This is the mechanism that I use to calculate image differences in C#. Note that it need to be compiled with the unsafe directive. Hope it helps:
using System;
using System.Collections.Generic;
using System.Text;
using System.Drawing;
using System.Drawing.Imaging;
using log4net;
namespace ImageDiff
{
public class ImageDifferences
{
private static ILog mLog = LogManager.GetLogger("ImageDifferences");
public static unsafe Bitmap PixelDiff(Image a, Image b)
{
if (!a.Size.Equals(b.Size)) return null;
if (!(a is Bitmap) || !(b is Bitmap)) return null;
return PixelDiff(a as Bitmap, b as Bitmap);
}
public static unsafe Bitmap PixelDiff(Bitmap a, Bitmap b)
{
Bitmap output = new Bitmap(
Math.Max(a.Width, b.Width),
Math.Max(a.Height, b.Height),
PixelFormat.Format32bppArgb);
Rectangle recta = new Rectangle(Point.Empty, a.Size);
Rectangle rectb = new Rectangle(Point.Empty, b.Size);
Rectangle rectOutput = new Rectangle(Point.Empty, output.Size);
BitmapData aData = a.LockBits(recta, ImageLockMode.ReadOnly, PixelFormat.Format32bppArgb);
BitmapData bData = b.LockBits(rectb, ImageLockMode.ReadOnly, PixelFormat.Format32bppArgb);
BitmapData outputData = output.LockBits(rectOutput, ImageLockMode.ReadWrite, PixelFormat.Format32bppArgb);
try
{
byte* aPtr = (byte*)aData.Scan0;
byte* bPtr = (byte*)bData.Scan0;
byte* outputPtr = (byte*)outputData.Scan0;
int len = aData.Stride * aData.Height;
for (int i = 0; i < len; i++)
{
// For alpha use the average of both images (otherwise pixels with the same alpha won't be visible)
if ((i + 1) % 4 == 0)
*outputPtr = (byte)((*aPtr + *bPtr) / 2);
else
*outputPtr = (byte)~(*aPtr ^ *bPtr);
outputPtr++;
aPtr++;
bPtr++;
}
return output;
}
catch (Exception ex)
{
mLog.Error("Error calculating image differences: " + ex.Message);
return null;
}
finally
{
a.UnlockBits(aData);
b.UnlockBits(bData);
output.UnlockBits(outputData);
}
}
}
}