opencv - Passing bitmap from c# to c++

Question

I have an image processing function written in C++ based on opencv. In my wpf application I have used AForge library to access a webcam and update it on UI. This the function for handling newframes.

void UI_NewFrame(object sender, NewFrameEventArgs eventArgs)
    {
        try
        {
            System.Drawing.Bitmap bitmapFrame = (Bitmap)eventArgs.Frame.Clone();

            MemoryStream ms = new MemoryStream();
            bitmapFrame.Save(ms, ImageFormat.Bmp);
            ms.Seek(0, SeekOrigin.Begin);

            BitmapImage bitmapImageFrame = new BitmapImage();
            bitmapImageFrame.BeginInit();
            bitmapImageFrame.StreamSource = ms;
            bitmapImageFrame.EndInit();
            bitmapImageFrame.Freeze();
            CurrentFrame = bitmapImageFrame;
        }
        catch (Exception ex)
        {
            Debug.WriteLine("fatal::" + ex.Message);
        }
    }

This my c++ code:

void FaceTracker(unsigned char* imageBuffer, int width, int height){    
   Mat frame(Size(width, height), CV_8UC4, imageBuffer, Mat::AUTO_STEP);
   Mat gray;
   cvtColor(frame, gray, COLOR_BGR2GRAY);
   //do more operations
}

I have two options. I have already found a code for copying data from BitmapImage to a IntPtr buffer using CopyPixels. I tested it and it works fine. But I also read I can simply pass a handle to the Bitmap using GetHBitmap. However this is not working for me. I read this How can I pass a .NET Bitmap to a native DLL? but I don't understand the part about GetDIBits. I also tried locking pixels of bitmap and passing like this:

bitmapFrame.LockBits(new Rectangle(0, 0, bitmapFrame.Width, bitmapFrame.Height), System.Drawing.Imaging.ImageLockMode.ReadWrite, 
            System.Drawing.Imaging.PixelFormat.Format24bppRgb);
NativeFunctions.FaceTracker(bitmapFrame.GetHbitmap(), bitmapFrame.Width, bitmapFrame.Height);

and simply passing HBitMap, neither works. I always get an exception stating memory access violation.

Answer 1

Depends on the scope. If you can guarantee the bitmap isn't used elsewhere, you can lock the image buffer, and then pass the pointer down to the C++ code, and unlock it afterwards.

The LockBits command returns a BitmapData class that has a pointer to the image buffer in its Scan0 property:

BitmapData bmpData = bitmapFrame.LockBits(new Rectangle(0, 0, bitmapFrame.Width, bitmapFrame.Height), System.Drawing.Imaging.ImageLockMode.ReadWrite, 
            System.Drawing.Imaging.PixelFormat.Format24bppRgb);

NativeFunctions.FaceTracker(bmpData.Scan0 , bitmapFrame.Width, bitmapFrame.Height);

bitmapFrame.UnlockBits(bmpData); //Remember to unlock!!!