How to update data for Matplotlib's im_show()

Question

I am currently using MPL's im_show() function in order to display the depth image of an IFM 3D camera. I am able to display a single scene of the camera with no issues. Although, I am finding that the image displayed does not differ from one scene to the next (i.e changing the scene that the camera is looking at from one to another). Although, the actual data of the depth map is changing.

I have been looking into how to dynamically change images using MPL and I haven't found the right solution.

The depth map is found as a key called distance in the result dictionary after calling the method readNextFrame(). Although my question involves the plotting code. In short, the code looks a little something like this:

import o3d3xx
import array
import numpy as np
import matplotlib
import matplotlib.pyplot as plt

imageWidth = 176
imageHeight = 132

#create ImageClient Object
pcic = o3d3xx.ImageClient("Camera IP",50010)

#store distance array as variable 'distance'
result = pcic.readNextFrame()
distance = result["distance"]

#convert to np array and reshape 
distance = np.asarray(distance)
distance = distance.reshape(imageHeight,imageWidth)

#plot distance array
plt.figure()
plt.title("Distance Image")
plt.imshow(distance)
plt.show()

After changing scene, I know that the actual distance array is changing because I have compared the data arrays from one scene to the next. The only way I can get around this issue is by creating a new ImageClient object but I would like to avoid that.

Any ideas as to how to get around this? Ultimately I would like to call readNextFrame() and use imshow() to display a new depth image once the scene has changed without creating a new ImageClient object.

Answer 1

Easy one:

figure, axis = plt.subplots(figsize=(7.6, 6.1))
im = axis.imshow(***SOME ARRAY***)

if you want to reset plot data just

im.set_data(***SOME OTHER ARRAY***)