Converting colour image to 8-bit greyscale

[CatMan]

I have been developing software using using ComponentWorks IMAQ Vision in Visual C++ for
a monochrome camera and now wish to port some of the code to an system running a colour camera.

I wish to read in composite video colour images and convert them to 8-bit greyscale. This is because there seems to be no autothresholding function for colour images, just colorThreshold which requires manual choice of threshold values. If I convert the colour image into monchrome I can use the nice AutoMthreshold function which is used in my original algorithm.

Is there a way to convert the images quickly and simply?

[BruceAmmons]

My area of expertise is LabVIEW, but I am sure there are equivalent functions in ComponentWorks.

There are functions that will extract one of the color planes as a greyscale image. You will have to decide which color plane you want. Intensity is usually a good choice.

Bruce

[marooner]

Hi,
u can use IMAQ extract color planes to three color planes from a RGB or HSL or HSV image.