maple_area

maple_area, an Octave code which estimates the area of a maple leaf using an image.

For a discussion of quasirandom sampling, Brian Hayes published a picture of a maple leaf and considered how its area could be estimated using a regular grid of points, random sampling, or quasirandom sampling.

The maple_boundary() functions used various MATLAB procedures to turn the maple leaf image into a polygonal curve definining the boundary. The functions in maple_area() use various sampling techniques to estimate the area of the maple leaf, given the boundary curve.

Licensing:

The computer code and data files made available on this web page are distributed under the MIT license

Languages:

maple_area is available in a MATLAB version and an Octave version.

Related Data and Programs:

maple_area_test

maple_boundary, an Octave code which reads an image of a maple leaf and extracts the list of pixels that form the boundary.

Reference:

• Brian Hayes,
  Quasirandom Ramblings,
  American Scientist,
  Volume 99, Number 4, July-August 2011, pages 282-287.

Source Code:

• maple_area_estimate_grid.m, estimates the relative area of a maple leaf using a regular grid.
• maple_area_estimate_mc.m, estimates the relative area of a maple leaf using Monte Carlo points.
• maple_area_estimate_qmc.m, estimates the relative area of a maple leaf using Quasi Monte Carlo points.
• maple_boundary.m, returns the coordinates of 1776 (x,y) points along the boundary of the maple leaf.