ActionScript 3 Bitmap Manipulation and Filtering Threshold (monochrome) effect

Example

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required:

1. understanding Bitmap and Bitmap data

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what is threshold

This adjustment takes all the pixels in an image and…pushes them to either pure white or pure black

what we have to do

here is a Live Demo of this example with some additional changes like using a UI to changing threshold level in runtime.

threshold in action script 3 _{from as3 official documentation}

Tests pixel values in an image against a specified threshold and sets pixels that pass the test to new color values. Using the threshold() method, you can isolate and replace color ranges in an image and perform other logical operations on image pixels.

The threshold() method's test logic is as follows:

1. If ((pixelValue & mask) operation (threshold & mask)), then set the pixel to color;
2. Otherwise, if copySource == true, then set the pixel to corresponding pixel value from sourceBitmap.

i just commented the following code with exactly names as quoted description.

import flash.display.BitmapData;
import flash.display.Bitmap;
import flash.geom.Rectangle;
import flash.geom.Point;

var bmd:BitmapData = new wildcat(); // instantied a bitmapdata from library a wildcat
var bmp:Bitmap = new Bitmap(bmd); // our display object to previewing bitmapdata on stage
addChild(bmp);
monochrome(bmd); // invoking threshold function

/**
    @param bmd, input bitmapData that should be monochromed
*/
function monochrome(bmd:BitmapData):void {
    var bmd_copy:BitmapData = bmd.clone(); // holding a pure copy of bitmapdata for comparation steps
    // this is our "threshold" in description above, source pixels will be compared with this value
    var level:uint = 0xFFAAAAAA; // #AARRGGBB. in this case i used RGB(170,170,170) with an alpha of 1. its not median but standard
    // A rectangle that defines the area of the source image to use as input.
    var rect:Rectangle = new Rectangle(0,0,bmd.width,bmd.height);
    // The point within the destination image (the current BitmapData instance) that corresponds to the upper-left corner of the source rectangle.
    var dest:Point = new Point();
    // thresholding will be done in two section
    // the last argument is "mask", which exists in both sides of comparation
    // first, modifying pixels which passed comparation and setting them all with "color" white (0xFFFFFFFF)
    bmd.bitmapData.threshold(bmd_copy, rect, dest, ">", level, 0xFFFFFFFF, 0xFFFFFFFF);
    // then, remaining pixels and make them all with "color" black (0xFF000000)
    bmd.bitmapData.threshold(bmd_copy, rect, dest, "<=", level, 0xFF000000, 0xFFFFFFFF);
    // Note: as we have no alpha channel in our default BitmapData (pixelValue), we left it to its full value, a white mask (0xffffffff)
}