Writing efficient image-scanning loops
In the previous recipes of this chapter, we presented different ways of scanning an image in order to process its pixels. In this recipe, we will compare the efficiency of these different approaches.
When you write an image-processing function, efficiency is often a concern. When you design your function, you will frequently need to check the computational efficiency of your code in order to detect any bottleneck in your processing that might slow down your program.
However, it is important to note that unless necessary, optimization should not be done at the price of reducing code clarity. Simple code is indeed, always easier to debug and maintain. Only code portions that are critical to a program's efficiency should be heavily optimized.
How to do it...
In order to measure the execution time of a function or a portion of code, there exists a very convenient OpenCV function called cv::getTickCount(). This function gives you the number of clock cycles...
