Remove horizontal lines with Open CV

Question

I am trying to remove horizontal lines from my daughter's drawings, but can't get it quite right.

The approach I am following is creating a mask with horizontal lines (https://stackoverflow.com/a/57410471/1873521) and then removing that mask from the original (https://docs.opencv.org/3.3.1/df/d3d/tutorial_py_inpainting.html).

As you can see in the pics below, this only partially removes the horizontal lines, and also creates a few distortions, as some of the original drawing horizontal-ish lines also end up in the mask.

Any help improving this approach would be greatly appreciated!

Create mask with horizontal lines

From https://stackoverflow.com/a/57410471/1873521

import cv2
import numpy as np

img = cv2.imread("input.png", 0)

if len(img.shape) != 2:
    gray = cv2.cvtColor(img, cv2.COLOR_BGR2GRAY)
else:
    gray = img

gray = cv2.bitwise_not(gray)
bw = cv2.adaptiveThreshold(gray, 255, cv2.ADAPTIVE_THRESH_MEAN_C, 
cv2.THRESH_BINARY, 15, -2)

horizontal = np.copy(bw)

cols = horizontal.shape[1]
horizontal_size = cols // 30

horizontalStructure = cv2.getStructuringElement(cv2.MORPH_RECT, (horizontal_size, 1))

horizontal = cv2.erode(horizontal, horizontalStructure)
horizontal = cv2.dilate(horizontal, horizontalStructure)

cv2.imwrite("horizontal_lines_extracted.png", horizontal)

  

Remove horizontal lines using mask

From https://docs.opencv.org/3.3.1/df/d3d/tutorial_py_inpainting.html

import numpy as np
import cv2
mask = cv2.imread('horizontal_lines_extracted.png',0)
dst = cv2.inpaint(img,mask,3,cv2.INPAINT_TELEA)
cv2.imwrite("original_unmasked.png", dst)

Pics

Original picture

Mask

Partially cleaned:

Answer 1

So, I saw that working on the drawing separated from the paper would lead to a better result. I used MORPH_CLOSE to work on the paper and MORPH_OPEN for the lines in the inner part. I hope your daughter likes it :)

img = cv2.imread(r'E:\Downloads\i0RDA.jpg')
gray = cv2.cvtColor(img, cv2.COLOR_BGR2GRAY)

# Remove horizontal lines
thresh = cv2.adaptiveThreshold(gray,255,cv2.ADAPTIVE_THRESH_MEAN_C,cv2.THRESH_BINARY_INV,81,17)
horizontal_kernel = cv2.getStructuringElement(cv2.MORPH_RECT, (25,1))

# Using morph close to get lines outside the drawing
remove_horizontal = cv2.morphologyEx(thresh, cv2.MORPH_CLOSE, horizontal_kernel, iterations=3)
cnts = cv2.findContours(remove_horizontal, cv2.RETR_EXTERNAL, cv2.CHAIN_APPROX_SIMPLE)
cnts = cnts[0] if len(cnts) == 2 else cnts[1]
mask = np.zeros(gray.shape, np.uint8)
for c in cnts:
    cv2.drawContours(mask, [c], -1, (255,255,255),2)

# First inpaint
img_dst = cv2.inpaint(img, mask, 3, cv2.INPAINT_TELEA)

gray_dst = cv2.cvtColor(img_dst, cv2.COLOR_BGR2GRAY)
edges = cv2.Canny(gray_dst, 50, 150, apertureSize = 3)
horizontal_kernel = cv2.getStructuringElement(cv2.MORPH_RECT, (15,1))

# Using morph open to get lines inside the drawing
opening = cv2.morphologyEx(edges, cv2.MORPH_OPEN, horizontal_kernel)
cnts = cv2.findContours(opening, cv2.RETR_EXTERNAL, cv2.CHAIN_APPROX_SIMPLE)
cnts = cnts[0] if len(cnts) == 2 else cnts[1]
mask = np.uint8(img_dst)
mask = np.zeros(gray_dst.shape, np.uint8)
for c in cnts:
    cv2.drawContours(mask, [c], -1, (255,255,255),2)

# Second inpaint
img2_dst = cv2.inpaint(img_dst, mask, 3, cv2.INPAINT_TELEA)

Answer 2

1. Get the Edges

2. Dilate to close the lines

3. Hough line to detect the lines

4. Filter out the non horizontal lines

5. Inpaint the mask

6. Getting the Edges

gray = cv2.cvtColor(image,cv2.COLOR_BGR2GRAY)
edges = cv2.Canny(gray,50,150,apertureSize=3)

2. Dilate to close the lines

img_dilation = cv2.dilate(edges, np.ones((3,3), np.uint8), iterations=1)

3. Hough line to detect the lines

lines = cv2.HoughLinesP(
            img_dilation, # Input edge image
            1, # Distance resolution in pixels
            np.pi/180, # Angle resolution in radians
            threshold=100, # Min number of votes for valid line
            minLineLength=5, # Min allowed length of line
            maxLineGap=10 # Max allowed gap between line for joining them
            )

4. Filter out the non horizontal lines using slope.

lines_list = []

for points in lines:
    x1,y1,x2,y2=points[0]
    lines_list.append([(x1,y1),(x2,y2)])
    slope = ((y2-y1) / (x2-x1)) if (x2-x1) != 0 else np.inf
    
    if slope <= 1:
        cv2.line(mask,(x1,y1),(x2,y2), color=(255, 255, 255),thickness = 2)

5. Inpaint the mask

result = cv2.inpaint(image,mask,3,cv2.INPAINT_TELEA)

Full Code:

import cv2
import numpy as np
 
# Read image
image = cv2.imread('input.jpg')
mask = np.zeros((image.shape[0], image.shape[1]), dtype=np.uint8)

# Convert image to grayscale
gray = cv2.cvtColor(image,cv2.COLOR_BGR2GRAY)
 
# Use canny edge detection
edges = cv2.Canny(gray,50,150,apertureSize=3)

# Dilating
img_dilation = cv2.dilate(edges, np.ones((3,3), np.uint8), iterations=1)

 
# Apply HoughLinesP method to
# to directly obtain line end points
lines = cv2.HoughLinesP(
            img_dilation, # Input edge image
            1, # Distance resolution in pixels
            np.pi/180, # Angle resolution in radians
            threshold=100, # Min number of votes for valid line
            minLineLength=5, # Min allowed length of line
            maxLineGap=10 # Max allowed gap between line for joining them
            )

lines_list = []

for points in lines:
    x1,y1,x2,y2=points[0]
    lines_list.append([(x1,y1),(x2,y2)])
    slope = ((y2-y1) / (x2-x1)) if (x2-x1) != 0 else np.inf
    
    if slope <= 1:
        cv2.line(mask,(x1,y1),(x2,y2), color=(255, 255, 255),thickness = 2)
    
result = cv2.inpaint(image,mask,3,cv2.INPAINT_TELEA)