sodapopcan
Perspective distortion with Vix
TL;DR: Is there an Elixir lib out there that implements a version of Evision’s getPerspectiveTransform where I can just pass two lists of simple coordinates?
The X in my XY problem is that I recently started a new job that relies on a lot of image processing. Their current implementation is a little old and slow running on ImageMagick. I’ve been doing some spikes with Image and Vix (kudos and many thanks, Kip and Akash—very good work) to try and move it over to libvips but, as I’ve learned is sort of a thing, libvips does not support perspective distortions which we do need.
Thanks to a couple of good ol’ stack overflow posts and github comments, I’ve been able to get halfway there (code below for those who are interested) but now stuck on actually creating a transformation matrix.
I’ve read a bunch on the topic and will prob eventually figure it out, but I’m just wondering if anyone else has done this and has an easy answer
Even if I do figure out how to use Evision in the way I want, it’s a pretty heavy dependency to bring in to call one function. Also just interested in general image discussion ![]()
Anyway, thanks!
Here is the perspective code—sorry for the shitty variable names:
def skew(%Vix.Vips.Image{} = image, {t0, t1, t2, t3, t4, t5, t6, t7} = _this_is_the_transform_matrix_i_need_to_generate) do
alias Vix.Vips.Operation, as: O
{width, height} = {Image.width(image), Image.height(image)}
with {:ok, index_image} <- O.xyz(width, height),
{:ok, copy_image} <- O.copy(index_image),
{:ok, band_0} <- O.extract_band(index_image, 0),
{:ok, band_1} <- O.extract_band(copy_image, 1),
{:ok, x_1} <- O.linear(band_0, [t0], [0]),
{:ok, x_2} <- O.linear(band_1, [t1], [0]),
{:ok, x_3} <- O.add(x_1, x_2),
{:ok, x_a} <- O.linear(x_3, [1], [t2]),
{:ok, x_4} <- O.linear(band_0, [t6], [0]),
{:ok, x_5} <- O.linear(band_1, [t7], [0]),
{:ok, x_6} <- O.add(x_4, x_5),
{:ok, x_b} <- O.linear(x_6, [1], [1]),
{:ok, x} <- O.divide(x_a, x_b),
{:ok, y_1} <- O.linear(band_0, [t3], [0]),
{:ok, y_2} <- O.linear(band_1, [t4], [0]),
{:ok, y_3} <- O.add(y_1, y_2),
{:ok, y_a} <- O.linear(y_3, [1], [t5]),
{:ok, y_4} <- O.linear(band_0, [t6], [0]),
{:ok, y_5} <- O.linear(band_1, [t7], [0]),
{:ok, y_6} <- O.add(y_4, y_5),
{:ok, y_b} <- O.linear(y_6, [1], [1]),
{:ok, y} <- O.divide(y_a, y_b),
{:ok, mapimage} <- O.bandjoin([x, y]),
{:ok, image} <- O.mapim(image, mapimage) do
Image.write!(image, "is_it_working_yet.jpg")
end
end
Most Liked
sodapopcan
So after a good sleep the matrix math stuff I was reading seemed less scary.
There are still some things happening that I don’t understand but for all intents and purposes, I got it working!
Here’s the result for anyone interested. If I can get this fully working for my use-case, I’ll write up a post about it.
So this function takes an image and a list of destination points to skew it to. The destination points are just given as a flat list of repeated x, ys in the order: [bottom_left_x, bottom_right_y, bottom_right_x, bottom_right_y, top_right_x, top_right_y, top_left_x, top_left_y]. This implementation always uses the four corners of the original image as the source points.
This is obviously super spikey code that shouldn’t have that very specific point-order requirement:
defmodule Foo do
def skew(%Vix.Vips.Image{} = image, points) do
{width, height} = {Image.width(image), Image.height(image)}
[sx1, sy1, sx2, sy2, sx3, sy3, sx4, sy4] = [0, 0, width, 0, width, height, 0, height]
[dx1, dy1, dx2, dy2, dx3, dy3, dx4, dy4] = points
src =
[
[sx1, sy1, 1, 0, 0, 0, -sx1 * dx1, -sy1 * dx1],
[sx2, sy2, 1, 0, 0, 0, -sx2 * dx2, -sy2 * dx2],
[sx3, sy3, 1, 0, 0, 0, -sx3 * dx3, -sy3 * dx3],
[sx4, sy4, 1, 0, 0, 0, -sx4 * dx4, -sy4 * dx4],
[0, 0, 0, sx1, sy1, 1, -sx1 * dy1, -sy1 * dy1],
[0, 0, 0, sx2, sy2, 1, -sx2 * dy2, -sy2 * dy2],
[0, 0, 0, sx3, sy3, 1, -sx3 * dy3, -sy3 * dy3],
[0, 0, 0, sx4, sy4, 1, -sx4 * dy4, -sy4 * dy4],
]
dest = [dx1, dx2, dx3, dx4, dy1, dy2, dy3, dy4]
result = Nx.LinAlg.solve(Nx.tensor(src), Nx.tensor(dest))
[t0, t1, t2, t3, t4, t5, t6, t7] = Nx.to_list(result)
alias Vix.Vips.Operation, as: O
with {:ok, index_image} <- O.xyz(width, height),
{:ok, copy_image} <- O.copy(index_image),
{:ok, band_0} <- O.extract_band(index_image, 0),
{:ok, band_1} <- O.extract_band(copy_image, 1),
{:ok, x_1} <- O.linear(band_0, [t0], [0]),
{:ok, x_2} <- O.linear(band_1, [t1], [0]),
{:ok, x_3} <- O.add(x_1, x_2),
{:ok, x_a} <- O.linear(x_3, [1], [t2]),
{:ok, x_4} <- O.linear(band_0, [t6], [0]),
{:ok, x_5} <- O.linear(band_1, [t7], [0]),
{:ok, x_6} <- O.add(x_4, x_5),
{:ok, x_b} <- O.linear(x_6, [1], [1]),
{:ok, x} <- O.divide(x_a, x_b),
{:ok, y_1} <- O.linear(band_0, [t3], [0]),
{:ok, y_2} <- O.linear(band_1, [t4], [0]),
{:ok, y_3} <- O.add(y_1, y_2),
{:ok, y_a} <- O.linear(y_3, [1], [t5]),
{:ok, y_4} <- O.linear(band_0, [t6], [0]),
{:ok, y_5} <- O.linear(band_1, [t7], [0]),
{:ok, y_6} <- O.add(y_4, y_5),
{:ok, y_b} <- O.linear(y_6, [1], [1]),
{:ok, y} <- O.divide(y_a, y_b),
{:ok, mapimage} <- O.bandjoin([x, y]) do
O.mapim(image, mapimage)
end
end
end
Usage:
iex> {:ok, image} = Image.open("path/to/image.jpg")
iex> {:ok, result} = Foo.skew(image, [0, 0, Image.width(image), 0, Image.width(image), Image.height(image), 0, Image.height(image)]
iex> Image.write(result, "foo.jpg")
A bit of a trolling example but if it works you should get a completely unaltered image
Otherwise, play around with the point values.
jerdew
{:ok, x_1} <- O.linear(band_0, [t0], [0]),
{:ok, x_2} <- O.linear(band_1, [t1], [t2]),
{:ok, x_a} <- O.add(x_1, x_2),
{:ok, x_4} <- O.linear(band_0, [t6], [0]),
{:ok, x_5} <- O.linear(band_1, [t7], [1]),
{:ok, x_b} <- O.add(x_4, x_5),
{:ok, x} <- O.divide(x_a, x_b),
{:ok, y_1} <- O.linear(band_0, [t3], [0]),
{:ok, y_2} <- O.linear(band_1, [t4], [t5]),
{:ok, y_a} <- O.add(y_1, y_2),
{:ok, y_4} <- O.linear(band_0, [t6], [0]),
{:ok, y_5} <- O.linear(band_1, [t7], [1]),
{:ok, y_b} <- O.add(y_4, y_5),
{:ok, y} <- O.divide(y_a, y_b),
Slight simplification, rather than multiplying by 1 and adding a new value, you can add the constant in the previous call to linear (instead of adding 0).
akash-akya
You can import image operators for solving the equation, that should make it read better.
defp generate_map(width, height, tensor) do
alias Vix.Vips.Operation, as: O
import Kernel, except: [+: 2, *: 2, /: 2]
import Image.Math, only: [+: 2, *: 2, /: 2]
[t0, t1, t2, t3, t4, t5, t6, t7] = Nx.to_list(tensor)
index = O.xyz!(width, height)
x =
(
t = index * [t0, t1]
x_a = t[0] + t[1] + t2
t = index * [t6, t7]
x_b = t[0] + t[1] + 1
x_a / x_b
)
y =
(
t = index * [t3, t4]
y_a = t[0] + t[1] + t5
t = index * [t6, t7]
y_b = t[0] + t[1] + 1
y_a / y_b
)
O.bandjoin!([x, y])
end
But, maybe Nx is better suited for these types of array operations. You can switch between Vix and Nx, back and forth, easily. Using Vix for reading, and writing image in different formats and using Nx for something like this.
And yes, making a copy is not necessary.
kip
@sodapopcan this is great to see. I was planning to add a function to Image that wraps Evision.warpPerspective but it would be amazing to add this to Image without that dependency for this case. A PR would be warmly welcomed (doesn’t have to be perfect - if you get the math sorted out I can do the docs and ergonomics).
sodapopcan
That’s great to hear—I would love to have this as a part of Image!
I’ll put together a PR either this evening or tomorrow evening. Or possibly even during the day tomorrow as this is very relevant to my job ![]()







