8. Image arithmetic

See: https://microbit-micropython.readthedocs.io/en/stable/image.html

8.1. Image objects

The basic syntax for showing creating an Image object is:

Image(): Returns an image object, with each pixel of brightness 0.

Image() is equivalent to:

Image(

‘00000:’

‘00000:’

‘00000:’

‘00000:’

‘00000:’

)

8.2. Fill

fill(value): Set the brightness of all the pixels in the image to the value, between 0 and 9.

The fill method applies the fill in-place to the image.

Don’t use with built-in images since they are read-only and cannot be altered.

The code below sets all the pixels to a brightness of 6.

from microbit import *

img = Image()
img.fill(6)
display.show(img)

Tasks

Create a blank image and fill it with brightness of 7.
Create a blank image and use a for-loop to set its brightness from 1 to 9 in less than 2 seconds using the fill method.
Create an animation using the fill method in which the brightness of all the pixels goes form 0 to 9 and back to 0 in less than 2 seconds.

8.3. Invert

invert(): Return a new image by inverting the brightness of the pixels in the source image.

from microbit import *

img1 = Image()
img1_inverted = img1.invert()
display.show(img1_inverted)

Image().invert() is equivalent to:

Image(
    '99999:'
    '99999:'
    '99999:'
    '99999:'
    '99999:'
    )

When inverted, a pixel of brightness 0 becomes 9, 1 becomes 8, 2 becomes 7,….8 becomes 1, 9 becomes 0.

../_images/vertical_gradient_inverted.png

An image may be stored in a variable then inverted.
In the code below, the image is inverted, and so:
Image(‘11111:33333:55555:77777:99999’) is inverted to:
Image(‘88888:66666:44444:22222:00000:’)

from microbit import *

img1 = Image('11111:33333:55555:77777:99999')
img1_inverted = img1.invert()

A built-in image can be stored in a variable, then inverted.

The inverted HAPPY face is shown.

from microbit import *

img1 = Image.HAPPY
img1_inverted = img1.invert()
display.show(img1_inverted)

Tasks

Invert the square: Image('99999:90009:90009:90009:99999'). Display the square and its inversion in a while-loop.
Invert the gradient: Image('11111:33333:55555:77777:99999'). Display the gradient and its inversion in a while-loop.
Invert Image.SAD. Display the sad face and its inversion in a while-loop.

8.4. Image of a single string character

Image(character): Returns an image object that represents the character. The characters must be in quotes.

img_m = Image("m") stores the image in a variable which is then shown via: display.show(img_m)

from microbit import *

img_m = Image("m")

while True:
    if button_a.is_pressed():
        display.show(img_m)
    sleep(200)

Tasks

Modify the code to create an image of 3.
Modify the code to create images of “m” and an inverted “m”.

8.5. Adding Image pixels

image1 + image2: Create a new image by adding the brightness values from the two images for each pixel.

The code below adds the images made from an “m” and a “w”.

from microbit import *

img_m = Image("m")
img_w = Image("w")
img_mw = img_m + img_w

while True:
    if button_a.is_pressed():
        display.show(img_m)
    elif button_b.is_pressed():
        display.show(img_w)
    else:
        display.show(img_mw)
    sleep(500)

The code below adds the SAD image and the HAPPY image.

from microbit import *


img_sad = Image.SAD
img_happy = Image.HAPPY
img_sad_happy = img_sad + img_happy

while True:
    display.show(img_sad)
    sleep(500)
    display.show(img_happy)
    sleep(500)
    display.show(img_sad_happy)
    sleep(500)

Tasks

Modify the code to create the addition of the images from 3 and 5.
Modify the code to create the addition of the images “m” and an inverted “m”.
Modify the code to create the addition of the sad and asleep images.

8.6. Subtracting Image pixels

image1 - image2: Create a new image by subtracting the brightness values of one image from another for each pixel.

from microbit import *

img_m = Image("m")
img_w = Image("w")
img_m_sub_w = img_m - img_w

while True:
    if button_a.is_pressed():
        display.show(img_m)
    elif button_b.is_pressed():
        display.show(img_w)
    else:
        display.show(img_m_sub_w)
    sleep(500)

Tasks

Modify the code to create a new image by subtracting the image “m” from an inverted blank image.
Modify the code to create a new image by subtracting the image HAPPY from the image SAD.

8.7. Multiplying and dividing Image pixels

image * n: Create a new image by multiplying the brightness of each pixel by n.

It makes sure the resulting Image object has integer values.

Values for each pixel cannot go over 9.

image / n: Create a new image by dividing the brightness of each pixel by n.

It makes sure the resulting Image object has integer values.

Values for each pixel are rounded; 0.4 down to 0, 0.5 up to 1.

In the code below, image img_m9 has pixels of brightness 9.

An image, img_m1, with brightness 1, is first created from that, then other brightnesses can be easily obtained by multiplication.

from microbit import *

img_m9 = Image("m")
img_m1 = img_m9 / 9
img_m6 = img_m1 * 6

while True:
    if button_a.is_pressed():
        display.show(img_m9)
    elif button_b.is_pressed():
        display.show(img_m6)
    else:
        display.show(img_m1)
    sleep(500)

Tasks

Modify the code to create the images of a “w” with brightness of 9, 1 and 4.
Modify the code to create the addition of the images “m” at brightness 6 and “w” at brightness 3.
Using the pulsing code above as a starting point, add extra code so that it is possible to set the number of pulses per second and use that to calculate the sleep_time.

8.8. Pulsing HEART

In the code below, image img9 has pixels of brightness 9.
An image, img1, with brightness 1, is first created from that, then other brightnesses are obtained in for-loops so that the image is pulsed.
The sleep_time variable makes it convenient to adjust the pulsing rate.

from microbit import *

img9 = Image.HEART
img1 = img9 / 9
sleep_time = 50
while True:
    for i in range(10):
        img = img1 * i
        display.show(img)
        sleep(sleep_time)
    for i in range(9, -1, -1):
        img = img1 * i
        display.show(img)
        sleep(sleep_time)

Tasks

Using the pulsing code above as a starting point, add extra code so that it is possible to set use the number of pulses per second to calculate the sleep_time. Set the pulse rate to 100 pulses per minute.

8.9. List comprehension for a series of images

See: https://www.w3schools.com/python/python_lists_comprehension.asp

new_list = [expression for item in iterable]: Create a list of expressions that take each item in an iterable, such as a list, tuple or string.

The code below creates a simple square brightness animation from 9 to 0 at different speeds set by the delay value.

from microbit import *

square_9to0_list = [Image().invert()*(i/9) for i in range(9, -1, -1)]

while True:
    if button_a.is_pressed():
        display.show(square_9to0_list, delay=100, wait=False)
    elif button_b.is_pressed():
        display.show(square_9to0_list, delay=300, wait=False)

Another way to do this is by multiplication of a base image with all pixels at a brightness of 1.

from microbit import *

img0 = Image()
img0.fill(1)
square_9to0_list = [img0 * i for i in range(9, -1, -1)]

while True:
    if button_a.is_pressed():
        display.show(square_9to0_list, delay=100, wait=False)
    elif button_b.is_pressed():
        display.show(square_9to0_list, delay=300, wait=False)

Tasks

Modify the code to create a simple square brightness animation from 0 to 9 at different speeds set by the delay value.
Modify the code to create a series of images of a sad face with brightness of 9, 7, 5, 3, 1 using list comprehension.
Modify the code to create a series of images of a sad face with brightness of 1, 3, 5, 7, 9 using list comprehension.

8.10. Pulsing Images

The code below pulses any image with a given delay between each brightness.
The image is used to make 20 images with brightness values that go from 0 to 9 and back down to 0.
The input image needs to have pixel brightnesses of 9, although pixels of 5 or above will work.
The custom syntax is below:

pulse_image(img, pulse_delay=100): img can be a built-in such as Image.HEART or a custom image such as Image(“90909:” * 5) or Image(5, 5, bytearray([9] * 25)).

Pulse_delay defaults to 100 ms. It is the time between each image.

Pulse_image uses the image_brightness function to produce an image with the given brightness.

Pixels in the original image with a brightness of 5 or more are included; other pixels will be off.

from microbit import *


def image_brightness(img, brightness):
    res = img / 9 * brightness
    return res


def pulse_image(img, pulse_delay=100):
    img_list1 = [image_brightness(img, i) for i in range(0, 10, 1)]
    img_list2 = [image_brightness(img, i) for i in range(9, -1, -1)]
    display.show(img_list1 + img_list2, delay=pulse_delay, wait=True)


while True:
    pulse_image(Image.HEART, 50)

Tasks

Modify the code above to pulse a series of animal images.
Modify the code to pulse a series of faces.
Add a for-loop to pulse each face 3 times before changing to the next face.
Replace the image_brightness function with image_brightness_with_inverted to create a combined image that has the inverted image of complimentary brightness. e.g. original image of brightness 2 added to inverted image of brightness 7. Rename pulse_image to pulse_image_inverted to include the new image_brightness_with_inverted.

Q1

Modify the code above to pulse a series of animal images.

from microbit import *


def image_brightness(img, brightness):
    res = img / 9 * brightness
    return res


def pulse_image(img, pulse_delay=100):
    img_list1 = [image_brightness(img, i) for i in range(0, 10, 1)]
    img_list2 = [image_brightness(img, i) for i in range(9, -1, -1)]
    display.show(img_list1 + img_list2, delay=pulse_delay, wait=True)


animal_images = [
                    Image.RABBIT,
                    Image.COW,
                    Image.DUCK,
                    Image.TORTOISE,
                    Image.BUTTERFLY,
                    Image.GIRAFFE,
                    Image.SNAKE,
                ]


while True:
    for img in animal_images:
        pulse_image(img, 50)

Q2

Modify the code to pulse a series of faces.

from microbit import *


def image_brightness(img, brightness):
    res = img / 9 * brightness
    return res


def pulse_image(img, pulse_delay=100):
    img_list1 = [image_brightness(img, i) for i in range(0, 10, 1)]
    img_list2 = [image_brightness(img, i) for i in range(9, -1, -1)]
    display.show(img_list1 + img_list2, delay=pulse_delay, wait=True)


images = [Image.HAPPY, Image.SMILE, Image.SAD, Image.CONFUSED,
    Image.ANGRY, Image.ASLEEP, Image.SURPRISED, Image.SILLY,
    Image.FABULOUS, Image.MEH]

while True:
    for img in images:
        pulse_image(img, 50)

Q3

Add a for-loop to quickly pulse each face 3 times before changing to the next face.

from microbit import *

def image_brightness(img, brightness):
    res = img / 9 * brightness
    return res


def pulse_image(img, pulse_delay=100):
    img_list1 = [image_brightness(img, i) for i in range(0, 10, 1)]
    img_list2 = [image_brightness(img, i) for i in range(9, -1, -1)]
    display.show(img_list1 + img_list2, delay=pulse_delay, wait=True)


images = [Image.HAPPY, Image.SMILE, Image.SAD, Image.CONFUSED,
    Image.ANGRY, Image.ASLEEP, Image.SURPRISED, Image.SILLY,
    Image.FABULOUS, Image.MEH]

while True:
    for img in images:
        for _ in range(3):
            pulse_image(img, 40)

Q4

Replace the image_brightness function with image_brightness_with_inverted to create a combined image that has the inverted image of complimentary brightness. e.g. original image of brightness 2 added to inverted image of brightness 7. Rename pulse_image to pulse_image_inverted to include the new image_brightness_with_inverted.

from microbit import *

def image_brightness_with_inverted(img, brightness):
    res = img / 9 * brightness
    res_inv = img.invert() / 9 * (9 - brightness)
    return res + res_inv


def pulse_image_inverted(img, pulse_delay=100):
    img_list1 = [image_brightness_with_inverted(img, i) for i in range(0, 10, 1)]
    img_list2 = [image_brightness_with_inverted(img, i) for i in range(9, -1, -1)]
    display.show(img_list1 + img_list2, delay=pulse_delay, wait=True)


images = [Image.HAPPY, Image.SMILE, Image.SAD, Image.CONFUSED,
    Image.ANGRY, Image.ASLEEP, Image.SURPRISED, Image.SILLY,
    Image.FABULOUS, Image.MEH]

while True:
    for img in images:
        for _ in range(3):
            pulse_image_inverted(img, 40)