https://www.datatobiz.com/blog/computer-vision-guide/
To most, they consist of pixels only, but digital images, like any other form of content, can be mined for data by computers. Further, they can also be analyzed afterward. Use image processing methods, including computers, to retrieve the information from still photographs, and even videos. Here we are going to discuss everything you must know about computer vision.
There are two forms-Machine Vision, which is this tech’s more “traditional” type, and Computer Vision (CV), a digital world offshoot. While the first is mostly for industrial use, as an example are cameras on a conveyor belt in an industrial plant, the second is to teach computers to extract and understand “hidden” data inside digital images and videos.
Facebook this August said it was open-sourcing its work to improve its Computer Visiontechnology software for users further. This image was posted by FB Research scientist Piotr Dollar to explain the difference between human and computer vision.
Thanks to advances in artificial intelligence and innovations in deep learning and neural networks, the field has been able to take big leaps in recent years, and in some tasks related to detection and labeling of objects has been able to surpass humans.
One of the driving factors behind computer vision development is the amount of data we produce now, which will then get used to educate and develop computer vision.
3. One of the big open questions in both neuroscience and machine learning is: Why precisely are our
brains functioning, and how can we infer it with our algorithms? The irony is that there are very few
practical and systematic brain computing theories. Therefore, even though the fact that Neural Nets
are meant to “imitate the way the brain functions,” no one is quite positive if that is valid.
The same problem holds with computer vision— because we’re not sure how the brain and eyes
interpret things, it’s hard to say how well the techniques used in development mimic our internal
mental method.
Computer vision is all about pattern recognition on an individual level. Also, one way is to train a
machine on how to interpret visual data is to feed. It can get supplied with pictures, hundreds of
thousands of images, if possible millions that have got labeled. Also, later on, they can be exposed to
different software techniques or algorithms. Further, these can enable the computer to find patterns
in all the elements that contribute to those labels.
For example, if you feed a computer with a million images of cats (we all love them), it will subject
them all to algorithms. Further, that will allow them to analyze the colors in the photo, the shapes, the
distances between the shapes, where objects border each other, and so on, so that a profile of what
“cat” means can get identified. Once it’s finished, the computer will be able to use its experience (in
theory) if it fed other unlabeled images to find those that are cats.
Let’s leave on the side for a moment, our fluffy cat friends, and let’s get more technical. Below is a
clear example of Abraham Lincoln’s grayscale picture buffer that stores our file.
This way of storing image data may run contrary to your expectations since, when displayed, the
data certainly appears to be two-dimensional. Yet this is the case, as computer memory simply
consists of a continually increasing linear list of address spaces.
5. The evolution of computer vision
Create a database: You had to take individual images of all the topics in a specific format
that you decided to monitor.
Annotate images: You would need to insert some key data points for each specific
photograph. The data points like the distance between the eyes, the width of the nose
bridge, the gap between the upper lip and nose, and hundreds of other measurements can
get added. Also, these data points can describe each person’s unique characteristics.
Take new pictures: You would then need to take new pictures, whether from images or
video content. And then again, you had to go through the cycle of calculating, labeling the
critical points on the chart. You also had to render a factor in the way the picture was
taken. The program will finally be able to match the dimensions in the new image with
those recorded in its database after all this manual work and inform you whether it
corresponded to any of the profiles it was monitoring. But there was very little interest in
technology, and most of the work got done manually. And the margin of error was still
significant.
Before the emergence of deep learning, the activities that computer vision could achieve were
minimal, and the developers and human operators required a lot of manual coding and
energy. For starters, if you wanted to perform facial recognition, you would need to take the
following steps:
6. Machine learning has provided a different approach to solving the challenges of computer vision.
With machine learning, developers no longer needed to code into their vision applications every
single rule manually. Instead, “features” were programmed, smaller applications that could detect
specific patterns in images. They then used a mathematical learning method such as linear
regression, logistic regression, decision trees, or vector machine (SVM) help to find trends and
identify artifacts and recognize items inside them.
Machine learning helped to solve many issues that were historically challenging for tools and
approaches to classical software development. For example, years ago, machine learning
engineers were able to create software that could better predict windows of breast cancer
survival than human experts. But developing the software features involved the work of hundreds
of developers and specialists on breast cancer, and it took a great deal of time to prepare.
Deep learning offered a method fundamentally different from machine learning. Deep learning is
focused on neural networks, a general-purpose system that can solve any representable
problem by examples. When you provide many labeled examples of a specific type of data to a
neural network, it will be able to extract common patterns between those examples and
transform them into a mathematical equation that will help to classify future pieces of
information.
7. For example, designing an application for facial recognition using deep learning implies that
you only create or choose a preconstructed algorithm and train it with examples of the faces
of the people it must detect. The neural network will be able to recognize faces without further
feedback on characteristics or measures, providing adequate examples.
Deep learning is a very efficient way of doing computer vision. In most cases, the creation of
an excellent deep learning algorithm involves the collection of a large amount of labeled
training data and the tuning of parameters such as the type and number of neural network
layers and the training epoch.
Deep learning is both easier and faster to develop and deploy as compared to previous types
of machine learning.
Deep learning gets used for most current computer vision implementations such as cancer
diagnosis, self-driving cars, and facial recognition. Due to availability and developments in
hardware and cloud computing infrastructure, deep learning and deep neural networks have
moved from the scientific domain to practical applications.
8. Read more about the applications
of computer vision-
https://www.datatobiz.com/blog/computer-vision-guide/