OpenCV - find bounding box of largest blob in binary image

Question

What is the most efficient way to find the bounding box of the largest blob in a binary image using OpenCV? Unfortunately, OpenCV does not have specific functionality for blob detection. Should I just use findContours() and search for the largest in the list?

Answer 1

Here. It. Is. (FYI: try not to be lazy and figure out what happens in my function below.

cv::Mat findBiggestBlob(cv::Mat & matImage){
    int largest_area=0;
    int largest_contour_index=0;

    vector< vector<Point> > contours; // Vector for storing contour
    vector<Vec4i> hierarchy;

    findContours( matImage, contours, hierarchy,CV_RETR_CCOMP, CV_CHAIN_APPROX_SIMPLE ); // Find the contours in the image

    for( int i = 0; i< contours.size(); i++ ) {// iterate through each contour. 
        double a=contourArea( contours[i],false);  //  Find the area of contour
        if(a>largest_area){
            largest_area=a;
            largest_contour_index=i;                //Store the index of largest contour
            //bounding_rect=boundingRect(contours[i]); // Find the bounding rectangle for biggest contour
        }
    }

    drawContours( matImage, contours, largest_contour_index, Scalar(255), CV_FILLED, 8, hierarchy ); // Draw the largest contour using previously stored index.
    return matImage;
}