PixelSearch on an image file? (JPG, GIF, BMP)

[joshtp]

I'm in the process of writing a "Rain Notifier", where the user selects a region on a map, then periodically downloads the radar data from the National Weather Service and checks the selected area for the presence of rain, indicated by a certain set of colors. What I'm doing now is displaying the GIF after using GUICtrlCreatePic, and then using PixelSearch on that using the handle gotten by GuiCtrlGetHandle.

However, what I'd like to do is use PixelSearch on an image file, specifically a GIF in this case, instead of having to display the radar data on screen and then use PixelSearch. I've tried using some WinApi and GDIPlus code to do this, but I'm not familiar enough with those APIs to do this.

Anyone have any suggestions how to do this?

Thanks,

-Josh

[joshtp]

I'm in the process of writing a "Rain Notifier", where the user selects a region on a map, then periodically downloads the radar data from the National Weather Service and checks the selected area for the presence of rain, indicated by a certain set of colors. What I'm doing now is displaying the GIF after using GUICtrlCreatePic, and then using PixelSearch on that using the handle gotten by GuiCtrlGetHandle.

However, what I'd like to do is use PixelSearch on an image file, specifically a GIF in this case, instead of having to display the radar data on screen and then use PixelSearch. I've tried using some WinApi and GDIPlus code to do this, but I'm not familiar enough with those APIs to do this.

Anyone have any suggestions how to do this?

Thanks,

-Josh

If AutoIt cannot do this natively, is there some standalone binary that can do this for me that I can integrate into my script? Thank you

[joshtp]

It appears that there is no possible way to do this natively in AutoIt, other than reading in the BMP using _GDIPlus_BitmapCreateFromFile and then recreating the PixelSearch functionality again. Somone please correct me if I'm wrong. Thank you.

[joshtp]

Okay, this isn't working but it seems very close. Can someone please take a look at it and tell me if I'm on the right track? The image I'm using is:

(from Wikimedia )

#include <GDIPlus.au3>

$imageFile=@TempDir&"\image.gif"
InetGet("http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikibooks/en/7/70/Editing.gif",$imageFile,1)

_GDIPlus_Startup()
$hImage = _GDIPlus_ImageLoadFromFile ($imageFile)
$hBitmap = _GDIPlus_BitmapCreateHBITMAPFromBitmap ($hImage)
$width = _GDIPlus_ImageGetWidth($hImage)
$height = _GDIPlus_ImageGetHeight($hImage)

$array=PixelSearch(0,0,$width-1,$height-1,0x000000,0,1,$hBitmap)
If @error Then
    MsgBox(0,"","Not found")
Else
    MsgBox(0,"",$array[0]&","&$array[1])
EndIf

_GDIPlus_ImageDispose ($hImage)
_WinAPI_DeleteObject ($hBitmap)
_GDIPlus_Shutdown()

Thank you all in advance for any input!

[Nat_H]

Hi

It feels wrong to drag up something from 2008, but this is exactly what i'm trying to do.  Unfortunately, i'm kinda struggling too. Did anyone manage to make this (or similar) work? 

Just to be clear, I would like to be able to use PixelSearch against an Image file rather than the screen, and it feels like the example above shouldn't be far off? 

I suppose I'd ask why too, I guess, so here's what I'm doing:

i have created a service which takes a snapshot of a website on a regular basis. It uses PhantomJS to render the page directly to a PNG file. 

The arrangement of the website changes regularly, but there is an area I want to capture as an image which always starts with an identifiable colour block. This crop needs to be saved as an image so that it can be incorporated in another service.

I currently open the PNG in full screen and use PixelSearch to locate the start of the colour block, then use the XY coordinates returned to crop the image using calls to ImageProcessor.  The process works well, but at the moment the use of PixelSearch mandates that this process runs in a console so that the image can be opened and searched.  If there were a way to use PixelSearch against an image file, the whole thing could be neatly wrapped into a scheduled task that wouldn't require the console to be logged on. 

Any advice gratefully received

Nat

[careca]

i've seen that, it analises the image file's bytes, searches for a hex pattern. I think i was called something like "image search alternative" or something like it.

On a side note, you could retrieve the image from the site with IE functions.

 

Edited November 13, 2018 by careca

[BatMan22]

If you're willing to use a BMP instead I would look at the links below. I just used his script and gutted it a bit, works great.

 

 

[junkew]

Findbmp works with gdi and works with many picture types including gif and png as its just part of windows os.

Edited November 13, 2018 by junkew

[Nat_H]

Thanks very much for the suggestions guys, they helped me find a way to do what I wanted to do

Unfortunately, I really needed the "tolerance" feature of PixelSearch as the colour of the area i'm searching for changes with the weather. Because of this, using the FindBMP style searches wouldn't quite do what I wanted. There are some brilliant solutions for searching live windows, or finding BMPs within BMPs, or BMPs on the desktop! They just didn't quite work for my purpose (and I accept that my purpose is a lost cause, but I really wanted a *pretty* weather panel on my ActionTiles dashboard >.> It only supports displaying an external Image, not a web part.) 

Another hurdle was that the section of the site I wanted to capture is a composite weather report (https://www.bbc.co.uk/weather/0/2650225 for example), not a single image, and it's scripted to boot, so not easy to just fetch. To use it, I had to capture it as an image first, then crop to the bit I want.  

In the end, I did this to search for the coloured bar under the place name. It's ugly, and most likely not the correct way to do such a thing, but in case anyone else was (foolishly) trying to do the same thing as me, here's how I managed a PixelSearch with tolerance on an Image File.  (if there are any glaring mistakes, feel free to point them out !)

Thanks again all

 

expandcollapse popup

#include <GDIPlus.au3>
#include <Color.au3>

;Details of the image we are about to search
$webShotPath="C:\Scripts\weather-shot\Shots\httpswww.bbc.co.uk.png" 

_GDIPlus_Startup()

;All of this shiz gets an image file into memory somewhere, in a way it can be queried by GetPixel
$hImage = _GDIPlus_ImageLoadFromFile ($imageFile)
$hBitmap = _GDIPlus_BitmapCreateHBITMAPFromBitmap ($hImage)
$DeskDC = _WinAPI_GetDC(0)
$UseDC = _WinAPI_CreateCompatibleDC($DeskDC)
_WinAPI_ReleaseDC(0, $DeskDC)
_WinAPI_SelectObject($UseDC,$hBitmap)

;Now we have something we can work with, lets go search. This only looks down 1 column of pixels. You could easily modify this to reapeat for a search area
$xStatic = 160
$yMax = 300
$xMax = 200

;And for which colours?
local $arrColours[7] = [0,"0x9ecb86", "0xfcc90d", "0xd0d73e", "0xafd251", "0xffda01","0xAAD6AE"]
local $arrCNames[7] = [0,"#Minty", "#GoldenYellow", "#Mustard", "#PeaSoup", "#yellow","#Known"]
$iTolerance = 20

$foundY=0
$foundX=0
$foundColour=0

for $a=1 to UBound($arrColours)-1 step 1

   $iTestColour = $arrColours[$a]
   ConsoleWrite("Setting colour to " & $arrCNames[$a] & @CRLF)

   for $y = 0 to $yMax step 1
      Local $Color = DLLCall("gdi32.dll","int","GetPixel","int",$UseDC ,"int",$xStatic,"int",$y)
      
      ;For some reason, Hex($Color[0],6) returns BlueGreenRed, not RedGreenBlue. Dirty way to flip to RGB for comparrison     
      Local $aArray = StringRegExp(Hex($Color[0],6), "(.)", 3)
      $var = "0x"&$aArray[4]&$aArray[5]&$aArray[2]&$aArray[3]&$aArray[0]&$aArray[1]
      
      If (Abs(_ColorGetRed($var) - _ColorGetRed($iTestColour)) <=  $iTolerance) _
         And (Abs(_ColorGetBlue($var) - _ColorGetBlue($iTestColour)) <=  $iTolerance) _
         And (Abs(_ColorGetGreen($var) - _ColorGetGreen($iTestColour)) <=  $iTolerance) Then

         $foundY=$y
         $foundColour=$a
         ExitLoop
      EndIf
   Next

   if $foundY > 0 then
      ConsoleWrite("Found Y at "&$foundY&@CRLF)
      ExitLoop
   EndIf
Next

if $foundColour > 0 then
   ;We found Y, so lets find X.
   ConsoleWrite("Attempting to find X"&@CRLF)

   for $x = 0 to $xMax step 1
      Local $Color = DLLCall("gdi32.dll","int","GetPixel","int",$UseDC ,"int",$x,"int",$foundY)

      ;For some reason, Hex($Color[0],6) returns BlueGreenRed, not RedGreenBlue. Dirty way to flip to RGB for comparrison     
      Local $aArray = StringRegExp(Hex($Color[0],6), "(.)", 3)
      $var = "0x"&$aArray[4]&$aArray[5]&$aArray[2]&$aArray[3]&$aArray[0]&$aArray[1]

      If (Abs(_ColorGetRed($var) - _ColorGetRed($iTestColour)) <=  $iTolerance) _
         And (Abs(_ColorGetBlue($var) - _ColorGetBlue($iTestColour)) <=  $iTolerance) _
         And (Abs(_ColorGetGreen($var) - _ColorGetGreen($iTestColour)) <=  $iTolerance) Then

         $foundX=$x
         ExitLoop
      EndIf
   Next

   ConsoleWrite("Found! at "&$foundX&","&$foundY&" in "&$arrCNames[$foundColour]&@CRLF)
   RegWrite("HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Foxes\WeatherCrop", "xy", "REG_SZ", $foundX&","&$foundY)

Else
   ConsoleWrite("Nope, Couldnt find a match. :("&@CRLF)
EndIf

_WinAPI_DeleteDC($UseDC)
_GDIPlus_ImageDispose ($hImage)
_WinAPI_DeleteObject ($hBitmap)
_GDIPlus_Shutdown()

 

Edited November 15, 2018 by Nat_H

[junkew]

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