diff --git a/ext/opencv/mat.cpp b/ext/opencv/mat.cpp
index e3f60cc..409a879 100644
--- a/ext/opencv/mat.cpp
+++ b/ext/opencv/mat.cpp
@@ -824,6 +824,42 @@ namespace rubyopencv {
       return mat2obj(retptr, CLASS_OF(self));
     }
 
+    /*
+     * Calculates the per-element absolute difference between two
+     * or between an array and a scalar.
+     *
+     * @overload absdiff(other)
+     *   @param other [Mat, Scalar] Input array or scalar
+     *   @return [Mat] Output array that has the same size and type as input arrays.
+     * @opencv_func cv::absdiff
+     */
+    VALUE rb_absdiff(VALUE self, VALUE other) {
+      cv::Mat* selfptr = obj2mat(self);
+      cv::Mat* retptr = NULL;
+
+      try {
+	retptr = new cv::Mat();
+	if (rb_obj_is_kind_of(other, rb_klass)) {
+	  cv::Mat* tmp = obj2mat(other);
+	  cv::absdiff(*selfptr, *tmp, *retptr);
+	}
+	else if (rb_obj_is_kind_of(other, Scalar::klass())) {
+	  cv::Scalar* tmp = Scalar::obj2scalar(other);
+	  cv::absdiff(*selfptr, *tmp, *retptr);
+	}
+	else {
+	  rb_raise(rb_eTypeError, "no implicit conversion of %s into Cv::Mat or Cv::Scalar",
+		   rb_obj_classname(other));
+	}
+      }
+      catch (cv::Exception& e) {
+	Error::raise(e);
+	delete retptr;
+      }
+
+      return mat2obj(retptr, CLASS_OF(self));
+    }
+
     /*
      * Extracts a diagonal from a matrix.
      *
@@ -1171,6 +1207,7 @@ namespace rubyopencv {
       rb_define_alias(rb_klass, "^", "bitwise_xor");
       rb_define_method(rb_klass, "bitwise_not", RUBY_METHOD_FUNC(rb_bitwise_not), -1);
       rb_define_alias(rb_klass, "~", "bitwise_not");
+      rb_define_method(rb_klass, "absdiff", RUBY_METHOD_FUNC(rb_absdiff), 1);
       rb_define_method(rb_klass, "diag", RUBY_METHOD_FUNC(rb_diag), -1);
       rb_define_method(rb_klass, "dot", RUBY_METHOD_FUNC(rb_dot), 1);
       rb_define_method(rb_klass, "cross", RUBY_METHOD_FUNC(rb_cross), 1);
diff --git a/test/test_mat.rb b/test/test_mat.rb
index 6cf5001..5e2a957 100755
--- a/test/test_mat.rb
+++ b/test/test_mat.rb
@@ -454,6 +454,32 @@ class TestMat < OpenCVTestCase
     }
   end
 
+  def test_absdiff
+    m0 = Mat.ones(3, 3, CV_8U) * 3
+    m1 = Mat.ones(3, 3, CV_8U) * 4
+    s1 = Scalar.new(4)
+
+    m1 = m0.absdiff(m1)
+    m2 = m0.absdiff(s1)
+
+    [m1, m2].each { |m|
+      assert_equal(m0.class, m.class)
+      assert_equal(m0.rows, m.rows)
+      assert_equal(m0.cols, m.cols)
+      assert_equal(m0.depth, m.depth)
+      assert_equal(m0.channels, m.channels)
+      m.rows.times { |r|
+        m.cols.times { |c|
+          assert_equal(1, m[r, c][0])
+        }
+      }
+    }
+
+    assert_raise(TypeError) {
+      m0.absdiff(DUMMY_OBJ)
+    }
+  end
+
   def test_resize
     m0 = Mat.ones(200, 300, CV_8U)
     s = Size.new(150, 100)