Bitmap to Mat in vb.net

I want to convert a bitmap to a Mat object in vb.net. The function that I have found, BitmapToMat, appears to be a Java/Android call and does not appear as an available function under the Utils library. There is a function for the Mat object that will read the image from a file, but is there a similar function to read it from a existing Bitmap graphic object? Any help would be appreciated. Thanks