How to obtain a gaussian filter in python

Question

I am using python to create a gaussian filter of size 5x5. I saw this post here where they talk about a similar thing but I didn't find the exact way to get equivalent python code to matlab function fspecial('gaussian', f_wid, sigma) Is there any other way to do it? I tried using the following code :

size = 2
sizey = None
size = int(size)
if not sizey:
    sizey = size
else:
    sizey = int(sizey)
x, y = scipy.mgrid[-size: size + 1, -sizey: sizey + 1]
g = scipy.exp(- (x ** 2/float(size) + y ** 2 / float(sizey)))
print g / np.sqrt(2 * np.pi)

The output obtained is

[[ 0.00730688  0.03274718  0.05399097  0.03274718  0.00730688]
 [ 0.03274718  0.14676266  0.24197072  0.14676266  0.03274718]
 [ 0.05399097  0.24197072  0.39894228  0.24197072  0.05399097]
 [ 0.03274718  0.14676266  0.24197072  0.14676266  0.03274718]
 [ 0.00730688  0.03274718  0.05399097  0.03274718  0.00730688]]

What I want is something like this:

   0.0029690   0.0133062   0.0219382   0.0133062   0.0029690
   0.0133062   0.0596343   0.0983203   0.0596343   0.0133062
   0.0219382   0.0983203   0.1621028   0.0983203   0.0219382
   0.0133062   0.0596343   0.0983203   0.0596343   0.0133062
   0.0029690   0.0133062   0.0219382   0.0133062   0.0029690

Answer 1

In general terms if you really care about getting the the exact same result as MATLAB, the easiest way to achieve this is often by looking directly at the source of the MATLAB function.

In this case, edit fspecial:

...
  case 'gaussian' % Gaussian filter

     siz   = (p2-1)/2;
     std   = p3;

     [x,y] = meshgrid(-siz(2):siz(2),-siz(1):siz(1));
     arg   = -(x.*x + y.*y)/(2*std*std);

     h     = exp(arg);
     h(h<eps*max(h(:))) = 0;

     sumh = sum(h(:));
     if sumh ~= 0,
       h  = h/sumh;
     end;
...

Pretty simple, eh? It's <10mins work to port this to Python:

import numpy as np

def matlab_style_gauss2D(shape=(3,3),sigma=0.5):
    """
    2D gaussian mask - should give the same result as MATLAB's
    fspecial('gaussian',[shape],[sigma])
    """
    m,n = [(ss-1.)/2. for ss in shape]
    y,x = np.ogrid[-m:m+1,-n:n+1]
    h = np.exp( -(x*x + y*y) / (2.*sigma*sigma) )
    h[ h < np.finfo(h.dtype).eps*h.max() ] = 0
    sumh = h.sum()
    if sumh != 0:
        h /= sumh
    return h

This gives me the same answer as fspecial to within rounding error:

 >> fspecial('gaussian',5,1)

 0.002969     0.013306     0.021938     0.013306     0.002969
 0.013306     0.059634      0.09832     0.059634     0.013306
 0.021938      0.09832       0.1621      0.09832     0.021938
 0.013306     0.059634      0.09832     0.059634     0.013306
 0.002969     0.013306     0.021938     0.013306     0.002969

 : matlab_style_gauss2D((5,5),1)

array([[ 0.002969,  0.013306,  0.021938,  0.013306,  0.002969],
       [ 0.013306,  0.059634,  0.09832 ,  0.059634,  0.013306],
       [ 0.021938,  0.09832 ,  0.162103,  0.09832 ,  0.021938],
       [ 0.013306,  0.059634,  0.09832 ,  0.059634,  0.013306],
       [ 0.002969,  0.013306,  0.021938,  0.013306,  0.002969]])

Answer 2

You could try this too (as product of 2 independent 1D Gaussian random variables) to obtain a 2D Gaussian Kernel:

from numpy import pi, exp, sqrt
s, k = 1, 2 #  generate a (2k+1)x(2k+1) gaussian kernel with mean=0 and sigma = s
probs = [exp(-z*z/(2*s*s))/sqrt(2*pi*s*s) for z in range(-k,k+1)] 
kernel = np.outer(probs, probs)
print kernel

#[[ 0.00291502  0.00792386  0.02153928  0.00792386  0.00291502]
#[ 0.00792386  0.02153928  0.05854983  0.02153928  0.00792386]
#[ 0.02153928  0.05854983  0.15915494  0.05854983  0.02153928]
#[ 0.00792386  0.02153928  0.05854983  0.02153928  0.00792386]
#[ 0.00291502  0.00792386  0.02153928  0.00792386  0.00291502]]

import matplotlib.pylab as plt
plt.imshow(kernel)
plt.colorbar()
plt.show()

Answer 3

I found similar solution for this problem:

def fspecial_gauss(size, sigma):

    """Function to mimic the 'fspecial' gaussian MATLAB function
    """

    x, y = numpy.mgrid[-size//2 + 1:size//2 + 1, -size//2 + 1:size//2 + 1]
    g = numpy.exp(-((x**2 + y**2)/(2.0*sigma**2)))
    return g/g.sum()

Answer 4

This function implements functionality similar to fspecial in matlab

http://docs.scipy.org/doc/scipy/reference/generated/scipy.signal.get_window.html from scipy import signal

>>>signal.get_window(('gaussian',2),3)
>>>array([ 0.8824969,  1.       ,  0.8824969])

This function appears to generate only 1D kernels

I guess you could implement code to generate a Gaussian mask yourself as well as other have pointed out.

Answer 5

Hi I think the problem is that for a gaussian filter the normalization factor depends on how many dimensions you used. So the filter looks like this

What you miss is the square of the normalization factor! And need to renormalize the whole matrix because of computing accuracy! The code is attached here:

def gaussian_filter(shape =(5,5), sigma=1):
    x, y = [edge /2 for edge in shape]
    grid = np.array([[((i**2+j**2)/(2.0*sigma**2)) for i in xrange(-x, x+1)] for j in xrange(-y, y+1)])
    g_filter = np.exp(-grid)/(2*np.pi*sigma**2)
    g_filter /= np.sum(g_filter)
    return g_filter
print gaussian_filter()

The output without normalized to sum of 1:

[[ 0.00291502  0.01306423  0.02153928  0.01306423  0.00291502]
 [ 0.01306423  0.05854983  0.09653235  0.05854983  0.01306423]
 [ 0.02153928  0.09653235  0.15915494  0.09653235  0.02153928]
 [ 0.01306423  0.05854983  0.09653235  0.05854983  0.01306423]
 [ 0.00291502  0.01306423  0.02153928  0.01306423  0.00291502]]

The output divided by np.sum(g_filter):

[[ 0.00296902  0.01330621  0.02193823  0.01330621  0.00296902]
 [ 0.01330621  0.0596343   0.09832033  0.0596343   0.01330621]
 [ 0.02193823  0.09832033  0.16210282  0.09832033  0.02193823]
 [ 0.01330621  0.0596343   0.09832033  0.0596343   0.01330621]
 [ 0.00296902  0.01330621  0.02193823  0.01330621  0.00296902]]

Answer 6

here is to provide an nd-gaussian window generator:

def gen_gaussian_kernel(shape, mean, var):
    coors = [range(shape[d]) for d in range(len(shape))]
    k = np.zeros(shape=shape)
    cartesian_product = [[]]
    for coor in coors:
        cartesian_product = [x + [y] for x in cartesian_product for y in coor]
    for c in cartesian_product:
        s = 0
        for cc, m in zip(c,mean):
            s += (cc - m)**2
        k[tuple(c)] = exp(-s/(2*var))
    return k

this function will give you an unnormalized gaussian windows with given shape, center, and variance. for instance: gen_gaussian_kernel(shape=(3,3,3),mean=(1,1,1),var=1.0) output->

[[[ 0.22313016  0.36787944  0.22313016]
  [ 0.36787944  0.60653066  0.36787944]
  [ 0.22313016  0.36787944  0.22313016]]

 [[ 0.36787944  0.60653066  0.36787944]
  [ 0.60653066  1.          0.60653066]
  [ 0.36787944  0.60653066  0.36787944]]

 [[ 0.22313016  0.36787944  0.22313016]
  [ 0.36787944  0.60653066  0.36787944]
  [ 0.22313016  0.36787944  0.22313016]]]

Answer 7

Hey, I think this might help you

import numpy as np
import cv2

def gaussian_kernel(dimension_x, dimension_y, sigma_x, sigma_y):
    x = cv2.getGaussianKernel(dimension_x, sigma_x)
    y = cv2.getGaussianKernel(dimension_y, sigma_y)
    kernel = x.dot(y.T)
    return kernel
g_kernel = gaussian_kernel(5, 5, 1, 1)
print(g_kernel)

[[0.00296902 0.01330621 0.02193823 0.01330621 0.00296902]
 [0.01330621 0.0596343  0.09832033 0.0596343  0.01330621]
 [0.02193823 0.09832033 0.16210282 0.09832033 0.02193823]
 [0.01330621 0.0596343  0.09832033 0.0596343  0.01330621]
 [0.00296902 0.01330621 0.02193823 0.01330621 0.00296902]]