Visual Comparison

Introduction

A tool for comparing images & videos, to aid research in image/video enhancement.

• Removes need to generate comparison images
• Quickly switch between files and methods using keybindings or buttons
• 3 different comparison modes for more effective comparison
• Preview and filter window to quickly search, filter and skip to desired images
• Zoom to see fine details or enhancement
• Video exporting functionality to share comparison videos

Simply generate your enhanced images/videos, store it together with outputs from other methods and source images. Then, run the application, and select the root folder and preview folder using the GUI.

Problem

Able to spot the differences?

How about now?

Compare (Up to 4)	Show Specific	Concat
Shows up to 4 files at once. Move mouse accordingly	Shows a single method based on what the user selected (with their keyboard)	Display all files horizontally. Still useful for images with large differences

Interested in looking at small regions of the image?

Zoom (Compare)	Zoom (Specific)	Zoom (Concat)

Many files or methods to compare?

Mouse/Keyboard Control	Button Control	File filtering
Navigate files using 'a', 'd' or arrow keys. Scroll to preview other files	Select which method to compare and jump to specific index	Filter/sort files by name, height, width, etc.

Usage

Installation

Create a virtual environment with Python 3.8.10 Then,

pip3 install -r requirements.txt

Next, install the necessary package for the copy image to clipboard feature

# MacOS - None

# Windows
pip3 install pywin32

# Linux
pip3 install klembord

Folder Structure

Your files should be stored in the following manner:

root
├── file1.jpg  # Files will be excluded
├── method_1  # Could be name of algorithm or outputs from epoch
    ├── file1
    ├── file2
    └── ...
├── method_2
    ├── file1
    ├── file2
    └── ...
└── source  # source folder (used for preview). Can be specified in run.py
    ├── file1
    ├── file2
    └── ...

Requirements

• Minimum of 2 folders since this is a comparison tool.
• Each folder contains enhanced images from a single method.
• Each file must have the same name as the source file.
• Files which have the same name across ALL subdirectories will be retrieved.
• Images & videos should all have the same size (since we need to overlay/crop and join them)
• Files in root folder will be excluded

Running the program

usage: run.py [-h] [--root ROOT] [--preview_folder PREVIEW_FOLDER]

optional arguments:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  --root ROOT           Path to root directory
  --preview_folder PREVIEW_FOLDER
                        Folder to preview

More Info

For more information and instructions on how to use the application, refer to the Wiki