ColorHash — Color Histogram¶
Count how many pixels of the image have each color, after sorting the colors into 108 coarse groups: so much dark green, so much light gray, so much brown. The digest is that count, one byte per group. It describes which colors the picture is made of and in what proportion, and nothing about where they are: an image and any rearrangement of its pixels get the same digest.
| Call | ph_compute_color_hash(), or PH_ALGO_COLOR_HASH in ph_compute_digest() |
| Output | digest of 108 bytes, compared with ph_histogram_intersection(), never bit by bit |
| Source | a color histogram with histogram intersection, after Michael Swain and Dana Ballard, "Color Indexing", 1991, implemented from secondary descriptions; the quantization is the library's (provenance) |
| Cost | 0.24 ms on a 400×400 image, 31 ms on 20 Mpx, after decoding1 |
The steps¶
ColorHash has no parameters. Every picture on this page is computed by the library from
the same photograph, and the digest at the end is what ph_compute_color_hash() returns
for it.
The middle picture is how the hash sees the photograph: each pixel replaced by the average of all the colors that share its bin. The bars on the right are the digest, each in the color of its bin; their colors are data, not a palette.
1. Opponent axes. There is no grayscale step: each pixel's \(R\), \(G\) and \(B\) become three numbers,
The first two say what hue the pixel leans to and how strongly, and are both zero for a neutral gray, \(R = G = B\). The third is its brightness.
2. Bin per axis. Each axis is shifted to start at zero, \(s = rg + 255\), \(s = by + 510\) or \(s = wb\), and divided evenly over its count of distinct values \(V\) (511, 1021 and 766) into \(n\) bins (6, 6 and 3):
Every value of every axis falls into some bin, and none is clipped. The chart below shows the example's pixels on the two color axes, one panel per third of brightness, with the bin edges:
A photograph's colors are mostly muted, and they crowd around neutral gray, circled. Gray sits where four bins meet: with an even number of bins on each color axis, the middle of the axis is an edge, not the middle of a bin. \(rg = 0\) is the last value of bin 2 and \(rg = 1\) the first of bin 3, and the same holds for \(by\). The section Gray on a corner measures what that does.
3. Bin and count. The three axis bins make one bin number,
and every pixel adds one to its bin's count. The library reads the three axis bins from three tables, one per axis, built for each call, so a pixel costs three lookups and no division.
4. Scale. The counts become bytes by the largest of them, \(c_{\max}\), rounded to the nearest:
The largest bin is always 255. Scaling by the pixel count instead would leave the average bin, under 1 % of the image, with two or three of the 255 levels. A bin holding less than \(1/510\) of the largest one rounds to zero.
Of the 108 bins, 77 hold some 8-bit color; the other 31 are combinations of the three axes no color can take, and stay zero in every digest. The example photograph's 160,000 pixels fall into 25 bins, 16 of which get a nonzero byte; the largest holds 31% of the pixels and the five largest 87%.
Digest layout¶
Byte \(i\) is bin \(i\). The bins run through the light–dark axis fastest, then blue–yellow, then red–green: bytes 0 to 2 are the most green and most yellow colors from dark to light, and bytes 105 to 107 the most red and most blue.
The empty cells are combinations of the three axes no 8-bit color reaches: no color is
strongly green and strongly blue at once, bins 15 to 17, for instance. In hexadecimal
(ph_digest_to_hex() writes byte 0 first) each pair
of digits is one bin.
The bytes are counts, not bits. Two digests are compared by
ph_histogram_intersection(): each is
divided by its own sum, so that it adds up to 1, and the score is the sum over the bins
of the smaller of the two shares,
It is the part of the two color distributions they have in common: 1 for the same proportions, 0 for no color in common. The library computes it in integers and divides once, so the same proportions score exactly 1.0, and the order of the two digests does not matter.
Turning the hue by 30 degrees is a mild recoloring, and it keeps less than half. The green of the cactus moves to the neighboring bins, and so does the near-white of the pot and the background: bin 62, light and a little red, empties into bin 44, light and a little green, across the corner at gray.
What changes the hash¶
The digest counts colors, so anything that changes colors moves it and anything that only moves pixels around does not. How far a change goes depends on how many pixels it pushes across a bin edge.
- Brightness, contrast and gamma move every pixel along the light–dark axis, whose three bins are wide: a pixel that crosses a third moves its whole count to another bin. These are the edits that move ColorHash most, in both directions.
- Recompression and noise move each pixel's color a little, at random, and the pixels near an edge cross it; strong noise spreads a flat color over several bins.
- Downscaling, blur, rotation and cropping mostly keep the colors: resampling blends neighboring pixels into colors between them, a turn fills its corners with the image's mean color, and a crop takes away the pixels of the border.
These are measurements on one photograph; the same edits over two whole corpora follow below.
The numbers behind the chart
| Transform | Strength | Histogram intersection |
|---|---|---|
| JPEG quality | 95 | 0.995 |
| JPEG quality | 75 | 0.999 |
| JPEG quality | 50 | 0.977 |
| JPEG quality | 30 | 0.965 |
| JPEG quality | 15 | 0.811 |
| JPEG quality | 5 | 0.359 |
| Downscale | 0.75 | 0.996 |
| Downscale | 0.5 | 0.995 |
| Downscale | 0.25 | 0.985 |
| Downscale | 0.125 | 0.978 |
| Rotation | 1 | 0.990 |
| Rotation | 2 | 0.984 |
| Rotation | 5 | 0.966 |
| Rotation | 10 | 0.941 |
| Rotation | 20 | 0.898 |
| Rotation | 45 | 0.848 |
| Brightness | 0.5 | 0.580 |
| Brightness | 0.7 | 0.599 |
| Brightness | 0.85 | 0.822 |
| Brightness | 1.15 | 0.898 |
| Brightness | 1.3 | 0.760 |
| Brightness | 1.5 | 0.610 |
| Contrast | 0.5 | 0.554 |
| Contrast | 0.7 | 0.841 |
| Contrast | 0.85 | 0.920 |
| Contrast | 1.15 | 0.940 |
| Contrast | 1.3 | 0.888 |
| Contrast | 1.5 | 0.826 |
| Gamma | 0.5 | 0.734 |
| Gamma | 0.7 | 0.856 |
| Gamma | 0.85 | 0.925 |
| Gamma | 1.2 | 0.902 |
| Gamma | 1.5 | 0.825 |
| Gamma | 2 | 0.712 |
| Gaussian blur | 0.5 | 0.996 |
| Gaussian blur | 1 | 0.990 |
| Gaussian blur | 2 | 0.979 |
| Gaussian blur | 4 | 0.960 |
| Gaussian blur | 8 | 0.916 |
| Noise | 2 | 0.971 |
| Noise | 5 | 0.925 |
| Noise | 10 | 0.822 |
| Noise | 20 | 0.704 |
| Noise | 40 | 0.536 |
| Crop | 5 | 0.972 |
| Crop | 10 | 0.946 |
| Crop | 20 | 0.916 |
| Crop | 30 | 0.858 |
How this was measured
Each transform is applied alone to the photograph above, and the edited copy is
saved losslessly, as PPM (as a JPEG of the given quality for that panel). The library
hashes the original and every copy, and compares each copy with the original by
ph_histogram_intersection(), whose
score is the number on the chart. Below is the code that ran, not a copy of it.
The edits, in Python with Pillow:
def transforms():
"""(name, x-axis label, [(strength, PIL image -> (image, (file extension, quality)))]).
Each edit is applied alone to the original. A variant is saved as PPM, which is
lossless (and quick to write for a corpus of thousands of variants), so the edit is
the only difference; JPEG quality is the one edit that is the saving itself.
"""
def jpeg(q):
return lambda im: (im, ("jpg", q))
def scale(s):
return lambda im: (im.resize((max(1, round(im.width * s)), max(1, round(im.height * s))),
Image.LANCZOS), ("ppm", None))
def rotate(deg):
# The corners the turn uncovers are filled with the image's mean color, so they
# add no edge of their own.
def f(im):
fill = tuple(int(v) for v in np.asarray(im).reshape(-1, 3).mean(axis=0))
return im.rotate(deg, resample=Image.BICUBIC, fillcolor=fill), ("ppm", None)
return f
def brightness(k):
return lambda im: (ImageEnhance.Brightness(im).enhance(k), ("ppm", None))
def contrast(k):
return lambda im: (ImageEnhance.Contrast(im).enhance(k), ("ppm", None))
def gamma(g):
def f(im):
a = (np.asarray(im).astype(np.float64) / 255.0) ** g
return Image.fromarray((a * 255.0).round().astype(np.uint8)), ("ppm", None)
return f
def blur(r):
return lambda im: (im.filter(ImageFilter.GaussianBlur(r)), ("ppm", None))
def noise(sigma):
# A fixed seed: the same noise on every build, so the chart does not move.
def f(im):
rng = np.random.default_rng(1)
a = np.asarray(im).astype(np.float64) + rng.normal(0, sigma, (im.height, im.width, 3))
return Image.fromarray(np.clip(a, 0, 255).round().astype(np.uint8)), ("ppm", None)
return f
def crop(p):
def f(im):
dx, dy = round(im.width * p / 2), round(im.height * p / 2)
return im.crop((dx, dy, im.width - dx, im.height - dy)), ("ppm", None)
return f
return [
("JPEG quality", "quality", [(q, jpeg(q)) for q in (95, 75, 50, 30, 15, 5)]),
("Downscale", "scale", [(s, scale(s)) for s in (0.75, 0.5, 0.25, 0.125)]),
("Rotation", "degrees", [(d, rotate(d)) for d in (1, 2, 5, 10, 20, 45)]),
("Brightness", "factor", [(k, brightness(k)) for k in (0.5, 0.7, 0.85, 1.15, 1.3, 1.5)]),
("Contrast", "factor", [(k, contrast(k)) for k in (0.5, 0.7, 0.85, 1.15, 1.3, 1.5)]),
("Gamma", "exponent", [(g, gamma(g)) for g in (0.5, 0.7, 0.85, 1.2, 1.5, 2.0)]),
("Gaussian blur", "radius, px", [(r, blur(r)) for r in (0.5, 1, 2, 4, 8)]),
("Noise", "σ, gray levels", [(s, noise(s)) for s in (2, 5, 10, 20, 40)]),
("Crop", "border removed, %", [(p, crop(p / 100)) for p in (5, 10, 20, 30)]),
]
Writing the copies and handing them to the measuring tool:
def measure_variants(tool, base, ref):
"""{algorithm: {transform: [(strength, value)]}}: every edit of `base` (a Pillow
image), of both groups of transforms.py, compared with `ref`, the same pixels saved
losslessly.
Every variant is written to a file, and `site_stages measure` hashes them with the
library and compares each variant with the reference, by each algorithm's own
metric; `value` is None where the comparison does not apply.
"""
with tempfile.TemporaryDirectory() as tmp:
files, keys = [], []
for name, _, steps in transforms() + content_edits():
for strength, op in steps:
files.append(write_edit(op, base, os.path.join(tmp, str(len(files)))))
keys.append((name, strength))
rows = run_lines(tool, "measure", ref, *files)
result = {}
for (name, strength), row in zip(keys, rows):
for algo, value in row.items():
if algo != "file":
result.setdefault(algo, {}).setdefault(name, []).append((strength, value))
return result
def measure_robustness(tool, image):
"""measure_variants() for one image file."""
base = Image.open(image).convert("RGB")
with tempfile.TemporaryDirectory() as tmp:
ref = os.path.join(tmp, "reference.ppm")
base.save(ref)
return measure_variants(tool, base, ref)
The measuring tool, linked against the library: it computes every algorithm's digest of the original, then of each copy, and compares the two by that algorithm's own metric.
/* site_stages measure <reference> <variant>...: every algorithm's digest of the reference,
* then one JSON line per variant with its comparison to the reference, per algorithm (the
* similarity in [0, 1] for a bit hash, the peak correlation for Radial, the histogram
* intersection for ColorHash, the L2 distance for ColorMoments). A `--load=<settings>`
* between the images loads the ones after it so (take_load_settings()). */
int mode_measure(int argc, char **argv) {
ph_digest_t ref[PH_ALGORITHM_COUNT], d[PH_ALGORITHM_COUNT];
int have_ref[PH_ALGORITHM_COUNT], have[PH_ALGORITHM_COUNT];
int status = 0, images = 0;
for (int v = 0; v < argc && !status; v++) {
if (take_load_settings(argv[v], &status)) {
continue;
}
ph_context_t *ctx = NULL;
if (load_image(&ctx, argv[v])) {
return 1;
}
digest_all(ctx, images ? d : ref, images ? have : have_ref);
ph_free(ctx);
if (images++ == 0) {
continue;
}
json_t j = json_begin(stdout);
json_string(&j, "file", argv[v]);
compare_all(&j, ref, have_ref, d, have);
json_end(&j);
}
return status;
}
/* One algorithm's comparison of two digests by its own metric; 0 when it does not apply. */
static int compare(const ph_digest_t *a, const ph_digest_t *b, double *out) {
switch (a->kind) {
case PH_DIGEST_KIND_BITS:
*out = ph_similarity_digest(a, b);
return *out >= 0.0;
case PH_DIGEST_KIND_COEFFICIENTS:
return ph_radial_similarity(a, b, out) == PH_SUCCESS;
case PH_DIGEST_KIND_HISTOGRAM:
return ph_histogram_intersection(a, b, out) == PH_SUCCESS;
case PH_DIGEST_KIND_VECTOR16:
*out = ph_l2_distance(a, b);
return *out >= 0.0;
default:
return 0;
}
}
To reproduce, make site builds the tool and redraws every figure. The tool can also
be run by hand on any pair of images; it prints one JSON line per variant, with each
algorithm's comparison:
Over two corpora¶
The same nine edits, applied to every image of two corpora: 200 public-domain photographs from Wikimedia Commons (the list), and the 24 generated images the library's tests measure (methodology), which are not photographs. Each line is the median over the corpus and the band around it holds the middle half of its images.
The corpora repeat the single photograph: the tonal edits, brightness, contrast and gamma, move the digest furthest, and the geometric ones least. The synthetic images react more strongly to the tonal edits: they are made of a few flat colors, and a flat color that crosses an edge moves all its pixels at once. Halving their brightness takes three quarters of them to a score of 0, no color in common with the original.
Copies and different images¶
Robustness alone proves little: a hash that never changes is perfectly robust. What makes a hash useful is that copies of an image land closer together than different images do. Here a copy is an original after one moderate edit (one strength of each of the nine, listed under "How this was measured"), and different images are every pair of distinct originals in the corpus.
Copies pile up near 1. Different photographs spread widely below them: two photographs always share some of the muted colors around gray, and rarely most of them. The dashed line is the score that accepts 95 % of the copies, and its label says how many different pairs it would accept as well. d′ sums up the gap in one number, the distance between the two means in units of their spread.
Many different synthetic images score 0 against each other: they are drawn in different flat colors. A few score near 1, the same colors in a different pattern, which the histogram cannot tell apart (below).
The numbers behind the charts
| Corpus | Copies | Different pairs | d′ | Threshold | Different pairs within it |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| synthetic corpus, 24 images; not photographs | 216 | 276 | 3.77 | 0.615 | 6.2% |
| 200 public-domain photographs from Wikimedia Commons | 1800 | 19900 | 4.02 | 0.775 | 1.0% |
Median histogram intersection over each corpus, with the 25th and 75th percentiles:
| Transform | Strength | synthetic corpus, 24 images; not photographs | 200 public-domain photographs from Wikimedia Commons |
|---|---|---|---|
| JPEG quality | 95 | 0.967 (0.785–0.985) | 0.996 (0.993–0.998) |
| JPEG quality | 75 | 0.961 (0.774–0.983) | 0.988 (0.981–0.992) |
| JPEG quality | 50 | 0.952 (0.779–0.980) | 0.981 (0.955–0.991) |
| JPEG quality | 30 | 0.937 (0.730–0.971) | 0.965 (0.926–0.984) |
| JPEG quality | 15 | 0.898 (0.584–0.959) | 0.883 (0.776–0.941) |
| JPEG quality | 5 | 0.763 (0.473–0.915) | 0.510 (0.347–0.671) |
| Downscale | 0.75 | 0.988 (0.973–0.992) | 0.992 (0.987–0.996) |
| Downscale | 0.5 | 0.986 (0.964–0.993) | 0.985 (0.975–0.992) |
| Downscale | 0.25 | 0.957 (0.938–0.975) | 0.974 (0.951–0.984) |
| Downscale | 0.125 | 0.896 (0.766–0.944) | 0.956 (0.923–0.977) |
| Rotation | 1 | 0.980 (0.956–0.986) | 0.989 (0.987–0.992) |
| Rotation | 2 | 0.971 (0.948–0.979) | 0.983 (0.979–0.987) |
| Rotation | 5 | 0.950 (0.927–0.960) | 0.964 (0.957–0.974) |
| Rotation | 10 | 0.918 (0.896–0.929) | 0.936 (0.923–0.956) |
| Rotation | 20 | 0.870 (0.842–0.882) | 0.893 (0.872–0.926) |
| Rotation | 45 | 0.824 (0.800–0.839) | 0.836 (0.806–0.890) |
| Brightness | 0.5 | 0.000 (0.000–0.000) | 0.464 (0.351–0.613) |
| Brightness | 0.7 | 0.386 (0.187–0.743) | 0.700 (0.560–0.780) |
| Brightness | 0.85 | 0.691 (0.560–0.904) | 0.865 (0.786–0.910) |
| Brightness | 1.15 | 0.890 (0.736–1.000) | 0.871 (0.801–0.912) |
| Brightness | 1.3 | 0.658 (0.463–0.871) | 0.735 (0.626–0.821) |
| Brightness | 1.5 | 0.370 (0.150–0.720) | 0.588 (0.467–0.699) |
| Contrast | 0.5 | 0.108 (0.000–0.350) | 0.743 (0.645–0.851) |
| Contrast | 0.7 | 0.566 (0.306–0.821) | 0.870 (0.810–0.921) |
| Contrast | 0.85 | 0.787 (0.745–0.924) | 0.941 (0.913–0.961) |
| Contrast | 1.15 | 0.945 (0.803–1.000) | 0.931 (0.905–0.955) |
| Contrast | 1.3 | 0.641 (0.467–0.757) | 0.859 (0.801–0.907) |
| Contrast | 1.5 | 0.500 (0.188–0.579) | 0.772 (0.694–0.832) |
| Gamma | 0.5 | 0.378 (0.026–0.500) | 0.623 (0.528–0.718) |
| Gamma | 0.7 | 0.797 (0.641–0.933) | 0.808 (0.738–0.857) |
| Gamma | 0.85 | 0.906 (0.796–0.970) | 0.912 (0.880–0.940) |
| Gamma | 1.2 | 0.959 (0.841–1.000) | 0.900 (0.865–0.935) |
| Gamma | 1.5 | 0.609 (0.500–0.815) | 0.780 (0.713–0.856) |
| Gamma | 2 | 0.276 (0.000–0.532) | 0.656 (0.561–0.749) |
| Gaussian blur | 0.5 | 0.992 (0.986–0.999) | 0.990 (0.983–0.995) |
| Gaussian blur | 1 | 0.976 (0.924–0.992) | 0.975 (0.954–0.986) |
| Gaussian blur | 2 | 0.947 (0.824–0.954) | 0.958 (0.928–0.977) |
| Gaussian blur | 4 | 0.883 (0.509–0.921) | 0.938 (0.901–0.963) |
| Gaussian blur | 8 | 0.732 (0.141–0.834) | 0.910 (0.862–0.940) |
| Noise | 2 | 0.992 (0.960–0.999) | 0.979 (0.937–0.989) |
| Noise | 5 | 0.978 (0.921–0.989) | 0.923 (0.849–0.952) |
| Noise | 10 | 0.921 (0.838–0.946) | 0.842 (0.746–0.877) |
| Noise | 20 | 0.700 (0.580–0.791) | 0.701 (0.617–0.743) |
| Noise | 40 | 0.356 (0.312–0.580) | 0.500 (0.432–0.570) |
| Crop | 5 | 0.983 (0.975–1.000) | 0.979 (0.970–0.985) |
| Crop | 10 | 0.960 (0.951–1.000) | 0.957 (0.939–0.971) |
| Crop | 20 | 0.941 (0.890–1.000) | 0.910 (0.875–0.938) |
| Crop | 30 | 0.910 (0.827–1.000) | 0.862 (0.803–0.906) |
How this was measured
For each corpus, every image goes through the nine edits above, and each copy is
compared with its original exactly as on the single photograph. Every pair of
distinct originals is compared too, by site_stages pairs. Below is the code that
ran.
The photographs are downloaded once and checked against the SHA-256 the manifest records for each:
def download(row, unreachable):
"""The photograph's bytes as the manifest names them, from the copy of the corpus or
else from Commons; (None, why) when neither has them. A source that cannot be reached
is added to `unreachable` and not tried again."""
why = "no source"
for source in (MIRROR + row["sha256"] + extension(row), row["url"]):
host = urllib.parse.urlsplit(source).netloc
if host in unreachable:
continue
try:
data = get(source)
except urllib.error.HTTPError as e:
why = f"{host}: {e}"
continue
except OSError as e:
unreachable[host] = str(e)
why = f"cannot reach {host} ({e})"
continue
finally:
if source == row["url"]:
time.sleep(0.2) # Commons asks clients to pace their requests
if hashlib.sha256(data).hexdigest() == row["sha256"]:
return data, None
why = f"{host}: the download differs from the manifest"
return None, why
def unpack_archive(rows, d):
"""Writes the rows' photographs that the copy's archive holds, verified, into d.
An archive that cannot be downloaded or read writes nothing; the files are then
downloaded one by one."""
wanted = {row["sha256"] + extension(row): row for row in rows}
try:
req = urllib.request.Request(MIRROR_ARCHIVE, headers={"User-Agent": USER_AGENT})
with urllib.request.urlopen(req, timeout=300) as r, \
tarfile.open(fileobj=r, mode="r|gz") as tar:
for member in tar:
row = wanted.get(os.path.basename(member.name))
if row is None or not member.isfile():
continue
data = tar.extractfile(member).read()
if hashlib.sha256(data).hexdigest() != row["sha256"]:
continue
path = os.path.join(d, local_name(row))
with open(path + ".part", "wb") as f:
f.write(data)
os.replace(path + ".part", path)
except (OSError, tarfile.TarError) as e:
print(f"warning: photo corpus: the archive of the copy: {e}", file=sys.stderr)
_fetched = {}
def fetch(cache=None):
"""The verified local paths of the manifest's photographs, downloading what is missing.
Returns (paths, problems); a photograph that is unavailable is a problem, not an error.
One process downloads once: a second call returns the first one's answer."""
d = cache_dir(cache)
if d in _fetched:
return _fetched[d]
os.makedirs(d, exist_ok=True)
def cached(row):
path = os.path.join(d, local_name(row))
if not os.path.exists(path):
return False
with open(path, "rb") as f:
return hashlib.sha256(f.read()).hexdigest() == row["sha256"]
rows = read_manifest()
missing = [row for row in rows if not cached(row)]
if len(missing) > 10:
unpack_archive(missing, d)
paths, problems, unreachable = [], [], {}
for row in rows:
path = os.path.join(d, local_name(row))
if row not in missing or cached(row):
paths.append(path)
continue
data, why = download(row, unreachable)
if data is None:
problems.append(f"{row['file']}: {why}")
continue
with open(path + ".part", "wb") as f:
f.write(data)
os.replace(path + ".part", path)
paths.append(path)
_fetched[d] = (paths, problems)
return paths, problems
Measuring a corpus, or taking the result from the cache when nothing that decides it has changed:
def measure_corpus(tool, corpus):
"""{"n", "label", "robust": {algo: {transform: [[strength, [value per image]]]}},
"edits": {the same, for the edits that change the picture}, "different": {algo:
[value per pair]}} for one corpus, from the cache when nothing that decides it has
changed. Values are each algorithm's own metric, as `site_stages measure` and
`site_stages pairs` print it; None where it does not apply."""
paths = images(tool, corpus)
def measure():
with tempfile.TemporaryDirectory() as tmp:
# The originals are decoded once, by Pillow, and written losslessly, so that
# the reference an edit is compared with and the image that is edited are the
# same pixels.
refs = [os.path.join(tmp, f"{i:04d}.ppm") for i in range(len(paths))]
with concurrent.futures.ProcessPoolExecutor() as pool:
per_image = list(pool.map(_measure_one, [(tool, p, r) for p, r in
zip(paths, refs)]))
rows = run_lines(tool, "pairs", *refs) if len(refs) >= 2 else []
robust, edits = {}, {}
content = {name for name, _, _ in content_edits()}
for result in per_image:
for algo, by_transform in result.items():
for name, points in by_transform.items():
group = edits if name in content else robust
slot = group.setdefault(algo, {}).setdefault(
name, [[s, []] for s, _ in points])
for (strength, value), cell in zip(points, slot):
cell[1].append(value)
different = {}
for row in rows:
for algo, value in row.items():
if algo not in ("a", "b"):
different.setdefault(algo, []).append(value)
return {"n": len(paths), "label": label(corpus, len(paths)), "robust": robust,
"edits": edits, "different": different}
return cached(corpus, cache_key(paths), measure, f"{corpus} corpus, {len(paths)} images")
Comparing every pair of originals:
/* site_stages pairs <image>...: every image's digests, then one JSON line per pair of
* distinct images (i < j, in the order given, as "a" and "b") with their comparison,
* per algorithm. A `--load=<settings>` before the images loads them so. */
int mode_pairs(int argc, char **argv) {
ph_digest_t(*dig)[PH_ALGORITHM_COUNT] = calloc((size_t)argc, sizeof(*dig));
int (*have)[PH_ALGORITHM_COUNT] = calloc((size_t)argc, sizeof(*have));
int bad = (!dig || !have) && fail("out of memory", NULL);
int n = 0;
for (int i = 0; i < argc && !bad; i++) {
if (take_load_settings(argv[i], &bad)) {
continue;
}
ph_context_t *ctx = NULL;
bad = load_image(&ctx, argv[i]);
if (!bad) {
digest_all(ctx, dig[n], have[n]);
n++;
ph_free(ctx);
}
}
for (int i = 0; i < n && !bad; i++) {
for (int k = i + 1; k < n; k++) {
json_t j = json_begin(stdout);
json_int(&j, "a", i);
json_int(&j, "b", k);
compare_all(&j, dig[i], have[i], dig[k], have[k]);
json_end(&j);
}
}
free(dig);
free(have);
return bad;
}
The edits that make a copy, and the numbers on the second chart:
# A "copy" is an original after one moderate edit: one strength of each transform, the
# kind of change a picture goes through between two places it is stored.
COPY_STRENGTHS = {
"JPEG quality": 50,
"Downscale": 0.5,
"Rotation": 2,
"Brightness": 1.15,
"Contrast": 1.15,
"Gamma": 1.2,
"Gaussian blur": 1,
"Noise": 5,
"Crop": 5,
}
def separability(copies, different, lower_is_closer, recall=RECALL):
"""d', the threshold that keeps `recall` of the copies (RECALL unless a page asks for
another share), and the share of different pairs that threshold also accepts.
d' is the gap between the two means in units of their pooled spread, as
tests/src/test_hash_properties.c defines it (separability()), signed so that a
positive d' means copies are closer than different images.
"""
c, d = np.asarray(copies, float), np.asarray(different, float)
sign = 1.0 if lower_is_closer else -1.0
pooled = np.sqrt((c.std() ** 2 + d.std() ** 2) / 2.0)
dprime = sign * (d.mean() - c.mean()) / pooled if pooled > 0 else float("inf")
# The threshold: the closest value that still accepts `recall` of the copies.
t = sign * np.quantile(sign * c, recall, method="inverted_cdf")
accepted = (d <= t) if lower_is_closer else (d >= t)
return dprime, t, accepted.mean()
The synthetic corpus is generated by make_base() in
tests/src/synthetic_corpus.h, the same code the tests use. make site measures
both corpora and draws every figure.
Edits that change the picture¶
The edits above are those a copy goes through. The ones here change what the picture shows: a patch of the image's own top-left corner pasted over its center, covering 1 to 16 % of the frame; the hue of every pixel turned, which recolors the picture; and a quarter turn, a half turn and a mirror image. Whether a hash should notice them depends on what it is for: a search for copies wants to ignore a recoloring, a search for retouched pictures wants to catch the patch.
Each panel shows how far the edited images land from their originals over both corpora. The dashed line is the threshold of the chart above, the one that accepts 95 % of the copies, in each corpus's color: an edited image above it would be taken for a copy.
- A patch costs at most its share of the frame, and less where it repeats colors the image already has, as a patch of the image's own corner does. Up to 16 % of the frame, every patched image stays above the threshold.
- Turning the hue is what ColorHash is for: a recoloring that leaves the luminance hashes nearly unmoved takes most images below the threshold, from 30 degrees on.
- Turns and the mirror keep every pixel, so the score is exactly 1.
The numbers behind the chart
Median histogram intersection, and the share of edited images within the threshold that accepts 95% of the copies; synthetic: synthetic corpus, 24 images; not photographs; photographs: 200 public-domain photographs from Wikimedia Commons.
| Edit | Synthetic: median (25th–75th) | accepted as a copy | Photographs: median (25th–75th) | accepted as a copy |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| patch over 1% of the frame | 0.992 (0.990–0.996) | 100% | 0.991 (0.989–0.993) | 100% |
| patch over 4% of the frame | 0.978 (0.966–0.998) | 100% | 0.969 (0.962–0.979) | 100% |
| patch over 9% of the frame | 0.957 (0.933–0.997) | 100% | 0.939 (0.925–0.957) | 100% |
| patch over 16% of the frame | 0.943 (0.885–0.988) | 100% | 0.915 (0.890–0.940) | 100% |
| hue turned 30° | 0.401 (0.000–0.551) | 25% | 0.634 (0.421–0.786) | 26% |
| hue turned 90° | 0.144 (0.000–0.359) | 12% | 0.271 (0.106–0.441) | 3% |
| hue turned 180° | 0.000 (0.000–0.648) | 29% | 0.325 (0.114–0.487) | 6% |
| turned 90° | 1.000 (1.000–1.000) | 100% | 1.000 (1.000–1.000) | 100% |
| turned 180° | 1.000 (1.000–1.000) | 100% | 1.000 (1.000–1.000) | 100% |
| mirrored | 1.000 (1.000–1.000) | 100% | 1.000 (1.000–1.000) | 100% |
How this was measured
The same measurement as for the copies, over the same images: each edit is applied alone to the original, the copy is saved losslessly, and the library compares it with the original. The threshold is the one of the chart above, computed from the copies. Below is the code of the edits.
def content_edits():
"""The edits that change the picture, in the shape of transforms(); a strength is a
number, or a word where the edit has no scale.
A patch replaces a square at the center, covering the given share of the frame, with
the square of the same size at the top-left corner of the same image: a local edit
with content the image itself supplies. A hue rotation turns every pixel's hue by the
given angle and keeps its saturation and value, a recoloring. The turns and the mirror
change only the orientation.
"""
def patch(area):
def f(im):
side = area ** 0.5
w, h = round(im.width * side), round(im.height * side)
x0, y0 = (im.width - w) // 2, (im.height - h) // 2
out = im.copy()
out.paste(im.crop((0, 0, w, h)), (x0, y0))
return out, ("ppm", None)
return f
def hue(degrees):
def f(im):
hsv = np.asarray(im.convert("HSV")).copy()
hsv[..., 0] = (hsv[..., 0].astype(int) + round(degrees * 256 / 360)) % 256
return Image.fromarray(hsv, "HSV").convert("RGB"), ("ppm", None)
return f
def turn(method):
return lambda im: (im.transpose(method), ("ppm", None))
return [
("Local patch", "share of the frame, %", [(a, patch(a / 100)) for a in (1, 4, 9, 16)]),
("Hue rotation", "degrees", [(d, hue(d)) for d in (30, 90, 180)]),
("Turn and mirror", "", [("90°", turn(Image.Transpose.ROTATE_90)),
("180°", turn(Image.Transpose.ROTATE_180)),
("mirror", turn(Image.Transpose.FLIP_LEFT_RIGHT))]),
]
What a histogram cannot see¶
A histogram records how much of each color there is, and nothing else. Two images with the same colors in the same proportions get the same digest, whatever the arrangement: the example with its pixels shuffled, or turned a quarter, scores exactly 1 against the original. pHash, beside it, sees a different picture in both. And within a bin the histogram sees no difference: black and dark gray share the darkest third of the light–dark axis, light gray and white the lightest.
The last pair is the opposite case, and the next section's subject: two grays one level of red apart, which no eye tells apart, have no color in common.
| Pair | R, G, B | ColorHash |
|---|---|---|
| example and its pixels shuffled | — | 1.000 |
| example and the example turned 90° | — | 1.000 |
| black and dark gray | (8, 8, 8) and (64, 64, 64) | 1.000 |
| light gray and white | (176, 176, 176) and (248, 248, 248) | 1.000 |
| black and white | (8, 8, 8) and (248, 248, 248) | 0.000 |
| gray and gray, red +1 | (128, 128, 128) and (129, 128, 128) | 0.000 |
This is why ColorHash belongs beside a structural hash, not in place of one: it answers "are the colors the same", and a structural hash answers "is the picture the same".
How this was measured
The library scores each pair, through site_stages measure; the pixels are shuffled
by a fixed permutation, and each flat color is a 64×64 image.
def intersection(a, b):
"""ph_histogram_intersection() on two digests: each normalized by its own sum, the
sum over bins of the smaller of the two shares."""
a, b = np.asarray(a, float), np.asarray(b, float)
return float(np.minimum(a / a.sum(), b / b.sum()).sum())
The intersection above, computed in Python from the two digests, is checked against the library's score for the example and its hue turned 30 degrees; the build stops if they differ.
Gray on a corner¶
Neutral gray, where photographs keep much of their color, lies on the corner of four chroma bins (step 2). A tint too faint to see moves a pixel from one of them into another: one level more red than green crosses from bin 2 to bin 3 of the red–green axis. A photograph with large neutral areas, a white wall, a gray sky, paper, can lose much of its histogram to such a tint.
For most images the tint costs little: their colors are away from the corner. For a tail of them, the ones whose colors sit on it, one level of red takes the score below the threshold, and for a few as low as two different photographs typically score. Adding the same three levels to all three channels keeps \(rg\) and \(by\) where they were and moves only the brightness, and costs little to any image.
The numbers behind the chart
| Corpus | Shift | Median | 10th percentile | Lowest | Below the copies' threshold |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| photographs | red +1 | 0.970 | 0.730 | 0.000 | 12.0% |
| photographs | red +2 | 0.944 | 0.644 | 0.000 | 16.0% |
| photographs | blue +2 | 0.966 | 0.753 | 0.000 | 10.5% |
| photographs | all +3 | 0.980 | 0.964 | 0.872 | 0 of 200 |
| synthetic images | red +1 | 0.985 | 0.500 | 0.009 | 16.7% |
| synthetic images | red +2 | 0.977 | 0.500 | 0.009 | 16.7% |
| synthetic images | blue +2 | 1.000 | 0.973 | 0.972 | 0 of 24 |
| synthetic images | all +3 | 1.000 | 0.969 | 0.958 | 0 of 24 |
How this was measured
Each original of both corpora is tinted by adding the levels to its channels, clipped
at 255, saved losslessly, and scored against the original by the library, through
site_stages measure. The threshold is that of the
copies.
# A shift of a few levels in one channel or in all three: (name, added to R, G, B).
TINTS = [("red +1", (1, 0, 0)), ("red +2", (2, 0, 0)), ("blue +2", (0, 0, 2)),
("all +3", (3, 3, 3))]
def _tint_one(args):
"""One original and its tinted copies through `site_stages measure`: ColorHash's
score of each copy against the original."""
tool, path, tmp, stem = args
base = Image.open(path).convert("RGB")
a = np.asarray(base).astype(int)
ref = os.path.join(tmp, f"{stem}.ppm")
base.save(ref)
files = []
for n, (_, shift) in enumerate(TINTS):
files.append(os.path.join(tmp, f"{stem}-{n}.ppm"))
Image.fromarray(np.clip(a + np.array(shift), 0, 255).astype(np.uint8)).save(files[-1])
rows = run_lines(tool, "measure", ref, *files)
for f in [ref] + files:
os.remove(f)
return [row[ALGO] for row in rows]
def measure_tints(tool):
"""{corpus: [[score per tint] per image]}, cached in build/site-cache/ like the
corpora, under their key and the list of tints."""
result = {}
for key in corpus.CORPORA:
paths = corpus.images(tool, key)
if not paths:
result[key] = []
continue
def measure():
with tempfile.TemporaryDirectory() as tmp, \
concurrent.futures.ProcessPoolExecutor() as pool:
return list(pool.map(_tint_one, [(tool, p, tmp, f"{i:04d}")
for i, p in enumerate(paths)]))
# This module's own code makes the tints: a change to it measures again.
ck = corpus.cache_key(paths, repr(TINTS), also=[f"tools/site/pages/{ALGO}.py"])
result[key] = cached(f"color-tints-{key}", ck, measure,
f"color_hash: tinting {len(paths)} images")
return result
How the nine algorithms compare is on choosing an algorithm.
Cost¶
ColorHash reads every pixel once, in color: three table lookups and one increment. It shares nothing with the grayscale hashes: it neither uses nor makes the grayscale image they cache. Its cost grows with the image's pixel count, and it costs more than aHash, which reads every pixel once too. Each pixel increments a counter its own color selects, and neighboring pixels mostly share a bin, so with one histogram every increment would wait for the previous one to the same counter; the library spreads the pixels over four histograms and adds them up at the end. The 108 bins cost nothing next to the pixels.
How this was measured
Measured on Intel(R) Xeon(R) Platinum 8370C CPU @ 2.80GHz, 4 cores, Linux x86_64; compiled by 13.3.0, optimized, with libjpeg-turbo decoding the JPEGs; the minimum of the runs. Decoding, every hash at its default settings, and in bold this page's.
| Case | 400×400 | 20 Mpx |
|---|---|---|
decode |
0.53 ms | 105 ms |
ahash |
0.21 ms | 23 ms |
dhash |
0.23 ms | 27 ms |
phash |
0.21 ms | 23 ms |
whash |
0.21 ms | 23 ms |
bmh |
0.21 ms | 23 ms |
mhash |
1.8 ms | 91 ms |
radial |
1.4 ms | 120 ms |
color_hash |
0.24 ms | 31 ms |
color_moments |
0.52 ms | 66 ms |
Each case runs once to warm up, then until it has run at least five times and for at least a second; the time is the minimum. The grayscale image and the area grid the library caches are dropped before every run, so each run is the first hash on a loaded image. The cases, and the timing loop:
/* Seconds on a monotonic clock, as tests/src/bench_hash.c reads it. The calendar clock
* (timespec_get() with TIME_UTC) would step back when the system corrects its time, and a
* run spanning the step would come out negative and become the minimum. On Darwin,
* CLOCK_MONOTONIC counts whole microseconds, 2 % of the cheapest hash; mach_absolute_time()
* counts nanoseconds. */
static double seconds(void) {
#ifdef __APPLE__
static mach_timebase_info_data_t tb;
if (tb.denom == 0) {
mach_timebase_info(&tb);
}
return (double)mach_absolute_time() * tb.numer / tb.denom * 1e-9;
#else
struct timespec ts;
clock_gettime(CLOCK_MONOTONIC, &ts);
return (double)ts.tv_sec + (double)ts.tv_nsec * 1e-9;
#endif
}
/* One timed case: `run` does the work once on a loaded image and returns nonzero on
* failure; `arg` selects a variant of it. A case named after an algorithm, or starting
* with its name and "_", is shown on that algorithm's page. */
typedef struct {
const char *name;
int (*run)(ph_context_t *ctx, const char *path, int arg);
int arg;
} time_case_t;
static int time_decode(ph_context_t *ctx, const char *path, int arg) {
(void)arg;
return ph_load_from_file(ctx, path) != PH_SUCCESS;
}
/* The first hash computed on a loaded image, which is what a caller who loads an image
* and hashes it pays: the grayscale conversion and the shared area grid are dropped
* before every run, so each run computes them (the dropping is untimed). */
static int time_hash(ph_context_t *ctx, const char *path, int algo) {
(void)path;
ph_digest_t d;
return ph_compute_digest(ctx, (ph_algorithm_t)algo, &d) != PH_SUCCESS;
}
/* The four 64-bit hashes in one ph_compute_multi() call, which computes the grayscale
* image and the area grid once for all of them. */
static int time_multi(ph_context_t *ctx, const char *path, int arg) {
(void)path;
(void)arg;
uint64_t h[PH_HASH_FLAGS_COUNT];
return ph_compute_multi(ctx, PH_HASH_AHASH | PH_HASH_DHASH | PH_HASH_PHASH | PH_HASH_WHASH,
h) != PH_SUCCESS;
}
static int time_whash_full(ph_context_t *ctx, const char *path, int arg) {
(void)path;
(void)arg;
uint64_t h;
int bad = ph_context_set_whash_mode(ctx, PH_WHASH_FULL) != PH_SUCCESS ||
ph_compute_whash(ctx, &h) != PH_SUCCESS;
return ph_context_set_whash_mode(ctx, PH_WHASH_FAST) != PH_SUCCESS || bad;
}
static int time_mhash_size(ph_context_t *ctx, const char *path, int size) {
(void)path;
ph_digest_t d;
int bad = ph_context_set_mhash_params(ctx, PH_MH_ALPHA, PH_MH_LEVEL, size) != PH_SUCCESS ||
ph_compute_mhash(ctx, &d) != PH_SUCCESS;
return ph_context_set_mhash_params(ctx, PH_MH_ALPHA, PH_MH_LEVEL, PH_MH_IMAGE_SIZE) !=
PH_SUCCESS ||
bad;
}
/* pHash with a dct_size other than the default, and the default block. */
static int time_phash_dct(ph_context_t *ctx, const char *path, int size) {
(void)path;
uint64_t h;
int bad = ph_context_set_phash_params(ctx, size, PH_DCT_REDUCTION_SIZE) != PH_SUCCESS ||
ph_compute_phash(ctx, &h) != PH_SUCCESS;
return ph_context_set_phash_params(ctx, PH_DCT_SIZE, PH_DCT_REDUCTION_SIZE) != PH_SUCCESS ||
bad;
}
/* Radial with the settings of radial_variants[variant]. */
static int time_radial(ph_context_t *ctx, const char *path, int variant) {
(void)path;
ph_digest_t d;
int bad = !radial_settings(ctx, &radial_variants[variant]) ||
ph_compute_radial_hash(ctx, &d) != PH_SUCCESS;
return !radial_settings(ctx, &radial_variants[RADIAL_DEFAULT]) || bad;
}
/* Loading the image, then, unless `algo` is LOAD_ONLY, computing that algorithm: what a
* caller pays for a load and a hash. `arg` packs the load -- a ph_decode_scale_t, plus
* LOAD_GRAY for ph_context_set_load_grayscale() and LOAD_FRESH for a context created and
* freed around the load, as a caller who creates one per image does -- and the algorithm
* above it. Without LOAD_FRESH, a context of its own per kind of load, kept across runs,
* so the cases after it hash the image as it was first loaded. */
enum {
LOAD_GRAY = 4,
LOAD_FRESH = 8,
LOAD_ALGO = 16,
LOAD_ONLY = -1,
};
static int time_load(ph_context_t *ctx, const char *path, int arg) {
(void)ctx;
static ph_context_t *kept[LOAD_FRESH];
int kind = arg % LOAD_FRESH, fresh = arg & LOAD_FRESH, algo = arg / LOAD_ALGO - 1;
ph_context_t *c = fresh ? NULL : kept[kind];
if (!c && ph_create(&c) != PH_SUCCESS) {
return 1;
}
ph_digest_t d;
int bad = ph_context_set_decode_scale(c, (ph_decode_scale_t)(kind & 3)) != PH_SUCCESS ||
ph_context_set_load_grayscale(c, (kind & LOAD_GRAY) != 0) != PH_SUCCESS ||
ph_load_from_file(c, path) != PH_SUCCESS ||
(algo != LOAD_ONLY && ph_compute_digest(c, (ph_algorithm_t)algo, &d) != PH_SUCCESS);
if (fresh) {
ph_free(c);
} else {
kept[kind] = c;
}
return bad;
}
#define LOADED(name, flags, algo) {name, time_load, (flags) + ((algo) + 1) * LOAD_ALGO}
static const time_case_t time_cases[] = {
{"decode", time_decode, 0},
{"ahash", time_hash, PH_ALGO_AHASH},
{"dhash", time_hash, PH_ALGO_DHASH},
{"phash", time_hash, PH_ALGO_PHASH},
{"whash", time_hash, PH_ALGO_WHASH},
{"whash_full", time_whash_full, 0},
{"bmh", time_hash, PH_ALGO_BMH},
{"mhash", time_hash, PH_ALGO_MHASH},
{"radial", time_hash, PH_ALGO_RADIAL},
{"color_hash", time_hash, PH_ALGO_COLOR_HASH},
{"color_moments", time_hash, PH_ALGO_COLOR_MOMENTS},
{"multi", time_multi, 0},
{"mhash_size_62", time_mhash_size, 62},
{"mhash_size_128", time_mhash_size, 128},
{"mhash_size_256", time_mhash_size, 256},
{"mhash_size_512", time_mhash_size, 512},
{"mhash_size_1024", time_mhash_size, 1024},
{"mhash_size_2048", time_mhash_size, 2048},
{"mhash_size_4096", time_mhash_size, 4096},
{"phash_dct_8", time_phash_dct, 8},
{"phash_dct_16", time_phash_dct, 16},
{"phash_dct_24", time_phash_dct, 24},
{"radial_sigma_1", time_radial, RADIAL_SIGMA_1},
{"radial_sigma_8", time_radial, RADIAL_SIGMA_8},
{"radial_gamma_2", time_radial, RADIAL_GAMMA_2},
{"radial_grid_40x32", time_radial, RADIAL_GRID_40X32},
{"radial_grid_90x64", time_radial, RADIAL_GRID_90X64},
{"radial_grid_360x256", time_radial, RADIAL_GRID_360X256},
{"radial_grid_1440x1024", time_radial, RADIAL_GRID_1440X1024},
{"radial_grid_4096x4096", time_radial, RADIAL_GRID_4096X4096},
LOADED("scale_half_decode", PH_DECODE_SCALE_HALF, LOAD_ONLY),
LOADED("scale_quarter_decode", PH_DECODE_SCALE_QUARTER, LOAD_ONLY),
LOADED("scale_eighth_decode", PH_DECODE_SCALE_EIGHTH, LOAD_ONLY),
LOADED("scale_full_phash", PH_DECODE_SCALE_FULL, PH_ALGO_PHASH),
LOADED("scale_half_phash", PH_DECODE_SCALE_HALF, PH_ALGO_PHASH),
LOADED("scale_quarter_phash", PH_DECODE_SCALE_QUARTER, PH_ALGO_PHASH),
LOADED("scale_eighth_phash", PH_DECODE_SCALE_EIGHTH, PH_ALGO_PHASH),
LOADED("scale_full_mhash", PH_DECODE_SCALE_FULL, PH_ALGO_MHASH),
LOADED("scale_half_mhash", PH_DECODE_SCALE_HALF, PH_ALGO_MHASH),
LOADED("scale_quarter_mhash", PH_DECODE_SCALE_QUARTER, PH_ALGO_MHASH),
LOADED("scale_eighth_mhash", PH_DECODE_SCALE_EIGHTH, PH_ALGO_MHASH),
LOADED("scale_full_radial", PH_DECODE_SCALE_FULL, PH_ALGO_RADIAL),
LOADED("scale_half_radial", PH_DECODE_SCALE_HALF, PH_ALGO_RADIAL),
LOADED("scale_quarter_radial", PH_DECODE_SCALE_QUARTER, PH_ALGO_RADIAL),
LOADED("scale_eighth_radial", PH_DECODE_SCALE_EIGHTH, PH_ALGO_RADIAL),
LOADED("gray_decode", LOAD_GRAY, LOAD_ONLY),
LOADED("gray_phash", LOAD_GRAY, PH_ALGO_PHASH),
LOADED("gray_mhash", LOAD_GRAY, PH_ALGO_MHASH),
LOADED("gray_radial", LOAD_GRAY, PH_ALGO_RADIAL),
LOADED("fresh_decode", LOAD_FRESH, LOAD_ONLY),
LOADED("fresh_phash", LOAD_FRESH, PH_ALGO_PHASH),
};
static int cmp_double(const void *a, const void *b) {
double x = *(const double *)a, y = *(const double *)b;
return (x > y) - (x < y);
}
/* One warm-up run, then at least TIME_MIN_RUNS runs and TIME_MIN_SECONDS, at most
* TIME_MAX_RUNS; the minimum is what the pages quote. */
enum {
TIME_MIN_RUNS = 5,
TIME_MAX_RUNS = 300,
};
#define TIME_MIN_SECONDS 1.0
/* Whether case `name` is among the `n` names of `only`; every case is when `n` is 0. */
static int time_chosen(const char *name, int n, char **only) {
for (int i = 0; i < n; i++) {
if (strcmp(name, only[i]) == 0) {
return 1;
}
}
return n == 0;
}
/* site_stages time <image> [case...]: every case of time_cases[] on the image, or the cases
* named; the minimum and the median of its runs, in milliseconds, as one JSON object, with
* the build that ran them. */
int mode_time(int argc, char **argv) {
for (int i = 1; i < argc; i++) {
int known = 0;
for (size_t c = 0; c < COUNT(time_cases); c++) {
known |= strcmp(argv[i], time_cases[c].name) == 0;
}
if (!known) {
return fail("no such timed case", argv[i]);
}
}
ph_context_t *ctx = NULL;
if (load_image(&ctx, argv[0])) {
return 1;
}
json_t j = json_begin(stdout);
json_int(&j, "width", ctx->image.width);
json_int(&j, "height", ctx->image.height);
json_string(&j, "build_info", ph_get_build_info());
#ifdef __VERSION__
json_string(&j, "compiler", __VERSION__);
#endif
json_t cases = json_object(&j, "cases");
static double ms[TIME_MAX_RUNS];
for (size_t c = 0; c < COUNT(time_cases); c++) {
const time_case_t *tc = &time_cases[c];
if (!time_chosen(tc->name, argc - 1, argv + 1)) {
continue;
}
int runs = 0;
double total = 0.0;
for (int k = -1; k < TIME_MAX_RUNS; k++) { /* k = -1: the warm-up */
ph_drop_gray_cache(ctx);
double t0 = seconds();
if (tc->run(ctx, argv[0], tc->arg)) {
ph_free(ctx);
return fail("timed case failed", tc->name);
}
double t = seconds() - t0;
if (k >= 0) {
ms[runs++] = t * 1e3;
total += t;
if (runs >= TIME_MIN_RUNS && total >= TIME_MIN_SECONDS) {
break;
}
}
}
qsort(ms, (size_t)runs, sizeof(ms[0]), cmp_double);
json_t o = json_object(&cases, tc->name);
json_double(&o, "min_ms", ms[0]);
json_double(&o, "median_ms", ms[runs / 2]);
json_int(&o, "runs", runs);
json_close_object(&o);
}
json_close_object(&cases);
json_end(&j);
ph_free(ctx);
return 0;
}
The times are measured again only when the library, the tool or the machine changes:
def measure_timing(tool):
"""{"machine": {...}, "small": {...}, "large": {...}, "scan": {...}}, each image's
entry as `site_stages time` prints it (width, height, build_info, compiler, and per
case the minimum and median in milliseconds) and the comparisons of a linear search as
`site_stages scan` prints them (per case, nanoseconds per comparison), from the cache
when nothing that decides them has changed, the machine included."""
host = machine()
paths = [os.path.join(ROOT, p) for p in IMAGES.values()]
key = fingerprint(KEY_FILES, [tool] + paths, json.dumps(host, sort_keys=True))
def measure():
data = {"machine": host}
for name, path in zip(IMAGES, paths):
out = subprocess.run([tool, "time", path], check=True, capture_output=True,
text=True).stdout
data[name] = json.loads(out)
data["scan"] = json.loads(subprocess.run([tool, "scan"], check=True,
capture_output=True, text=True).stdout)
return data
return cached("timing", key, measure, "timing")
Settings that affect it¶
ColorHash has no parameters of its own, and the grayscale settings do not reach it. Three context settings change the pixels it counts.
| Setting | Effect on ColorHash |
|---|---|
ph_context_set_load_grayscale() |
a decoded single-channel image has no color, and ColorHash refuses it with PH_ERR_REQUIRES_COLOR rather than count every pixel as gray |
ph_context_set_auto_orient() |
none: turning or mirroring an image keeps every pixel |
ph_context_set_alpha_mode() |
the color transparent pixels are composited onto, which becomes part of the histogram (which background) |
ph_context_set_decode_scale() |
a JPEG read by libjpeg-turbo is decoded at ½, ¼ or ⅛ of its size (measured); a smaller decode keeps the proportions of the colors, and nearly every digest stays within the threshold for copies |
ph_context_set_gray_weights() has no
effect: ColorHash reads \(R\), \(G\) and \(B\) directly. An image that is gray but stored with
three channels gets a digest: every pixel lies on the gray corner, and the digest says
how bright the image is, by thirds.
With ph_context_set_load_grayscale() enabled, the example photograph is decoded to one channel, and ph_compute_color_hash() refuses it: "Algorithm requires a color image, but the loaded image is grayscale".
In code¶
ColorHash returns a digest, like mHash, BMH, Radial and ColorMoments. This example
computes all five for two images and compares each pair with the function its kind calls
for, ColorHash's through
ph_histogram_intersection(), and shows
that a bit-vector comparison refuses a histogram:
/* Hashes two images with every digest algorithm, compares each pair with the function
* that digest's kind calls for, shows what a mismatched comparison returns, and stores a
* digest as text and reads it back. Build/run:
* cc digest_and_metrics.c -o digest_and_metrics $(pkg-config --cflags --libs libphash)
* ./digest_and_metrics a.jpg b.jpg
*/
#include <libphash.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <string.h>
/* Loads `path` into `ctx` in color, so the color hashes can run on it too. */
static int load(ph_context_t *ctx, const char *path) {
ph_error_t err = ph_load_from_file(ctx, path);
if (err != PH_SUCCESS) {
fprintf(stderr, "failed to load %s: %s (%s)\n", path, ph_get_error_string(err),
ph_get_last_error_message(ctx));
return 0;
}
return 1;
}
/* Compares two digests of one algorithm with the function its kind calls for. */
static void compare(const char *name, const ph_digest_t *a, const ph_digest_t *b) {
double score = 0.0;
switch ((ph_digest_kind_t)a->kind) {
case PH_DIGEST_KIND_BITS:
printf("%-13s %3d of %d bits differ, similarity %.3f\n", name,
ph_hamming_distance_digest(a, b), a->size * 8, ph_similarity_digest(a, b));
break;
case PH_DIGEST_KIND_COEFFICIENTS:
if (ph_radial_similarity(a, b, &score) == PH_SUCCESS) {
printf("%-13s peak correlation %.3f (same image at %.1f and above)\n", name, score,
PH_RADIAL_PCC_THRESHOLD);
} else {
printf("%-13s no angular structure to compare\n", name);
}
break;
case PH_DIGEST_KIND_HISTOGRAM:
if (ph_histogram_intersection(a, b, &score) == PH_SUCCESS) {
printf("%-13s histogram intersection %.3f\n", name, score);
}
break;
case PH_DIGEST_KIND_VECTOR16:
case PH_DIGEST_KIND_VECTOR:
printf("%-13s L2 distance %.2f\n", name, ph_l2_distance(a, b));
break;
default:
printf("%-13s kind %d: no comparison\n", name, a->kind);
break;
}
}
int main(int argc, char **argv) {
if (argc != 3) {
fprintf(stderr, "usage: %s <image-a> <image-b>\n", argv[0]);
return 1;
}
static const ph_algorithm_t algos[] = {PH_ALGO_MHASH, PH_ALGO_BMH, PH_ALGO_RADIAL,
PH_ALGO_COLOR_HASH, PH_ALGO_COLOR_MOMENTS};
enum {
N_ALGOS = sizeof(algos) / sizeof(algos[0]),
};
ph_digest_t da[N_ALGOS], db[N_ALGOS];
ph_context_t *ctx = NULL;
if (ph_create(&ctx) != PH_SUCCESS) {
fprintf(stderr, "ph_create failed\n");
return 1;
}
/* One context, reused: each load replaces the previous image and its cached work. */
for (int img = 0; img < 2; img++) {
if (!load(ctx, argv[1 + img])) {
ph_free(ctx);
return 1;
}
for (int i = 0; i < N_ALGOS; i++) {
ph_error_t err = ph_compute_digest(ctx, algos[i], img == 0 ? &da[i] : &db[i]);
if (err != PH_SUCCESS) {
fprintf(stderr, "%s failed: %s\n", ph_algorithm_name(algos[i]),
ph_get_error_string(err));
ph_free(ctx);
return 1;
}
}
}
for (int i = 0; i < N_ALGOS; i++) {
compare(ph_algorithm_name(algos[i]), &da[i], &db[i]);
}
/* The wrong metric is refused, not answered with a meaningless number: a radial
* digest is quantized coefficients, not a bit vector. */
printf("hamming distance of two radial digests: %d (refused)\n",
ph_hamming_distance_digest(&da[2], &db[2]));
/* Store a digest as text and read it back; the text carries the kind. */
char hex[PH_DIGEST_HEX_BUFFER_SIZE];
ph_digest_t back;
if (ph_digest_to_hex(&da[1], hex, sizeof(hex)) != PH_SUCCESS ||
ph_digest_from_hex(hex, &back) != PH_SUCCESS) {
fprintf(stderr, "hex round trip failed\n");
ph_free(ctx);
return 1;
}
printf("BMH as text: %s\n", hex);
printf("read back: %s\n", (back.size == da[1].size && back.kind == da[1].kind &&
memcmp(back.data, da[1].data, back.size) == 0)
? "identical"
: "DIFFERENT");
ph_free(ctx);
return 0;
}
Where it comes from¶
Color indexing by histogram intersection is the method of "Color Indexing" by Michael Swain and Dana Ballard (International Journal of Computer Vision, 1991). The paper is paywalled, and the library could not read it; the method is known from several independent restatements, which agree on the formula of the intersection and on the opponent axes. No conformance to the paper is claimed: ColorHash is a color histogram with histogram intersection, after Swain and Ballard.
What the restatements leave open, the library decides, each choice recorded in provenance § 8. The quantization, 6 × 6 × 3 bins, is the library's own: the paper's resolution would not fit a digest, and sixteen candidates were measured for separability. Two of them scored higher and were rejected because they drop the light–dark axis, so that black and white would get the same digest; a test keeps any future choice from repeating that. The intersection divides each histogram by its own sum, where the formula as restated divides by the reference image's, which would make the score depend on the order of the two digests when the images differ in size.
-
Measured when this site was built, on Intel(R) Xeon(R) Platinum 8370C CPU @ 2.80GHz, 4 cores, Linux x86_64; compiled by 13.3.0, optimized, with libjpeg-turbo decoding the JPEGs: the minimum of at least five runs after a warm-up. What each time covers, and the code, are under “How this was measured” beside it. ↩