Testing out a few different ways of loading images.

image_loading.py

def get_img_pil(path):
    img = Image.open(path)
    arr = np.asarray(img)
    img.close()
    del img
    return arr


def get_img_cv2(path):
    img = cv2.imread(path)
    return cv2.cvtColor(img, cv2.COLOR_BGR2RGB)
    

def get_img_cv2_no_leak(path):
    #read the data from the file
    with open(path, 'rb') as infile:
        buf = infile.read()

    #use numpy to construct an array from the bytes
    x = np.frombuffer(buf, dtype='uint8')

    #decode the array into an image
    img = cv2.imdecode(x, cv2.IMREAD_UNCHANGED)
    del x
    del buf
    return img

def get_img_pil_no_leak(path):
    
    with open(path, 'rb') as f:
        img = Image.open(f)
        # We need to consume the whole file inside the `with` statement
        img.load()
        arr = np.asarray(img)
        
        # Unref here to be sure that there is nothing happens
        # with the image after file is closed
        img = None
        
        return arr
    

def load_samples(img_ids):
    samples = []
    
    for img_id in img_ids:
        path = "data/train_images/" + img_id
        img = get_img_cv2(path)
        # img = get_img('data/test_images/fff3c5c.jpg')

        
        samples.append(img)
    return samples