Definition of computer vision

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Photonics Dictionary

computer vision: Computer vision enables computers to interpret and make decisions based on visual data, such as images and videos. It involves the development of algorithms, techniques, and systems that enable machines to gain an understanding of the visual world, similar to how humans perceive and interpret visual information.

Key aspects and tasks within computer vision include:

Image recognition: Identifying and categorizing objects, scenes, or patterns within images. This involves training algorithms to recognize specific features or objects based on labeled datasets.

Object detection: Locating and identifying multiple objects within an image or video stream. Object detection goes beyond simple classification by providing information about the position and boundaries of detected objects.

Image segmentation: Dividing an image into meaningful segments or regions, often to understand the spatial relationships between different elements. This is particularly useful for tasks like medical image analysis and scene understanding.

Motion analysis: Tracking and understanding the motion of objects in videos, including object tracking, activity recognition, and optical flow analysis.

3D scene reconstruction: Creating three-dimensional models of scenes or objects from two-dimensional images, allowing machines to understand the spatial relationships and structure of the environment.

Feature extraction: Identifying and extracting relevant features from images, such as edges, textures, or keypoints, which can be used for subsequent analysis or recognition tasks.

Deep learning: Utilizing neural networks, particularly deep convolutional neural networks (CNNs), to automatically learn hierarchical features and representations from visual data. Deep learning has significantly advanced the state of the art in computer vision tasks.

Applications of computer vision are widespread and include facial recognition, autonomous vehicles, medical image analysis, augmented reality, robotics, and more. As technology continues to advance, computer vision plays a crucial role in enhancing the capabilities of various systems by enabling them to interpret and interact with the visual world more effectively.