Finding Image Contours with OpenCV

This function finds contours in an image using OpenCV. It first converts the image to grayscale, applies Gaussian blur and thresholding to binarize the image, and then uses the findContours function to retrieve contours with chain approximation to reduce the number of contour points.

Technology Stack : OpenCV

Code Type : Image processing

Code Difficulty : Intermediate

                
                    
def find_contours(image, mode='default', method='MORPH_EXTERNAL'):
    """
    This function finds contours in an image using OpenCV.

    Parameters:
        image (numpy.ndarray): The input image.
        mode (str): The contour retrieval mode.
        method (str): The method to use for contour approximation.

    Returns:
        list: A list of contours.
    """
    import cv2
    gray = cv2.cvtColor(image, cv2.COLOR_BGR2GRAY)
    blurred = cv2.GaussianBlur(gray, (5, 5), 0)
    _, thresh = cv2.threshold(blurred, 60, 255, cv2.THRESH_BINARY_INV + cv2.THRESH_OTSU)
    contours, _ = cv2.findContours(thresh, cv2.RETR_EXTERNAL, cv2.CHAIN_APPROX_SIMPLE)

    return contours