Overview

The data reader utility is a program I wrote to facilitate testing of some of my data processing algorithms. I've found that is usually beneficial, and sometimes absolutely necessary, to view the output of my algorithms in a visual format. This is especially true when dealing with image processing algorithms.

This program was written in C# and made to closely emulate the performance of Matlab's colormap utility. I've added some functionality over Matlab's implemenation to suit my own uses. These will be discussed later on.

Throughout the demonstration of this program, I will be using a couple of data sets: First, GoldenGate.jpg is a RGB picture of the Golden Gate Bridge in San Fransciso. By default, images are loaded as black and white since this program is intended to handle 2 dimensional data. Second, GoldenGateDerivative.csv is the bidirectional derivative of GoldenGate.jpg

To begin, the image below shows the GoldenGate.jpg loaded in as a black and white image.

GoldenGate.jpg loaded as B&W image

Colormaps

The data reader has several default colormaps that it can use to display data, as well as, a colormap editor so that new colormaps can be created, saved, and loaded. The images below show the original GoldenGate.jpg image rendered with the GreenRedGreen and HotCold colormaps.

GoldenGate.jpg displayed with GreenRedGreen colormap

GoldenGate.jpg displayed with HotCold colormap

The GreenRedGreen colormap is typically used to display data that has a Gaussian-like distribution. The data around the mean is rendered in red while the tails fade to green. The HotCold colormap is the one that I use most on a daily basis. This is similar to Matlab's Jet colormap. Low values are dark blue and fade intuitively to dark red for the highest.