Matlab: how to avoid ellipses overlapping in image?

Question

I\'ve been using a function file [ret]=drawellipse(x,y,a,b,angle,steps,color,img). Calling the function through a script file to draw random ellipses in image.

Answer 1

The solution proposed by @arne.b (the first one) is a good way to rasterize non-overlapping ellipses.

Let me illustrate that idea with an example. I will be extending my previous answer:

%# color image
I = imread('pears.png');
sz = size(I);

%# parameters of ellipses
num = 7;
h = zeros(1,num);
clr = lines(num);             %# color of each ellipse
x = rand(num,1) .* sz(2);     %# center x-coords
y = rand(num,1) .* sz(1);     %# center y-coords
a = rand(num,1) .* 200;       %# major axis length
b = rand(num,1) .* 200;       %# minor axis length
angle = rand(num,1) .* 360;   %# angle of rotation

%# label image, used to hold rasterized ellipses
BW = zeros(sz(1),sz(2));

%# randomly place ellipses one-at-a-time, skip if overlaps previous ones
figure, imshow(I)
axis on, hold on
for i=1:num
    %# ellipse we would like to draw directly on image matrix
    [ex,ey] = calculateEllipse(x(i),y(i), a(i),b(i), angle(i), 100);

    %# lets plot the ellipse (overlayed)
    h(i) = plot(ex,ey, 'LineWidth',2, 'Color',clr(i,:));

    %# create mask for image pixels inside the ellipse polygon
    mask = poly2mask(ex,ey,sz(1),sz(2));

    %# get the perimter of this mask
    mask = bwperim(mask,8);

    %# skip if there is an existing overlapping ellipse
    if any( BW(mask)~=0 ), continue, end

    %# use the mask to place the ellipse in the label image
    BW(mask) = i;
end
hold off
legend(h, cellstr(num2str((1:num)','Line%d')), 'Location','BestOutside')    %'

%# set pixels corresponding to ellipses using specified colors
clr = im2uint8(clr);
II = I;
for i=1:num
    BW_ind = bsxfun(@plus, find(BW==i), prod(sz(1:2)).*(0:2));
    II(BW_ind) = repmat(clr(i,:), [size(BW_ind,1) 1]);
end
figure, imshow(II, 'InitialMagnification',100, 'Border','tight')

Note how the overlap test is performed in the order the ellipses are added, thus after Line1 (blue) and Line2 (green) are drawn, Line3 (red) will be skipped because it overlaps one of the previous ones, and so on for the rest...