C++ OpenCV image sending through socket

Question

I'm trying to implement a streaming service using OpenCV and sockets. The server side loads a given image and sends it to the client, which receives it through the socket and displays it. I'm having a lot of trouble, though, sending the data of the image and reconstructing it on the client side. This is the code I've made so far:

Image sender:

#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <unistd.h>
#include <string.h>
#include <sys/types.h>
#include <sys/socket.h>
#include <netinet/in.h>
#include <netdb.h> 
#include <opencv2/core/core.hpp>
#include <opencv2/highgui/highgui.hpp>
#include <iostream>

using namespace cv;
using namespace std;

void error(const char *msg)
{
    perror(msg);
    exit(0);
}

int main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
    int sockfd, portno, n;
    struct sockaddr_in serv_addr;
    struct hostent *server;

    char buffer[256];
    if (argc < 3) {
       fprintf(stderr,"usage %s hostname port\n", argv[0]);
       exit(0);
    }
    portno = atoi(argv[2]);
    sockfd = socket(AF_INET, SOCK_STREAM, 0);
    if (sockfd < 0) 
        error("ERROR opening socket");
    server = gethostbyname(argv[1]);
    if (server == NULL) {
        fprintf(stderr,"ERROR, no such host\n");
        exit(0);
    }
    bzero((char *) &serv_addr, sizeof(serv_addr));
    serv_addr.sin_family = AF_INET;
    bcopy((char *)server->h_addr, 
         (char *)&serv_addr.sin_addr.s_addr,
         server->h_length);
    serv_addr.sin_port = htons(portno);
    if (connect(sockfd,(struct sockaddr *) &serv_addr,sizeof(serv_addr)) < 0) 
        error("ERROR connecting");

    Mat image;
    image = imread(argv[3], CV_LOAD_IMAGE_COLOR);
    if(! image.data )                              // Check for invalid input
    {
        cout <<  "Could not open or find the image" << std::endl ;
        return -1;
    }

    n = write(sockfd,image.data,image.total()*image.channels());
    if (n < 0) 
         error("ERROR writing to socket");
    close(sockfd);

    namedWindow( "Client", CV_WINDOW_AUTOSIZE );// Create a window for display.
    imshow( "Client", image );  
    waitKey(0);
    return 0;
}

Image receiver:

#include <stdio.h>
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <unistd.h>
#include <string.h>
#include <sys/types.h>
#include <sys/socket.h>
#include <netinet/in.h>
#include <netdb.h> 
#include <opencv2/core/core.hpp>
#include <opencv2/highgui/highgui.hpp>
#include <iostream>

using namespace cv;
using namespace std;

void error(const char *msg)
{
    perror(msg);
    exit(1);
}

int main(int argc, char *argv[])
{
     int sockfd, newsockfd, portno;
     socklen_t clilen;
     char buffer[1024];
     struct sockaddr_in serv_addr, cli_addr;
     int n;
     if (argc < 2) {
         fprintf(stderr,"ERROR, no port provided\n");
         exit(1);
     }
     sockfd = socket(AF_INET, SOCK_STREAM, 0);
     if (sockfd < 0) 
        error("ERROR opening socket");
     bzero((char *) &serv_addr, sizeof(serv_addr));
     portno = atoi(argv[1]);
     serv_addr.sin_family = AF_INET;
     serv_addr.sin_addr.s_addr = INADDR_ANY;
     serv_addr.sin_port = htons(portno);
     if (bind(sockfd, (struct sockaddr *) &serv_addr,
              sizeof(serv_addr)) < 0) 
              error("ERROR on binding");
     listen(sockfd,5);
     clilen = sizeof(cli_addr);
     newsockfd = accept(sockfd, 
                 (struct sockaddr *) &cli_addr, 
                 &clilen);
     if (newsockfd < 0) 
          error("ERROR on accept");
     bzero(buffer,1024);

     n = read(newsockfd,buffer,1023);
     if (n < 0) error("ERROR reading from socket");

     Mat image(690,690,CV_8UC3,*buffer);
     imwrite("/home/securitas/images/prova.jpg",image);
     close(newsockfd);
     close(sockfd);

     namedWindow( "Server", CV_WINDOW_AUTOSIZE );// Create a window for display.
     imshow( "Server", image );  
     waitKey(0);
     return 0; 
}

Al I receive on the client side is a black image, nothing else. Any help?

Answer 1

Get Mat.data and directly send to the socket, the data order is BGR BGR BGR.... On the receiving side assumes you know the size of image. After receiving just assign the received buffer(BGR BGR... array) to a Mat.

Client:-

Mat frame;
frame = (frame.reshape(0,1)); // to make it continuous

int  imgSize = frame.total()*frame.elemSize();

// Send data here
bytes = send(clientSock, frame.data, imgSize, 0))

Server:-

Mat  img = Mat::zeros( height,width, CV_8UC3);
int  imgSize = img.total()*img.elemSize();
uchar sockData[imgSize];

//Receive data here

for (int i = 0; i < imgSize; i += bytes) {
    if ((bytes = recv(connectSock, sockData +i, imgSize  - i, 0)) == -1)  {
        quit("recv failed", 1);
    }
}

// Assign pixel value to img
int ptr=0;
for (int i = 0;  i < img.rows; i++) {
    for (int j = 0; j < img.cols; j++) {                                     
       img.at<cv::Vec3b>(i,j) = cv::Vec3b(sockData[ptr+ 0],sockData[ptr+1],sockData[ptr+2]);
       ptr=ptr+3;
    }
}