Introduction to Computer Vision
Computer Vision is a field of Artificial Intelligence (AI) that enables machines to interpret and
make decisions based on visual data—such as images, videos, or live camera feeds—similar to
how humans use their eyes and brain.
🔍 What is Computer Vision?
Computer Vision (CV) is the science and technology of teaching computers to "see" and
understand the content of visual inputs. It involves the automatic extraction, analysis, and
understanding of useful information from a single image or a sequence of images.
Goals of Computer Vision:
Detect objects in images and videos
Recognize and classify objects (e.g., face recognition)
Track motion over time (e.g., pedestrian tracking)
Reconstruct 3D scenes from 2D images
Interpret scene content (e.g., identifying traffic signs, analyzing X-rays)
🧠 How Does It Work?
Computer Vision systems process images using a combination of:
1. Image Processing Techniques – such as filtering, edge detection, and color analysis.
2. Machine Learning – especially deep learning, where models learn patterns from large
datasets.
3. Mathematical and Statistical Methods – to interpret image data accurately.
🛠️ Key Techniques in Computer Vision:
Technique Description
Image Classification Assigning a label to an image (e.g., dog, cat, car).
Object Detection Identifying and localizing objects in an image.
Semantic Segmentation Classifying each pixel of an image into a category.
Technique Description
Instance Segmentation Like semantic segmentation, but differentiates between instances.
Image Captioning Generating a text description for an image.
Optical Character Recognition Recognizing and converting text from images into machine-readable
(OCR) text.
⚙️ Popular Tools and Libraries:
OpenCV – A powerful open-source CV library.
TensorFlow & PyTorch – Deep learning libraries used in CV tasks.
YOLO (You Only Look Once) – Real-time object detection system.
Detectron2 – Facebook AI’s object detection library.
🌍 Applications of Computer Vision:
Field Application Examples
Healthcare Medical image analysis (X-rays, MRIs, CT scans)
Automotive Autonomous driving (lane detection, obstacle detection)
Retail Checkout-free stores, shelf monitoring
Security Surveillance, facial recognition
Agriculture Crop monitoring, disease detection in plants
Entertainment AR/VR, motion capture
🚀 Conclusion:
Computer Vision is a fast-evolving field with immense real-world applications. From enabling
self-driving cars to revolutionizing healthcare diagnostics, it brings machines one step closer to
human-like perception and understanding.
