Support non-ascii characters

modules/__init__.py

@@ -1,18 +1,38 @@
-import os 
-import cv2
-import numpy as np
-
-# Utility function to support unicode characters in file paths for reading
-def imread_unicode(path, flags=cv2.IMREAD_COLOR):
-    return cv2.imdecode(np.fromfile(path, dtype=np.uint8), flags)
-
-# Utility function to support unicode characters in file paths for writing
-def imwrite_unicode(path, img, params=None):
-    root, ext = os.path.splitext(path)
-    if not ext:
-        ext = ".png"
-    result, encoded_img = cv2.imencode(ext, img, params if params is not None else [])
-    if not result:
-        return False
-    encoded_img.tofile(path)
-    return True
+import os
+import cv2
+import numpy as np
+
+
+# Utility function to support unicode characters in file paths for reading.
+# OpenCV's cv2.imread() encodes the path with the locale ANSI code page on
+# Windows, so it silently returns None for paths containing non-ASCII
+# characters (Chinese, Japanese, Cyrillic, accents, ...). Reading the bytes
+# through NumPy (which uses Python's unicode-aware file I/O) and decoding them
+# in memory sidesteps that limitation. Returns None on failure, matching
+# cv2.imread() so it stays a drop-in replacement.
+def imread_unicode(path, flags=cv2.IMREAD_COLOR):
+    try:
+        data = np.fromfile(path, dtype=np.uint8)
+        if data.size == 0:
+            return None
+        return cv2.imdecode(data, flags)
+    except Exception:
+        return None
+
+
+# Utility function to support unicode characters in file paths for writing.
+# cv2.imwrite() has the same ANSI-path limitation, so we encode the image in
+# memory and write the bytes out with NumPy's unicode-aware file I/O. Returns
+# True/False like cv2.imwrite() so it stays a drop-in replacement.
+def imwrite_unicode(path, img, params=None):
+    try:
+        root, ext = os.path.splitext(path)
+        if not ext:
+            ext = ".png"
+        result, encoded_img = cv2.imencode(ext, img, params if params is not None else [])
+        if not result:
+            return False
+        encoded_img.tofile(path)
+        return True
+    except Exception:
+        return False