Learning OpenCV puts you right in the middle of the rapidly expanding field of computer vision. Written by the creators of OpenCV, the widely used free open-source 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 the data. Computer vision is everywhere -- in security systems, manufacturing inspection systems, medical image analysis, Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, and more. It helps robot cars drive by themselves, stitches Google maps and Google Earth together, checks the pixels on your laptop's LCD screen, and makes sure the stitches in your shirt are OK. OpenCV provides an easy-to-use computer vision infrastructure along with a comprehensive library containing more than 500 functions that can run vision code in real time. With Learning OpenCV, any developer or hobbyist can get up and running with the framework quickly, whether it's to build simple or sophisticated vision applications. The book includes: A thorough introduction to OpenCV Getting input from cameras Transforming images Shape matching Pattern recognition, including face detection Segmenting images Tracking and motion in 2 and 3 dimensions Machine learning algorithms Hands-on exercises at the end of each chapter help you absorb the concepts, and an appendix explains how to set up an OpenCV project in Visual Studio. OpenCV is written in performance optimized C/C++ code, runs on Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X, and is free for commercial and research use under a BSD license. Getting machines to see is a challenging but entertaining goal. If you're intrigued by the possibilities, Learning OpenCV gets you started onbuilding computer vision applications of your own.
