Python: how to filter a point cloud according to the color of the points

Question

I have a point cloud with XYZRGB data which was derived from images. Is there any way I can filter the point cloud based on colour data? This is possible in images maybe using OpenCV or some other libraries. I am looking to extract points from the point cloud based on RGB data in python.

Eg: I want to extract white color point from the point cloud.

I looked at open source tool Cloud compare and there is an option to extract points based on color. I want to implement the same but I am lack of procedure/steps to achieve.

Answer 1

With Python I would load the point cloud (LAS/LAZ) file to numpy array using laspy or pylas, where every point gets stored as a row in numpy array. Once this is done you can use np.where to filter it by R, G and B values. Assuming that your point cloud headers for RGB are red, green and blue. It will look something like this.

import laspy as lp
import numpy as np

point_cloud = lp.read("cube.las")
filterd_pc = np.where((point_cloud.red == 255) & (point_cloud.green == 255) & (point_cloud.blue == 255))

print(filterd_pc)

With CloudCompare you will have to add colors as scalar field first. So once your point cloud is loaded go to Menu->Edit->Colors->Convert to Scalar field

Once you do this select the active scalar field by going to properties tab and select either if R,G,B.

Once done go to Menu->Edit->Scalar fields->Filter by Value . This will allow you to filter based on selected scalar field and its value range.

So for filtering white colors R,G,B should be 255,255,255 respectively. So if the R is selected in scalar field you will have to put a range of 255 to 255. Or you can also put a slightly broader range for different shades of white like 250-255. You can export the point cloud filtered by R values or use split option to split the original point clould and add the filtered points as a separate point cloud in your viewport. You can further filter the R filtered point cloud in similar way with similar range for G followed by a similar filter for B. Remember the R,G,B values should be within 250-255 to cover different ranges of white.