Compare Two Images, Looking for Changes

Comparison of images is easy with Victor. Determine the size of the images and allocate space for them in memory, load the files, and compare them. This procedure supports grayscale and color images. In general, the steps are:

determine the dimensions and pixel depth of the images allocate buffer space for the images load the images perform bitwise XOR to zero all pixels that are identical check for nonzero pixel values, indicating differences

Reference image

Test image

Final image

Notice that the final image is black except where the test image differed from the reference. (http://www.catenary.com/download/vic_eval.html)

Compare Two Images - the Visual Basic Source Code

Requires Victor Image Processing Library for 32-bit Windows v 5 or higher.
' Data type definitions ............................................... ' Image descriptor Type imgdes ibuff As Long stx As Long sty As Long

endx As Long endy As Long buffwidth As Long palette As Long colors As Long imgtype As Long bmh As Long hBitmap As Long End Type Type JpegData ftype As Long width As Long length As Long comps As Long precision As Long sampfac0 As Long sampfac1 As Long sampfac2 As Long sampfac3 As Long vbitcount As Long End Type ' Function Declarations ........................................... Declare Function allocimage Lib "VIC32.DLL" (image As imgdes, ByVal wid As Long, ByVal leng As Long, ByVal BPPixel As Long) As Long Declare Sub freeimage Lib "VIC32.DLL" (image As imgdes) Declare Function jpeginfo Lib "VIC32.DLL" (ByVal filename As String, jdat As JpegData) As Long Declare Function loadjpg Lib "VIC32.DLL" (ByVal filename As String, resimg As imgdes) As Long Declare Function pixelcount Lib "VIC32.DLL" (ByVal min As Long, ByVal max As Long, redct As Long, grnct As Long, bluct As Long, srcimg As imgdes) As Long Declare Function savejpg Lib "VIC32.DLL" (ByVal filename As String, srcimg As imgdes, ByVal quality As Long) As Long ' The Subroutine .................................................. Private Sub mnucompare2pics_Click() Dim refimage As imgdes Dim testimage As imgdes Dim finalimage As imgdes Dim ref_fname As String Dim test_fname As String Dim final_fname As String Dim ref_fileinfo As JpegData Dim test_fileinfo As JpegData Dim rcode1 As Long Dim rcode2 As Long Dim vbitcount As Long Dim ared As Long Dim agrn As Long Dim ablu As Long ref_fname = "refc.jpg"

test_fname = "testc.jpg" final_fname = "finalc.jpg" rcode1 = jpeginfo(ref_fname, ref_fileinfo) rcode2 = jpeginfo(test_fname, test_fileinfo) If ((rcode1 = NO_ERROR) And (rcode2 = NO_ERROR)) Then rcode1 = allocimage(refimage, ref_fileinfo.width, ref_fileinfo.length, ref_fileinfo.vbitcount) rcode2 = allocimage(testimage, test_fileinfo.width, test_fileinfo.length, test_fileinfo.vbitcount) If ((rcode1 = NO_ERROR) And (rcode2 = NO_ERROR)) Then rcode1 = loadjpg(ref_fname, refimage) image rcode2 = loadjpg(test_fname, testimage) ' Load the test image If ((rcode1 = NO_ERROR) And (rcode2 = NO_ERROR)) Then ' Allocate space to hold the final image rcode1 = allocimage(finalimage, test_fileinfo.width, test_fileinfo.length, test_fileinfo.vbitcount) If (rcode1 = NO_ERROR) Then ' Compare the images rcode1 = xorimage(refimage, testimage, finalimage) ' Turns all identical pixels to zero in the final image rcode2 = pixelcount(1, 255, ared, agrn, ablu, finalimage) ' Count the pixels that are nonzero If (rcode1 = NO_ERROR) And (rcode2 = NO_ERROR) And (ared > 0 Or agrn > 0 Or ablu > 0) Then MsgBox ("pictures are different, do something") End If End If End If End If ' Save the final image rcode1 = savejpg(final_fname, finalimage, 75) ' Free the image buffers freeimage finalimage freeimage testimage freeimage refimage End If End Sub ' Load the reference

http://www.catenary.com/howto/compare.html