iOS find subimage in a larger image

Question

What is the best way to find coordinates of subimages in a larger image. Subimage is very simple and always the same. For example how do I find coordinates of all black squares in the image below:

Answer 1

I think the best way here might be to write a function/UIImage category to check the color at a pixel in the image. Then (if you know for a fact the images are squares), you can check the color of each pixel moving down diagonally until you one is a different color (then you have the location and size of your square).

One working implementation I found for checking the color of a pixel is in the open source component OBShapedButton.

It is a UIImage category.

Code:

- (UIColor *)colorAtPixel:(CGPoint)point {
    // Cancel if point is outside image coordinates
    if (!CGRectContainsPoint(CGRectMake(0.0f, 0.0f, self.size.width, self.size.height), point)) {
        return nil;
    }


    // Create a 1x1 pixel byte array and bitmap context to draw the pixel into.
    // Reference: http://stackoverflow.com/questions/1042830/retrieving-a-pixel-alpha-value-for-a-uiimage
    NSInteger pointX = trunc(point.x);
    NSInteger pointY = trunc(point.y);
    CGImageRef cgImage = self.CGImage;
    NSUInteger width = self.size.width;
    NSUInteger height = self.size.height;
    CGColorSpaceRef colorSpace = CGColorSpaceCreateDeviceRGB();
    int bytesPerPixel = 4;
    int bytesPerRow = bytesPerPixel * 1;
    NSUInteger bitsPerComponent = 8;
    unsigned char pixelData[4] = { 0, 0, 0, 0 };
    CGContextRef context = CGBitmapContextCreate(pixelData,
                                                 1,
                                                 1,
                                                 bitsPerComponent,
                                                 bytesPerRow,
                                                 colorSpace,
                                                 kCGImageAlphaPremultipliedLast | kCGBitmapByteOrder32Big);
    CGColorSpaceRelease(colorSpace);
    CGContextSetBlendMode(context, kCGBlendModeCopy);

    // Draw the pixel we are interested in onto the bitmap context
    CGContextTranslateCTM(context, -pointX, pointY-(CGFloat)height);
    CGContextDrawImage(context, CGRectMake(0.0f, 0.0f, (CGFloat)width, (CGFloat)height), cgImage);
    CGContextRelease(context);

    // Convert color values [0..255] to floats [0.0..1.0]
    CGFloat red = (CGFloat)pixelData[0] / 255.0f;
    CGFloat green = (CGFloat)pixelData[1] / 255.0f;
    CGFloat blue = (CGFloat)pixelData[2] / 255.0f;
    CGFloat alpha = (CGFloat)pixelData[3] / 255.0f;
    return [UIColor colorWithRed:red green:green blue:blue alpha:alpha];
}