How can I find local maxima in an image in MATLAB?

Question

I have an image in MATLAB:

y = rgb2gray(imread(\'some_image_file.jpg\'));

and I want to do some processing on it:

pic = som         


        

Answer 1

In addition to imdilate, which is in the Image Processing Toolbox, you can also use ordfilt2.

ordfilt2 sorts values in local neighborhoods and picks the n-th value. (The MathWorks example demonstrates how to implemented a max filter.) You can also implement a 3x3 peak finder with ordfilt2 with the following logic:

1. Define a 3x3 domain that does not include the center pixel (8 pixels).

   >> mask = ones(3); mask(5) = 0 % 3x3 max
   mask =
        1     1     1
        1     0     1
        1     1     1
   

2. Select the largest (8th) value with ordfilt2.

   >> B = ordfilt2(A,8,mask)
   B =
        3     3     3     3     3     4     4     4
        3     5     5     5     4     4     4     4
        3     5     3     5     4     4     4     4
        3     5     5     5     4     6     6     6
        3     3     3     3     4     6     4     6
        1     1     1     1     4     6     6     6
   

3. Compare this output to the center value of each neighborhood (just A):

   >> peaks = A > B
   peaks =
        0     0     0     0     0     0     0     0
        0     0     0     0     0     0     0     0
        0     0     1     0     0     0     0     0
        0     0     0     0     0     0     0     0
        0     0     0     0     0     0     1     0
        0     0     0     0     0     0     0     0