Calculate pixels within a polygon

Question

In an assignment for school do we need to do some image recognizing, where we have to find a path for a robot.

So far have we been able to find all the polygons in the image, but now we need to generate a pixel map, that be used for an astar algorithm later. We have found a way to do this, show below, but the problem is that is very slow, as we go though each pixel and test if it is inside the polygon. So my question is, are there a way that we can generate this pixel map faster?

We have a list of coordinates for the polygon

private List<IntPoint> hull;

The function "getMap" is called to get the pixel map

public Point[] getMap()
{
    List<Point> points = new List<Point>();
    lock (hull)
    {
        Rectangle rect = getRectangle();
        for (int x = rect.X; x <= rect.X + rect.Width; x++)
        {
            for (int y = rect.Y; y <= rect.Y + rect.Height; y++)
            {
                if (inPoly(x, y))
                    points.Add(new Point(x, y));
            }
        }
    }
    return points.ToArray();
}

Get Rectangle is used to limit the search, se we don't have to go thoug the whole image

public Rectangle getRectangle()
{
    int x = -1, y = -1, width = -1, height = -1;
    foreach (IntPoint item in hull)
    {
        if (item.X < x || x == -1)
            x = item.X;
        if (item.Y < y || y == -1)
            y = item.Y;


        if (item.X > width || width == -1)
            width = item.X;
        if (item.Y > height || height == -1)
            height = item.Y;


    }
    return new Rectangle(x, y, width-x, height-y);
}

And atlast this is how we check to see if a pixel is inside the polygon

public bool inPoly(int x, int y)
{
    int i, j = hull.Count - 1;
    bool oddNodes = false;

    for (i = 0; i < hull.Count; i++)
    {
        if (hull[i].Y < y && hull[j].Y >= y
        || hull[j].Y < y && hull[i].Y >= y)
        {
            try
            {
                if (hull[i].X + (y - hull[i].X) / (hull[j].X - hull[i].X) * (hull[j].X - hull[i].X) < x)
                {
                    oddNodes = !oddNodes;
                }
            }
            catch (DivideByZeroException e)
            {
                if (0 < x)
                {
                    oddNodes = !oddNodes;
                }
            }
        }
        j = i;
    }
    return oddNodes;
}

Answer 1

You may want to look for a Plygon Triangulation algorithm.

Also, note that catching an exception is far more time-consuming that checking the right condition. So i suggest you to convert your existing code in:

   public bool inPoly(int x, int y)
    {
        int i, j = hull.Count - 1;
        var oddNodes = false;

        for (i = 0; i < hull.Count; i++)
        {
            if (hull[i].Y < y && hull[j].Y >= y
                || hull[j].Y < y && hull[i].Y >= y)
            {
                var delta = (hull[j].X - hull[i].X);
                if (delta == 0)
                {
                    if (0 < x) oddNodes = !oddNodes;
                }
                else if (hull[i].X + (y - hull[i].X) / delta * delta < x)
                {
                    oddNodes = !oddNodes;
                }

            }
            j = i;
        }
        return oddNodes;
    }

Answer 2

There are some interesting discussion here on polygon hit tests, but it sounds to me as if you might be better off with a polygon fill.