Learning OpenCV: Computer Vision with the OpenCV Library (Paperback)

~ (Author), Adrian Kaehler (Author), Bradski Gary (Author), Kaehler Adrian (Author)
Key Phrases: stereo imaging, image morphology, binary decision trees, Background Subtraction, Some More Complicated Stuff, Basic Manipulations (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

"This library is useful for practitioners, and is an excellent tool for those entering the field: it is a set of computer vision algorithms that work as advertised." -William T. Freeman, Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory, Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Learning OpenCV puts you in the middle of the rapidly expanding field of computer vision. Written by the creators of the free open source OpenCV library, this book introduces you to computer vision and demonstrates how you can quickly build applications that enable computers to "see" and make decisions based on that data.

Computer vision is everywhere-in security systems, manufacturing inspection systems, medical image analysis, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, and more. It stitches Google maps and Google Earth together, checks the pixels on LCD screens, and makes sure the stitches in your shirt are sewn properly. OpenCV provides an easy-to-use computer vision framework and a comprehensive library with more than 500 functions that can run vision code in real time.

Learning OpenCV will teach any developer or hobbyist to use the framework quickly with the help of hands-on exercises in each chapter. This book includes:

• A thorough introduction to OpenCV
• Getting input from cameras
• Transforming images
• Segmenting images and shape matching
• Pattern recognition, including face detection
• Tracking and motion in 2 and 3 dimensions
• 3D reconstruction from stereo vision
• Machine learning algorithms

Getting machines to see is a challenging but entertaining goal. Whether you want to build simple or sophisticated vision applications, Learning OpenCV is the book you need to get started.

About the Author

Dr. Gary Rost Bradski is a consulting professor in the CS department at Stanford University AI Lab where he mentors robotics, machine learning and computer vision research. He is also Senior Scientist at Willow Garage http://www.willowgarage.com, a recently founded robotics research institute/incubator. He has a BS degree in EECS from U.C. Berkeley and a PhD from Boston University. He has 20 years of industrial experience applying machine learning and computer vision spanning option trading operations at First Union National Bank, to computer vision at Intel Research to machine learning in Intel Manufacturing and several startup companies in between. Gary started the Open Source Computer Vision Library (OpenCV http://sourceforge.net/projects/opencvlibrary/ ), the statistical Machine Learning Library (MLL comes with OpenCV), and the Probabilistic Network Library (PNL). OpenCV is used around the world in research, government and commercially. The vision libraries helped develop a notable part of the commercial Intel performance primitives library (IPP http://tinyurl.com/36ua5s). Gary also organized the vision team for Stanley, the Stanford robot that won the DARPA Grand Challenge autonomous race across the desert for a $2M team prize and helped found the Stanford AI Robotics project at Stanford http://www.cs.stanford.edu/group/stair/ working with Professor Andrew Ng. Gary has over 50 publications and 13 issued patents with 18 pending. He lives in Palo Alto with his wife and 3 daughters and bikes road or mountains as much as he can.

Dr. Adrian Kaehler is a senior scientist at Applied Minds Corporation. His current research includes topics in machine learning, statistical modeling, computer vision and robotics. Adrian received his Ph.D. in Theoretical Physics from Columbia university in 1998. Adrian has since held positions at Intel Corporation and the Stanford University AI Lab, and was a member of the winning Stanley race team in the DARPA Grand Challenge. He has a variety of published papers and patents in physics, electrical engineering, computer science, and robotics.

Product Details

• Paperback: 555 pages
• Publisher: O'Reilly Media; 1st edition (September 24, 2008)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0596516134
• ISBN-13: 978-0596516130
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #13,773 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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• This item is part of The O'Reilly Learning Series.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

14 of 14 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A great guide to OpenCV with plenty of context, October 30, 2008

By	calvinnme "Texan refugee" (Fredericksburg, Va) - See all my reviews (TOP 10 REVIEWER)

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This book is excellent at exposing the reader to the various methods available in OpenCV and showing via code examples how to use each one. The author also gives you the website where you can look at the actual source code of each method shown. This is helpful since, for example, if you want to know exactly how the code is going about calculating the Fundamental Matrix, it is difficult to determine this by reading the book alone.

This book would be most useful to someone who already has a fundamental understanding of computer vision and image processing and wants to see how OpenCV will make their programming tasks easier. It does this by coding up well known algorithms into reliable pieces of code that you can use to accomplish more complex tasks. Do not come to this book if you are seeking to learn computer vision. You will only be confused as the author does not offer enough detail to teach you the mathematical foundations. However, I don't think that was his intention at all. Instead it is part user manual, part basic computer vision tutorial and overview, and part idea book. Each chapter is supplemented with excellent and interesting programming exercises that test your knowledge of what has been presented in a practical setting.

For a good basic understanding of computer vision try Computer Vision. To understand the algorithmic underpinnings of 3D computer vision try Introductory Techniques for 3-D Computer Vision. However, before you read either of these you must read Digital Image Processing (3rd Edition), since image processing concepts are fundamental to understanding computer vision tasks. In fact, the two disciplines overlap in many spots. The sad truth of the matter is that no one book will teach you what you need to know to be an effective image scientist. However, this book on OpenCV is essential reading on applying the theory via programming in an effective manner. Highly recommended.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars An absolute must have!!!, October 20, 2008

By	Jean-Yves Bouguet - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

At last a practical, pragmatic, accessible book on computer vision (and more!) providing step by step guidance on fundamental computational vision topics, with algorithmic explanation (just what is needed!), and concrete example code snippets. This book is now opening the door to the fabulous world of computational vision to anyone. It gives immediate access to a vast collection of image processing, and machine learning functions, all open source!
The book also includes many references and pointers to other material (such as technical papers), allowing the reader to learn more about any topic covered.
This is a great reference book, that won't just sit on your self.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Awesome - wish I had this years ago, November 19, 2008

By	Eric Hegstrom "theeric" (Tucson, AZ USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

After years of plodding through the discussion group and limited HTML based docs and puzzling out how to make OpenCV work finally a tell-all book that makes this worlds class tool accessible to all!