The question is very close to this question.
My solution is close too...
Assuming the colors are black white and red (the general case may be trickier), we may use the following stages:
- Fill the black background with white color (using
cv2.floodFill).
The white object on the red boundary are merged with the background.
- Fill the white background with black color (using
cv2.floodFill).
The white object on the red boundary are going to be black.
- Copy the red color channel from the original image to "filled" image.
The red channel of a white pixel is 255, so black and white becomes red.
Code sample:
import cv2
import numpy as np
img = cv2.imread('red_white_black.jpg')
# Copy the original image to img2
img2 = img.copy()
# Fill the black background with white color
cv2.floodFill(img2, None, seedPoint=(0, 0), newVal=(255, 255, 255), loDiff=(50, 50, 50), upDiff=(50, 50, 50))
cv2.imshow('black background', img2) # Show img2 for testing
# Fill the white background with black color
cv2.floodFill(img2, None, seedPoint=(0, 0), newVal=(0, 0, 0), loDiff=(50, 50, 50), upDiff=(50, 50, 50))
cv2.imshow('white background', img2) # Show img2 for testing
# Copy the red color channel from the original image to img2
img2[:, :, 2] = img[:, :, 2]
cv2.imshow('img2', img2) # Show img2 for testing
cv2.waitKey()
cv2.destroyAllWindows()
Results:
Black background:

White background:

img2:

The black margins around the red, are because the original image is JPEG and not PNG (colors are not pure), and the red is not pure red.
We may fix it using the following code (the code in not very elegant)...
red = img[:, :, 2]
r = np.median(img[:, :, 2][red > 50])
g = np.median(img[:, :, 1][red > 50])
b = np.median(img[:, :, 0][red > 50])
mask = np.logical_and(img[:, :, 0] > 100, img2[:, :, 0] <= 100)
img3 = img2.copy()
img3[:, :, 2][mask] = r
img3[:, :, 1][mask] = g
img3[:, :, 0][mask] = b
img3[:, :, 2] = cv2.morphologyEx(img3[:, :, 2], cv2.MORPH_CLOSE, np.ones((3, 3), np.uint8))
img3[:, :, 1] = cv2.morphologyEx(img3[:, :, 1], cv2.MORPH_OPEN, np.ones((3, 3), np.uint8))
img3[:, :, 0] = cv2.morphologyEx(img3[:, :, 0], cv2.MORPH_OPEN, np.ones((3, 3), np.uint8))
cv2.imshow('img3', img3)
cv2.waitKey()
cv2.destroyAllWindows()
Result:
