rows / blockSizeR);
wholeBlockCols = floor(columns / blockSizeC);
% Preallocate a 3D image
image3d = zeros(wholeBlockRows, wholeBlockCols, 3);
% Now scan though, getting each block and putting it as a slice of a 3D array.
sliceNumber = 1;
for row = 1 : blockSizeR : rows
for col = 1 : blockSizeR : columns
% Let's be a little explicit here in our variables
% to make it easier to see what's going on.
row1 = row;
row2 = row1 + blockSizeR - 1;
col1 = col;
col2 = col1 + blockSizeC - 1;
% Extract out the block into a single subimage.
oneBlock = grayImage(row1:row2, col1:col2);
% Specify the location for display of the image.
subplot(2, 2, sliceNumber);
imshow(oneBlock);
% Make the caption the block number.
caption = sprintf('Block #%d of 4', sliceNumber);
title(caption);
drawnow;
% Assign this slice to the image we just extracted.
image3D(:, :, sliceNumber) = oneBlock;
sliceNumber = sliceNumber + 1;
end
end
% Now image3D is a 3D image where each slice,
% or plane, is one quadrant of the original 2D image.
msgbox('Done with demo! Check out the two figures.');
