title: imread fails to read image
body: <p>I have been working on a project to detect offline hand written signatures. And I have run into a basic problem. My program fails to work with <code>imread()</code> function. It does not show any errors, but it does not load an image either. If I check for the image, it displays the error message I specified. I am using OpenCV 2.4.10 with Microsoft Visual C++ 2010 and I am using Windows 8.  </p>
  
  <p>Is this the problem with the way I configured OpenCV or is it something wrong with the version?  </p>
  
  <p>How do I overcome with this problem?  </p>
  
  <p>If you have any perfect tutorial to configure OpenCV with Microsoft Visual C++, Please share it with me. Here is the code I am running. And also, while running, The output dialogue box says, <em>Native' has exited with code -1</em>. Now I don't see message, "<em>Error : Image cannot be loaded..!!</em>". But still the problem is not solved.</p>
  
  <pre><code>#include &lt;opencv2/core/core.hpp&gt;
  #include &lt;opencv2/highgui/highgui.hpp&gt;
  #include &lt;iostream&gt;
  
  using namespace cv;
  using namespace std;
  
  int main( int argc, char** argv )
  {
      Mat image;
      image = imread("C:\Users\sony\Downloads\Shareit\Photo\New Doc 7_1.jpg",CV_LOAD_IMAGE_UNCHANGED);
  
      if (image.empty()) //check whether the image is loaded or not
      {
        cout &lt;&lt; "Error : Image cannot be loaded..!!" &lt;&lt; endl;
        //system("pause"); //wait for a key press
        return -1;
   }
  
        namedWindow("MyWindow", CV_WINDOW_AUTOSIZE); //create a window with the name "MyWindow"
        imshow("MyWindow", image); //display the image which is stored in the 'img' in the "MyWindow" window
  
        waitKey(0); //wait infinite time for a keypress
  
        destroyWindow("MyWindow"); //destroy the window with the name, "MyWindow"
  
        return 0;
  }
  </code></pre>