append_images.m

%
%  Developer : Prakriti Chintalapoodi - c.prakriti@gmail.com 
%

function appended = append_images(mode, varargin)
    % Function to append images Left-Right or Top-Bottom
    %       mode = 'LR' or 'TB' for left-right or top-bottom concatenation
    % Rows (or cols) at the bottom (or right) of the smaller images are zero padded

    % Create a copy of input images before messing with them 
    % (else would be pass by reference)
    images = cell(1,nargin); images = varargin; 

    % dim_array corresponds to rows if 'LR' and cols if 'TB'
    dim_array = zeros(1,nargin-1);
    for n = 1:(nargin-1)
        if strcmp(mode,'LR')
            dim_array(n) = size(images{n},1);
        else
            dim_array(n) = size(images{n},2);
        end   
    end
    max_dim = max(dim_array);
    appended = [];

    for n = 1:nargin-1
        switch mode 
            case 'LR'  % Pad zeros at the bottom of smaller images
                if size(images{n},1) < max_dim
                    images{n}(max_dim,1) = 0;
                end
                appended = [appended   images{n}];
            case 'TB'  % Pad zeros at the right of smaller images
                if size(images{n},2) < max_dim
                    images{n}(1,max_dim) = 0;
                end   
                appended = [appended ; images{n}];   
        end
    end
end