OpenCV version 4.1.0 drawContours

Question

I have the following code that worked well with OpenCV 3.4.1 and now is not working with OpenCV 4.1.0 and gives an error. I do not know how to adapt the code with the newer version, can you help me with that? Thanks a lot

def ImageProcessing(image):
    image = cv2.absdiff(image, background)
    h, gray = cv2.threshold(image, 65, 255, cv2.THRESH_BINARY_INV);
    gray = cv2.medianBlur(gray,5)

    kernel = np.ones((3,3), np.uint8)

    gray = cv2.erode(gray, kernel, iterations=1)#1

    des = cv2.bitwise_not(gray)
    tmp = cv2.findContours(des,cv2.RETR_CCOMP,cv2.CHAIN_APPROX_SIMPLE)
    contour, hier = tmp[1], tmp[0]

    for cnt in contour:
        cv2.drawContours(des,[cnt],0,255,-1)

    gray = cv2.bitwise_not(des)

    gray = cv2.dilate(gray, kernel, iterations=1)#1

    return gray

The error is

cv2.error: OpenCV(4.1.0) /io/opencv/modules/imgproc/src/drawing.cpp:2509: error: (-215:Assertion failed) npoints > 0 in function 'drawContours'

Answer 1

Depending on the OpenCV version, cv2.findContours() has varying return signatures.

In OpenCV 3.4.X, cv2.findContours() returns 3 items

image, contours, hierarchy = cv.findContours(image, mode, method[, contours[, hierarchy[, offset]]])

In OpenCV 4.1.X, cv2.findContours() returns 2 items

contours, hierarchy = cv.findContours(image, mode, method[, contours[, hierarchy[, offset]]])

You can easily obtain the contours regardless of the version like this:

tmp = cv2.findContours(des,cv2.RETR_CCOMP,cv2.CHAIN_APPROX_SIMPLE)
contours = tmp[0] if len(tmp) == 2 else tmp[1]