I am working in python on openCV 3.0. In order to find the largest white pixel region, first of all thresholded gray image to binary image.
import cv2
import numpy as np
img = cv2.imread('graimage.png')
img = cv2.resize(img,(400,500))
gray = img.copy()
(thresh, im_bw) = cv2.threshold(img, 0, 255, cv2.THRESH_BINARY )
derp,contours,hierarchy = cv2.findContours(im_bw,cv2.RETR_LIST,cv2.CHAIN_APPROX_SIMPLE)
cnts = max(cnts, key=cv2.contourArea)
But it shows error as follows.
cv2.error: ..../opencv/modules/imgproc/src/contours.cpp:198: error: (-210) [Start]FindContours supports only CV_8UC1 images when mode != CV_RETR_FLOODFILL otherwise supports CV_32SC1 images only in function cvStartFindContours.