Matlab Process Images
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AutoGineer summary
Written by AutoGineer from the skill’s own files, not by the author
This skill serves as the primary entry point for MATLAB tasks involving images, scans, frames, and 3-D volumes. It provides core conventions for image data types, coordinate systems, and display practices, while routing users to specific references for tasks such as I/O, filtering, segmentation, and measurement. It ensures consistent use of Image Processing Toolbox functions and helps users navigate common pitfalls in image analysis workflows.
What it does
- Provides standardized conventions for image data types and coordinate systems.
- Routes users to specialized references for image I/O, filtering, and transformation tasks.
- Defines best practices for displaying images using the imageshow function.
- Offers guidance on handling 3-D volumetric data and large-scale images.
- Assists with selecting appropriate functions for segmentation and object measurement.
- Provides troubleshooting patterns for common image processing errors.
When to use it
- When performing image processing tasks in MATLAB, such as filtering, enhancing, or segmenting.
- When working with image formats like TIFF, PNG, JPEG, DICOM, or NIfTI.
- When needing to understand MATLAB-specific coordinate conventions for image data.
- When determining the correct toolbox function for a specific image analysis goal.
- When troubleshooting syntax or type-related errors in image processing scripts.
Advantages
- Ensures consistent coding patterns across different image processing tasks.
- Reduces errors by providing clear guidance on coordinate and data type conventions.
- Simplifies the selection of appropriate tools for complex workflows like 3-D volume processing.
- Promotes the use of modern display functions like imageshow over legacy alternatives.
- Provides a structured approach to identifying the correct documentation for specific functions.
Usage examples
- “How do I read a DICOM file and display it in MATLAB?”
- The agent will guide you to use the medical-data-io reference for reading the file and the imageshow function for display, following the core conventions.
- “I need to count the number of objects in a binary image.”
- The agent will provide the standard analysis pipeline using bwconncomp and regionprops, ensuring the input is correctly formatted as logical.
- “How do I perform 3-D filtering on a volume?”
- The agent will direct you to the 3-D volume processing reference to select the appropriate 3-D specific function, such as imgaussfilt3.
- “Why is my regionprops measurement returning only one object?”
- The agent will explain that the input must be a logical array and provide the code to convert your numeric array to logical.
Install
Download the skill as a ZIP:
https://mp-staging.autogineer.com/agent-skills/matlab/matlab-process-images/downloadUnzip it into the cross-client skills folder of your project:
mkdir -p .agents/skills && unzip matlab-process-images.zip -d .agents/skills
Documentation by MathWorks
Image Processing
Process, analyze, and transform images using MATLAB Image Processing Toolbox (IPT). This skill routes you to the correct reference for your task and provides core conventions that apply across all IPT work.
When to Use
Loaded for general-purpose IPT work: file and batch I/O, filtering, restoration, morphology, segmentation, measurement, geometric transforms, color, texture, quality metrics, deep learning on images, and image apps. Non-medical microscopy — cell and particle counting on plain IPT — is in scope.
Hand off (and co-load) instead of answering alone: see the handoff table under ## Routing.
When NOT to Use
Training a network with no image-specific preprocessing — use Deep Learning Toolbox directly
Simulink or Stateflow video blocks — use Simulink directly
C/C++ code generation, MEX, GPU acceleration and deployment — use MATLAB Coder / GPU Coder directly
Point clouds, 3-D reconstruction, and video stabilization — use Computer Vision Toolbox directly
General MATLAB questions unrelated to images
Looking at an image yourself (e.g., "look at this screenshot") when no MATLAB work is requested — use your own vision instead
Core Conventions
Image Data Types
| Type | Range | When to use |
|---|---|---|
uint8 | 0–255 | Display, file I/O, memory-efficient storage |
uint16 | 0–65535 | High dynamic range sensors, medical. Camera RAW is n-bit in a uint16 container — rescale with rawinfo BlackLevel/WhiteLevel, not 65535 |
single / double | 0.0–1.0 | Arithmetic, filtering, computation |
logical | 0 or 1 | Binary masks, segmentation results |
Most IPT functions accept integer types directly — do not convert to floating-point unless required.
Default Coordinate Conventions
MATLAB images are (row, col) — row is Y (down), column is X (right)
size(img)returns[height, width, channels]Spatial functions use (x, y) order for coordinates (e.g.,
imref2d,regionpropscentroids)Pixel centers are at integer intrinsic coordinates; in default world referencing, pixel (1,1) center is at world (1.0, 1.0) and the image edge starts at 0.5
imref2dandimref3dcan specify non-default spatial referencing to place images into world coordinate systems. By default they use the unit-spaced, integer-pixel-centered coordinate system described here, e.g.Rout = imref2d(imageSize). Functions that do not accept spatial referencing objects assume this intrinsic coordinate system for any operation requiring spatial referencing.
Multichannel Images
Grayscale:
M×NorM×N×1RGB:
M×N×3With alpha: read using
[img, ~, alpha] = imread(...)(alpha is the third output)Convert:
rgb2gray,im2gray(preferred, handles more input types)
Display Functions — use imageshow, not imshow
Always use imageshow instead of imshow in all generated code — scripts, apps, examples, and quick previews. The signatures are compatible for common cases: replace imshow(...) with imageshow(...). imageshow (R2024b+) handles sub-bit-depth containers (e.g., 12-bit in uint16) via DisplayRangeMode, supports OverlayData for label/mask overlays, and works with viewer2d. imshow lacks all of these capabilities and should not appear in new code.
Title convention: imageshow creates a viewer2d, not an axes — gca does not return it. To add a title, get the viewer from the Image object's parent:
obj = imageshow(im);
viewer = obj.Parent;
title(viewer, "Title Text");Do not use title("text") or title(gca, "text") after imageshow — these silently fail or create a stray axes title.
Code Execution
Execute code blocks via evaluate_matlab_code before presenting them to the user. If it errors, fix and re-run. This catches type mismatches, wrong argument orders, and nonexistent functions before the user sees them. If execution requires user data or toolboxes not available in the current session, present the code with a note that it should be run with the user's own data — do not loop trying to synthesize stand-in data.
Error Recovery
If code throws an error after execution, load the matlab-read-documentation skill and look up the function's doc page to verify syntax, required arguments, and supported input types before retrying.
When to Ask the User
Ask for clarification before proceeding when:
The image type/format is ambiguous and affects the processing approach
Multiple valid approaches exist with different tradeoffs (speed vs quality, lossy vs lossless)
The task requires choosing parameters that depend on domain knowledge (e.g., object size thresholds, noise characteristics)
The user's MATLAB release is unknown and the recommended function may not be available
Routing
Match your task in the tables below. Check the handoff table first. If the task belongs to another skill, load that skill in addition to this one — the Core Conventions above (data types, coordinate order, code execution) apply to all image data. Do not re-derive them from the sibling. If a row in both tables fits, the handoff table wins on workflow; this skill still owns conventions.
Unfamiliar data? Load
references/image-understanding.mdfirst — but only when class, range, or content is unknown.Starting from a function name, not a task? The function column is illustrative, not exhaustive. To locate any function:
grep -rln '<functionName>' references/. To look up syntax details, loadmatlab-read-documentation.Pipeline tasks: load several references; cap at three unless the task genuinely spans more.
Follow the patterns in loaded references. References contain specific code patterns and workflows — use them instead of improvising equivalent code from general knowledge.
No row matches? Name the owning product, state the closest IPT fallback, and say so — do not guess a reference.
Check first: is this another skill's job?
| If the task involves... | Also load |
|---|---|
| Segmenting anatomy — tumor, lesion, organ, vessel — in CT, MRI, PET, ultrasound; MedSAM; radiomics | No skill covers this — Medical Imaging Toolbox (segmentMedicalImage, groundTruthMedical); look up the doc page |
Displaying or viewing a 2-D image: imshow, imageshow, viewer2d, montage, mask overlay, annotation, colorbar, colormap, figure export | matlab-display-image |
Displaying a 3-D volume: volshow, viewer3d, isosurface rendering, slice viewer, orthogonal views | matlab-display-volume |
| Hyperspectral or multispectral cubes, spectral indices, unmixing, ENVI, band selection | matlab-analyze-spectral-images |
| Calling a PyTorch or ONNX vision model from MATLAB | matlab-integrate-pytorch-vision |
| OCR, text recognition, reading text out of an image | matlab-recognize-text (requires Computer Vision Toolbox) |
| Factory-floor visual inspection: anomaly detection, defect/scratch/dent detection, gauging, pass/fail counting | matlab-use-visual-inspection (requires Visual Inspection Toolbox, R2026b+) |
| Barcode or QR reading, camera calibration | No skill covers this — Computer Vision Toolbox (readBarcode, estimateCameraParameters); look up the doc page |
| Optical system design: lens import, prescription-side MTF, spot diagrams, ray tracing, tolerance analysis | matlab-model-optics |
In scope: pick the reference
| If the task or the user's words involve... | Illustrative functions | Load |
|---|---|---|
| inspect, understand, characterize, explore data, look at my images, what kind of image, what am I working with, what's in this folder, describe the data, summarize the dataset, what format, bit depth, class and range, indexed image, alpha channel, metadata, file info, dataset characterization, before I start processing | imfinfo, imhist, countEachLabel | references/image-understanding.md |
| read, write, load, save, import, export, open an image, convert format, batch, folder of images, TIFF, PNG, JPEG, RAW, HDR, test pattern | imread, imwrite, imageDatastore, hdrread | references/image-io.md |
| video, footage, frames, read video, write video, VideoReader, VideoWriter, frame rate, video codec, MP4, AVI | VideoReader, VideoWriter, readFrame, hasFrame, writeVideo | references/video-io.md |
| smooth, blur an image, sharpen, denoise, noise, grainy, filter, kernel, padding, edge-preserving, bilateral, non-local means, frequency filter | imgaussfilt, medfilt2, imsharpen, imbilatfilt, imnlmfilt, imdiffusefilt, imfilter, ordfilt2, locallapfilt, wiener2 | references/filtering.md |
| contrast, brighten, darken, too dark, washed out, enhance, improve, histogram, equalize, CLAHE, normalize, rescale, blend, arithmetic, type convert, flat-field, illumination correction, vignetting, uneven lighting | imadjust, stretchlim, adapthisteq, histeq, rescale, mat2gray, im2single, imadd, imlincomb, imblend, imflatfield | references/preprocessing.md |
| erode, dilate, open, close, structuring element, 2-D morphology, fill holes, remove small objects, skeletonize, thin, tidy up a binary result | strel, imerode, imdilate, imopen, imclose, imfill, bwareaopen, bwskel, imtophat, imreconstruct | references/morphological-ops.md |
| deblur, blurry, unfocused, out of focus, motion blur, camera shake, restore a blurred image, deconvolution, PSF estimation | deconvblind, deconvlucy, deconvwnr, deconvreg | references/deblurring.md |
| resize, rotate, crop, warp, scale, flip, straighten, affine, projective, perspective, undistort, lens distortion, spatial referencing, world coordinates, voxel coordinates, pixel coordinates, coordinate conversion | imresize, imrotate, imcrop, imwarp, imtranslate, affinetform2d, imref2d | references/geometric-transforms.md |
| align two images, stitch, mosaic, panorama, overlapping shots, seam, motion correction, multi-modal alignment, control points, non-rigid, deformable, homography (feature-based requires Computer Vision Toolbox) | imregister, imregtform, imregdemons, imregcorr, detectSIFTFeatures, matchFeatures, estgeotform2d (last three: Computer Vision Toolbox), imregdeform (Medical Imaging Toolbox) | references/registration.md |
segment or threshold with no user input: binarize, Otsu, watershed, k-means or colour clustering, imsegsam automatic mode, deep-learning segmentation | imbinarize, graythresh, multithresh, adaptthresh, watershed, imsegkmeans, imsegkmeans3, imsegisodata, imsegsam | references/segmentation-automated.md |
| segment with user input: clicks, points, boxes, scribbles, seeds, prompted SAM, grabcut, active contours, region growing, lazy snapping, superpixels, App Designer segmentation UIs | segmentAnythingModel, grabcut, activecontour, lazysnapping, imsegfmm, grayconnected, superpixels | references/segmentation-interactive.md |
| measure, count objects, how many, area, perimeter, centroid, size, shape, width, thickness, gap, diameter, Feret, orientation, detect edges, circles, lines, boundary tracing, ROI, world units, metrology, region, region properties, analysis | regionprops, bwconncomp, bwareafilt, bwpropfilt, bwlabel, edge, imfindcircles, hough, bwboundaries | references/analysis-measurement.md |
| quality, PSNR, SSIM, sharpness, noise level, is it blurry, compare two images, difference, before/after, MTF (camera/chart SFR), test chart, artifact (register first — full-reference metrics need pixel correspondence) | psnr, ssim, multissim, immse, brisque, niqe, piqe, measureSharpness, esfrChart | references/quality-assessment.md |
| texture, repetitive pattern, frequency domain, Fourier, FFT, DCT, Radon, Gabor, co-occurrence, GLCM | graycomatrix, graycoprops, entropyfilt, fft2, dct2, radon, gabor | references/texture-transforms.md |
| color space, LAB, HSV, hue, saturation, white balance, color cast, color correction, color balance, ICC profile, grayscale conversion | rgb2lab, lab2rgb, rgb2hsv, chromadapt, illumwhite, makecform, deltaE, decorrstretch | references/color-processing.md |
| 3-D array, volume, volumetric, voxel, slice stack, z-stack — filtering, 3-D morphology, 3-D transforms, or measurement applied to a volume | imgaussfilt3, medfilt3, imresize3, regionprops3, bwvolumefilt (R2026b), bwpropfilt3 (R2026b) | references/3d-volume-processing.md |
| deep learning, neural network, train, U-Net, semantic segmentation networks, classify images, pretrained model, transfer learning, fine-tune, inference, augment, training dataset (requires DLT, often CVT) | unet, deeplabv3plus, trainnet, semanticseg, imageDataAugmenter, augmentedImageDatastore | references/deep-learning-imaging.md |
| build your own image app or GUI: sliders, live preview, parameter tuning, ROI widgets | uifigure, uigridlayout, uislider, drawrectangle | references/app-building.md |
DICOM, NIfTI, NRRD, DICOM-RT, patient metadata, anonymizing, medicalVolume, medicalImage, reading/writing medical formats, extractSlice, volume orientation, medical spatial referencing | medicalVolume, medicalImage, dicomreadVolume, dicomCollection, extractSlice, dicomContours, dicomanon | references/medical-data-io.md |
gigapixel, whole-slide, out-of-memory images, blockedImage, tiled workflows, image pyramids, .svs, .ndpi, .czi, TIFF > 10,000 px, parallel image processing, custom adapters | blockedImage, apply, getBlock, getRegion, selectBlockLocations, blockedImageDatastore | references/large-image-processing.md |
Toolbox Detection
When unsure what's available, check installed toolboxes:
hasIPT = ~isempty(ver('images'));
hasCVT = ~isempty(ver('vision'));
hasDLT = ~isempty(ver('nnet'));
hasMIT = ~isempty(ver('medical'));
hasWavelet = ~isempty(ver('wavelet'));Most functions in this skill require Image Processing Toolbox. The deep-learning-imaging reference also requires Deep Learning Toolbox. Feature-based registration (detectSIFTFeatures, matchFeatures, estgeotform2d) requires Computer Vision Toolbox.
Release-Gated Features
This skill targets R2024b+ but some features require newer releases. References annotate these with the required release. Key ones:
R2024b:
imageshow,imblend,viewer2dR2026a:
uidraw,uipaint,linkviewersR2026b:
bwvolumefilt,bwpropfilt3,uiannotate
If targeting an older release, check with isMATLABReleaseOlderThan("R2026a") and use the fallback patterns documented in the references. To check release notes for a specific function, load matlab-read-documentation.
Copyright 2026 The MathWorks, Inc.
Files
- ATTRIBUTION.mdAdded by AutoGineer1.1 KiB
- LICENSELicence file added by AutoGineer1.4 KiB
- SKILL.md15.8 KiB
- manifest.yaml811 B
- references/3d-volume-processing.md20.2 KiB
- references/analysis-measurement.md18.5 KiB
- references/app-building.md16.9 KiB
- references/blocked-3d-volumes.md9.9 KiB
- references/blocked-data-discovery.md22.1 KiB
- references/blocked-geospatial.md3.2 KiB
- references/blocked-specialized-workflows.md4.3 KiB
- references/blocked-training-and-labeling.md7.0 KiB
- references/blocked-visualization.md5.1 KiB
- references/blocked-whole-slide-images.md3.1 KiB
- references/color-processing.md9.0 KiB
- references/deblurring.md8.1 KiB
- references/deep-learning-imaging.md14.8 KiB
- references/dicom-anonymization.md3.3 KiB
- references/dicom-rt-workflows.md7.4 KiB
- references/filtering.md21.8 KiB
- references/geometric-transforms.md14.3 KiB
- references/image-io.md15.5 KiB
- references/image-understanding.md20.0 KiB
- references/ipt-reading-writing.md4.8 KiB
- references/large-image-processing.md12.3 KiB
- references/medical-data-io.md8.3 KiB
- references/mit-medical-volume.md8.2 KiB
- references/mit-spatial-referencing.md5.9 KiB
- references/morphological-ops.md18.0 KiB
- references/preprocessing.md14.4 KiB
- references/quality-assessment.md13.5 KiB
- references/registration.md24.7 KiB
- references/segmentation-automated.md9.7 KiB
- references/segmentation-interactive.md15.3 KiB
- references/texture-transforms.md10.4 KiB
- references/video-io.md3.4 KiB
references/3d-volume-processing.md
3-D Volume Processing
Decision guidance for processing 3-D volumetric data: filtering, morphology, segmentation, measurement, geometric transforms, and the key differences from 2-D workflows.
Often loaded with:
segmentation-automated.md(3-D segmentation methods),segmentation-interactive.md(interactive masks and region growth),analysis-measurement.md(regionprops3measurement),geometric-transforms.md(2-D transform basics that carry over to 3-D),registration.md(3-D volume alignment and deformable registration),image-io.md(loading multi-page TIFFs into 3-D arrays).
Critical: What Works Differently in 3-D
Many 2-D IPT functions extend to 3-D, but some don't. Key incompatibilities:
| Function | 3-D support | 3-D alternative |
|---|---|---|
imadjust | No | imadjustn |
adapthisteq (CLAHE) | No (2-D grayscale only) | Apply per-slice or use imadjustn |
imhistmatch | 2-D only | imhistmatchn (N-D) |
edge | No (2-D only) | edge3 (methods: "approxcanny", "Sobel") or imgradient3 |
imgradient | 2-D only | imgradient3 |
imgradientxy | 2-D only | imgradientxyz |
bwareafilt / bwpropfilt | No (2-D only) | bwvolumefilt / bwpropfilt3 (R2026b+), or regionprops3 + ismember |
bwlabel | 2-D only | bwlabeln |
bwselect | 2-D only | bwselect3 |
bwboundaries | 2-D only | No direct 3-D equivalent — use isosurface or bwperim + surface extraction |
bwmorph | 2-D only | bwmorph3 |
superpixels | 2-D only | superpixels3 |
imsegkmeans | 2-D spatial only (treats 3rd dim as channels, output is M×N not M×N×P) | imsegkmeans3 |
imresize | Runs but in-plane only (no Z resize) | imresize3 for true 3-D |
imrotate | Runs but in-plane only (no Z rotation) | imrotate3 for true 3-D |
imcrop | 2-D only | imcrop3 |
medfilt2 | No — errors on 3-D | medfilt3 |
imgaussfilt | Runs on 3-D but per-slice (no Z smoothing) | imgaussfilt3 for true 3-D |
imboxfilt | Runs on 3-D but per-slice (no Z smoothing) | imboxfilt3 for true 3-D |
integralImage / integralBoxFilter | Run on 3-D but per-slice | integralImage3 / integralBoxFilter3 for true 3-D |
fspecial | 2-D only | fspecial3 (types: "average", "ellipsoid", "gaussian", "laplacian", "log", "prewitt", "sobel") |
imsharpen | No (2-D grayscale/RGB only) | imfilter with fspecial3("laplacian") for unsharp masking |
imflatfield | No (2-D grayscale/RGB only) | Apply per-slice, or imgaussfilt3 + division for background correction |
label2rgb | No (2-D only) | volshow(V, OverlayData=L) for 3-D label visualization |
regionprops | Accepts 3-D but limited subset (Area, Centroid, BoundingBox, PixelIdxList, PixelList, Image, SubarrayIdx, FilledImage, FilledArea, and intensity properties) — shape/moment properties are 2-D only | regionprops3 for full 3-D property set |
Functions that do work on N-D arrays without change: imbinarize, imerode, imdilate, imopen, imclose, imtophat, imbothat, imfill, imclearborder, bwareaopen, bwconncomp, bwdist, bwskel (prefer for 3-D; for 2-D use bwmorph "skel"), bwperim (with 6/18/26 conn), watershed, imhmin, imhmax, imregionalmax, imregionalmin, imextendedmax, imextendedmin, imreconstruct, imimposemin, imfilter, adaptthresh (accepts 2-D matrix or 3-D array), graythresh, imadjustn, imhistmatchn, imwarp (with 3-D transform), bwlabeln.
3-D Structuring Elements
se = strel("sphere", 3); % Sphere of radius 3
se = strel("cube", 5); % 5×5×5 cube
se = strel("cuboid", [3 3 7]); % Anisotropic cuboidDo not use strel("disk", …) or strel("square", …) for volumetric morphology — those are 2-D SEs. imerode/imdilate will accept them on a 3-D input without erroring, but silently apply the SE per-slice (no Z coupling), giving 2-D behavior instead of true 3-D morphology.
Anisotropic data (e.g., CT with 0.5×0.5×2.5 mm spacing): Use strel("cuboid", …) scaled to approximate isotropy in physical space:
voxelSize = [0.5 0.5 2.5]; % [row col slice] in mm
targetRadius = 2; % mm
seSize = round(2*targetRadius ./ voxelSize);
seSize = seSize + (1 - mod(seSize, 2)); % Ensure odd
se = strel("cuboid", seSize);Connectivity in 3-D
| Connectivity | Neighbors | Meaning | Use when |
|---|---|---|---|
| 6 | Adjacent faces only | Strictest | Objects should connect only through faces |
| 18 | Face + edge | Moderate | Good default for most segmentation |
| 26 | Face + edge + vertex | Most permissive | Default for bwconncomp in 3-D |
Gotcha: Default connectivity for bwconncomp, bwvolumefilt, and bwpropfilt3 on 3-D is 26 (most permissive). For segmentation tasks where you want to separate nearby objects, explicitly use 6:
cc = bwconncomp(bw3d, 6); % Stricter separation
bw = bwvolumefilt(bw3d, 5, 6); % 5 largest by volume, 6-connectivityFiltering
Use imgaussfilt3 / imboxfilt3 to apply true 3-D filtering to volumetric data. imgaussfilt and imboxfilt accept 3-D arrays without error or warning but filter per-slice only (no Z-axis smoothing).
% Gaussian smoothing
smoothed = imgaussfilt3(V, sigma); % Isotropic sigma
smoothed = imgaussfilt3(V, [sx sy sz]); % Anisotropic sigma
% Median filtering
denoised = medfilt3(V); % Default 3×3×3
denoised = medfilt3(V, [3 3 5]); % Anisotropic kernel
% Box filtering (fast mean)
mean3 = imboxfilt3(V, [3 3 3]);
% Custom 3-D kernel via imfilter
h = fspecial3("gaussian", [7 7 7], 1.5);
filtered = imfilter(V, h, "replicate");
% Anisotropic diffusion (edge-preserving)
% imdiffusefilt accepts 3-D grayscale volumes directly
denoised = imdiffusefilt(V);
% Mode filter for label/categorical volumes (preserves discrete values)
labelSmoothed = modefilt(labelVol, [3 3 3]);Choosing a 3-D denoiser:
| Filter | Speed | Preserves edges | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
imgaussfilt3 | Fast | No | Standard smoothing |
imboxfilt3 | Very fast | No | Uses 3-D integral image internally |
medfilt3 | Medium | Yes | Best for salt-and-pepper on volumes |
modefilt | Fast | N/A (categorical) | Smooths label/categorical volumes — preserves discrete class values |
imdiffusefilt (on volume) | Slow (iterative) | Yes | Best when strong noise + edge detail matters |
imnlmfilt, imbilatfilt, imguidedfilter, locallapfilt, and localcontrast are 2-D only. Apply per-slice if you need them on a volume. See filtering.md for parameter guidance and type restrictions on these 2-D filters.
Edge Detection — edge3 and imgradient3
% edge3 — threshold is REQUIRED (unlike 2-D edge which auto-computes)
BW = edge3(V, "approxcanny", 0.5); % Scalar threshold
BW = edge3(V, "approxcanny", [0.2 0.5]); % [low high] thresholds
BW = edge3(V, "approxcanny", [0.2 0.5], 1.5); % With sigma
BW = edge3(V, "Sobel", 0.3); % Sobel method
% imgradient3 — gradient magnitude and direction (not binary edges)
[Gmag, Gazimuth, Gelevation] = imgradient3(V);edge3 only supports "approxcanny" and "Sobel" — not "Canny", "Prewitt", "Roberts", or "log".
Contrast Adjustment
% imadjustn — N-D equivalent of imadjust
Vadj = imadjustn(V); % Auto stretch to [0 1] output
Vadj = imadjustn(V, stretchlim(V(:))); % Percentile-based limits
% N-D histogram matching (align intensities to a reference volume)
Vmatched = imhistmatchn(V, Vref);
Vmatched = imhistmatchn(V, Vref, 128); % Custom bin count
% Per-slice CLAHE (adapthisteq is 2-D only)
Vclahe = zeros(size(V), "like", V);
for k = 1:size(V, 3)
Vclahe(:,:,k) = adapthisteq(V(:,:,k));
endhisteq works on 3-D (flattens histogram across entire volume), but imadjustn is generally preferred for volumetric contrast — it provides percentile-based stretching without redistributing the histogram.
When to prefer imhistmatchn over imadjustn: matching two volumes acquired under different conditions (different scanners, sessions, or exposures) before registration or comparison.
Thresholding
BW = imbinarize(V); % Otsu on 3-D grayscale
BW = imbinarize(V, "adaptive", Sensitivity=0.5); % Adaptive on 3-D volume
% Or via adaptthresh (equivalent — build threshold volume explicitly)
T = adaptthresh(V, 0.5);
BW = imbinarize(V, T);Morphological Cleanup (3-D)
se = strel("sphere", 2);
bw = imbinarize(V); % Otsu on volume
bw = imopen(bw, se); % Remove small protrusions
bw = imclose(bw, se); % Fill small gaps
bw = imfill(bw, "holes"); % Fill fully-enclosed 3-D holes
bw = imclearborder(bw); % Remove objects touching any volume face
bw = bwareaopen(bw, minVoxelCount); % Remove small objects by voxel count3-D-specific bwmorph3 operations — only these six: "branchpoints", "clean", "endpoints", "fill", "majority", "remove". It does not support "thin", "skel", "spur", "bridge" — use bwskel for 3-D skeletonization.
Filtering Objects by Properties — 3-D
R2026b+: bwvolumefilt and bwpropfilt3
Starting in R2026b, use these dedicated 3-D object filtering functions — they mirror the 2-D bwareafilt/bwpropfilt functions:
% Filter by volume (3-D equivalent of bwareafilt)
bwFiltered = bwvolumefilt(bw, [minVol maxVol]); % Keep objects in volume range
bwFiltered = bwvolumefilt(bw, n); % Keep n largest objects (default)
bwFiltered = bwvolumefilt(bw, n, "smallest"); % Keep n smallest
bwFiltered = bwvolumefilt(bw, n, 6); % With explicit connectivity
% Filter by any regionprops3 property (3-D equivalent of bwpropfilt)
bwFiltered = bwpropfilt3(bw, "SurfaceArea", [100 Inf]);
bwFiltered = bwpropfilt3(bw, "Solidity", 3, "largest");
bwFiltered = bwpropfilt3(bw, I, "MeanIntensity", [50 200]); % Needs grayscale I
% Both accept a connected component structure (from bwconncomp) as input:
cc = bwconncomp(bw, 6);
ccFiltered = bwpropfilt3(cc, "Volume", [1000 Inf]);Pre-R2026b: regionprops3 + ismember fallback
In R2026a and earlier, bwareafilt and bwpropfilt are 2-D only. Use regionprops3 and ismember to manually filter by 3-D properties:
cc = bwconncomp(bw, 26);
props = regionprops3(cc, "Volume", "Centroid");
keep = props.Volume > minVolume;
L = labelmatrix(cc);
bwFiltered = ismember(L, find(keep));
% Multiple properties
keep = props.Volume > 100 & props.Volume < 10000;
bwFiltered = ismember(L, find(keep));Note: bwareaopen(bw, minVoxels) works on 3-D for simple size thresholding (remove objects below a minimum), but cannot filter by range or by non-volume properties.
regionprops3 — 3-D Measurement
props = regionprops3(cc, "Volume", "Centroid", "PrincipalAxisLength", "SurfaceArea");Key 3-D properties:
| Property | Description |
|---|---|
Volume | Voxel count (equivalent to 2-D Area) |
Centroid | Center of mass [x, y, z] — x=col, y=row, z=slice. To index the volume: V(round(c(2)), round(c(1)), round(c(3))) |
SurfaceArea | Surface area (Crofton formula, assumes unit voxel spacing) |
PrincipalAxisLength | [major, middle, minor] axis lengths |
Orientation | Euler angles [roll, pitch, yaw] in degrees (rotation about x-, y-, z-axes) |
BoundingBox | [x y z width height depth] |
EquivDiameter | Diameter of sphere with same volume |
Solidity | Ratio of Volume to ConvexVolume |
ConvexVolume | Volume of convex hull |
ConvexHull / ConvexImage | Convex hull vertices / binary convex hull image |
Extent | Ratio of Volume to BoundingBox volume |
EigenValues / EigenVectors | Principal moments and directions |
VoxelIdxList | Linear indices of all voxels in region |
VoxelList | [x y z] subscript coordinates of all voxels |
SubarrayIdx | Cell of subscript ranges for bounding box |
Converting to physical units: Volume and SurfaceArea are in voxels/voxel² by default. Multiply manually: physicalVolume = props.Volume * prod(voxelSpacing). Note that SurfaceArea assumes isotropic voxels and cannot be corrected by a simple scalar for anisotropic spacing.
Intensity measurements (require grayscale volume):
props = regionprops3(cc, V, "MeanIntensity", "MaxIntensity", "MinIntensity", "VoxelValues", "WeightedCentroid");3-D Segmentation
Beyond thresholding (imbinarize, adaptthresh) and k-means (imsegkmeans3, superpixels3), these methods handle more complex 3-D segmentation tasks:
Watershed — Separating Touching Objects
% Distance-transform based (for separating touching convex objects)
D = bwdist(~bw);
D = -D;
D = imhmin(D, 2); % Suppress shallow minima to reduce over-segmentation
L = watershed(D);
bwSeparated = bw & (L > 0); % Watershed lines are L==0imhmin accepts an N-D connectivity argument — pass 6 or 18 to influence how minima are grouped in 3-D:
D = imhmin(D, 2, 6); % Stricter minima connectivity in 3-DActive Contours — activecontour
Level-set segmentation, works on 3-D volumes:
% Initial mask (rough estimate of region)
mask = false(size(V));
mask(r1:r2, c1:c2, s1:s2) = true;
% Chan-Vese (region-based, no edge needed) — default method
result = activecontour(V, mask, numIterations, "Chan-Vese");
% Edge-based
result = activecontour(V, mask, numIterations, "edge");Seed-Based Region Growing — imsegfmm
Fast marching segmentation from seed points, works on 3-D:
W = graydiffweight(V, seedCol, seedRow, seedSlice); % Intensity-difference weights
BW = imsegfmm(W, seedCol, seedRow, seedSlice, 0.01); % Geodesic threshold
W = gradientweight(V); % Gradient-based weights
BW = imsegfmm(W, seedCol, seedRow, seedSlice, 0.05);3-D Geometric Transforms
Resizing — imresize3
Vs = imresize3(V, 0.5); % Uniform scale
Vs = imresize3(V, [200 200 100]); % Explicit output size
Vs = imresize3(V, [200 200 100], "nearest"); % Preserve labels/masksInterpolation methods: "nearest", "linear", "cubic" (default), "box", "triangle", "lanczos2", "lanczos3".
Categorical / label volumes: imresize3 accepts categorical arrays directly — use "nearest" to avoid invalid intermediate labels.
Rotation — imrotate3
Rotates about an arbitrary axis (unlike 2-D imrotate which always rotates about the image center in-plane):
Vr = imrotate3(V, 30, [0 0 1]); % 30° about Z
Vr = imrotate3(V, 45, [1 1 0], "linear", "crop"); % 45° about [1 1 0], cropped to input size
Vr = imrotate3(V, 15, [1 0 0], FillValues=NaN); % NaN fill (FillValues must be numeric)Accepts categorical arrays (labels/masks) — use "nearest" interpolation. Default bounding box is "loose" (output grows to contain the entire rotated volume). Use "crop" to keep the same size as the input, clipping regions that rotate outside the original bounds.
Cropping — imcrop3
Vc = imcrop3(V, [xmin ymin zmin width height depth]);Oblique Slicing — obliqueslice
Extract a 2-D slice at an arbitrary angle from a volume (multiplanar reformation):
[B, x, y, z] = obliqueslice(V, [cx cy cz], [nx ny nz]); % Center point + normal vector
B = obliqueslice(V, center, normal, Method="nearest"); % For label volumesTo reslice a full volume along an arbitrary plane, call obliqueslice in a loop with varying center points along the desired axis.
General warping — imwarp with 3-D transforms
% 3-D affine transform (12 DOF)
A = [1 0 0 tx; 0 1 0 ty; 0 0 1 tz; 0 0 0 1]; % Translation example
tform = affinetform3d(A);
% Rigid: Euler angles + translation
tform = rigidtform3d(eulerAngles, [tx ty tz]);
% Warp with spatial referencing (critical for anisotropic voxels)
Rin = imref3d(size(V), voxSpacing(2), voxSpacing(1), voxSpacing(3)); % x,y,z
Vw = imwarp(V, Rin, tform, OutputView=Rin);
Vw = imwarp(V, Rin, tform, "nearest"); % For label/mask volumesimref3d argument order gotcha: the constructor is imref3d(imageSize, xSpacing, ySpacing, zSpacing) where x=cols, y=rows, z=slices. Passing row/col spacing in the natural array order swaps X and Y and silently produces geometrically wrong results.
OutputView controls the output grid. Pass OutputView=Rin to keep the output in the same coordinate system as the input. To resample onto a different grid (e.g., matching a reference volume), create an imref3d for the target size and spacing and pass it as OutputView.
imwarp accepts categorical arrays — use "nearest" interpolation for labels.
Resampling to Isotropic Spacing
Many algorithms assume isotropic voxels. Resample anisotropic data first:
voxelSize = [0.5 0.5 2.5]; % [row col slice] mm
targetSpacing = min(voxelSize); % Resample to finest dimension
scale = voxelSize / targetSpacing;
newSize = round(size(V) .* scale);
Viso = imresize3(V, newSize, "linear");For label/mask volumes, use "nearest" interpolation to avoid creating invalid labels:
maskIso = imresize3(uint8(mask), newSize, "nearest") > 0;
% Or, for a categorical label volume:
labelsIso = imresize3(labelsCategorical, newSize, "nearest");Visualization
% Volume rendering
volshow(V);
% With label overlay
volshow(V, OverlayData=labelVol);
% Orthogonal slice planes through the volume
volshow(V, RenderingStyle="SlicePlanes");
% Isosurface extraction + display (modern: viewer3d + Surface)
viewer = viewer3d;
[faces, verts] = isosurface(V, isovalue);
tri = triangulation(faces, verts);
images.ui.graphics.Surface(viewer, Data=tri);
% Slice browsing
sliceViewer(V); % Single-direction slice browser with slider
orthosliceViewer(V); % Three orthogonal views with linked crosshairs
% All slices as tiled gallery
montage(V);Common Mistakes
| Mistake | Why it's wrong | Correct approach |
|---|---|---|
bwareafilt(bw3d, [min Inf]) | 2-D only — errors on 3-D | bwvolumefilt (R2026b+) or regionprops3 + ismember |
imadjust(V) on volume | Doesn't accept 3-D | imadjustn(V) |
adapthisteq(V) on volume | 2-D grayscale only | Per-slice loop or imadjustn/imhistmatchn |
edge(V, "Canny") on volume | 2-D only, and edge3 doesn't offer "Canny" | edge3(V, "approxcanny", …) or imgradient3 |
imgaussfilt(V, sigma) | Runs but filters per-slice only — no Z smoothing, no warning | imgaussfilt3(V, sigma) |
strel("disk", r) for 3-D morphology | Creates 2-D SE — imerode/imdilate silently apply it per-slice (no Z coupling) | strel("sphere", r) |
| Ignoring anisotropic voxel spacing | SE is wrong physical size per axis | Use strel("cuboid", …) scaled by voxel size, or resample to isotropic first |
| Default 26-connectivity merging objects | Over-connects in dense volumes | Explicitly use 6-connectivity |
imresize3(mask, newSize) for labels | Default "cubic" creates non-binary/invalid values | imresize3(mask, newSize, "nearest") |
imref3d(sz, rowSpacing, colSpacing, sliceSpacing) | Constructor is (sz, xSpacing, ySpacing, zSpacing) — x=cols, y=rows | imref3d(sz, colSpacing, rowSpacing, sliceSpacing) |
fspecial3("box", …) | No such type — use "average" | fspecial3("average", hsize) |
Passing Centroid [x y z] straight to V(…) | Array indexing is [row col slice] = [y x z] | V(round(c(2)), round(c(1)), round(c(3))) |
regionprops(cc3d, "Solidity") on 3-D | Shape/moment properties (Solidity, Eccentricity, Orientation, etc.) warn and return empty on 3-D | Use regionprops3 for full 3-D property set |
edge3(V, "approxcanny") without threshold | Threshold is required (unlike 2-D edge which auto-computes) | edge3(V, "approxcanny", thresh) |
imsegkmeans(V, K) on a volume | Treats 3rd dim as channels — output is M×N, not M×N×P | imsegkmeans3(V, K) |
Copyright 2026 The MathWorks, Inc.
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- matlab/matlab-agentic-toolkit · skills-catalog/image-processing-and-computer-vision/matlab-process-images · commit 2a7f215
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