MATLAB Implementation for Converting Grayscale Images to RGB Images

This article presents a MATLAB implementation for converting grayscale images to RGB format. The process begins by loading the grayscale image using the imread() function, ensuring the image data is properly imported into the MATLAB workspace. Next, we utilize MATLAB's image processing toolbox functions to convert the grayscale image to RGB format. The key function employed here is ind2rgb(), which converts the grayscale intensity values to RGB color space by applying a specified colormap. Alternatively, the cat() function can be used to concatenate three copies of the grayscale image along the third dimension to create an RGB image.

For color mapping and adjustment, we can apply various colormaps such as jet, hot, or parula using the colormap() function to enhance visual representation. The implementation also includes image normalization techniques to ensure proper intensity scaling before conversion. After processing, the converted RGB image is displayed using imshow() function for visual verification and saved using imwrite() function with appropriate format specifications (e.g., PNG, JPEG).

This method demonstrates fundamental principles of image processing and color space conversion, providing insights into pixel value manipulation and color representation in digital images. The implementation serves as an educational example for understanding how single-channel intensity data can be transformed into three-channel color information while maintaining image integrity.