Synopsis
Learn to capture videos, manipulate images, and track objects with Python using the OpenCV Library
Overview
- Set up OpenCV, its Python bindings, and optional Kinect drivers on Windows, Mac or Ubuntu
- Create an application that tracks and manipulates faces
- Identify face regions using normal color images and depth images
In Detail
Computer Vision can reach consumers in various contexts via webcams, camera phones and gaming sensors like Kinect. OpenCV's Python bindings can help developers meet these consumer demands for applications that capture images, change their appearance and extract information from them, in a high-level language and in a standardized data format that is interoperable with scientific libraries such as NumPy and SciPy.
"OpenCV Computer Vision with Python" is a practical, hands-on guide that covers the fundamental tasks of computer vision—capturing, filtering and analyzing images—with step-by-step instructions for writing both an application and reusable library classes.
"OpenCV Computer Vision with Python" shows you how to use the Python bindings for OpenCV. By following clear and concise examples you will develop a computer vision application that tracks faces in live video and applies special effects to them. If you have always wanted to learn which version of these bindings to use, how to integrate with cross-platform Kinect drivers and and how to efficiently process image data with NumPy and SciPy then this book is for you.
What you will learn from this book
- Install OpenCV and related software such as Python, NumPy, SciPy, OpenNI, and SensorKinect—all on Windows, Mac or Ubuntu
- Capture, display, and save photos and real-time videos
- Handle window events and input events using OpenCV's HighGui module or Pygame
- Understand OpenCV's image format and how to perform efficient operations on OpenCV images with NumPy and SciPy
- Apply "curves" and other color transformations to simulate the look of old photos, movies or video games
- Apply an effect only to edges in an image
- Copy and resize segments of an image
- Apply an effect only to certain depths in an image by using data from a depth sensor such as Kinect
- Track faces, eyes, noses and mouths by using prebuilt datasets
- Track arbitrary objects by creating original datasets
Approach
A practical, project-based tutorial for Python developers and hobbyists who want to get started with computer vision with OpenCV and Python.
Who this book is written for
OpenCV Computer Vision with Python is written for Python developers who are new to computer vision and want a practical guide to teach them the essentials. Some understanding of image data (for example, pixels and color channels) would be beneficial. At a minimum you will need access to at least one webcam. Certain exercises require additional hardware like a second webcam, a Microsoft Kinect or an OpenNI-compliant depth sensor such as the Asus Xtion PRO.
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About the Author
Joseph Howse
Joseph (Joe) Howse is fanciful, so to him the virtual world always seemed to reach out into reality. One of his earliest memories is of watching an animated time-bomb on the screen of a Tandy Color Computer. The animation was programmed in BASIC by Joe's older brother, Sam, who explained, "I'm making a bomb. Get ready!" The bomb exploded in a rain of dots and a rumble of beeps as Joe and Sam ran to hide from the fallout. Today, Joe still fancies that a computer program can blast a tunnel into reality. As a hobby, he likes looking at reality through the tunnel of a digital camera's lens. As a career, he develops augmented reality software, which uses cameras and other sensors to composite real and virtual scenes interactively, in real time.
Joe holds a Master of Computer Science degree from Dalhousie University. He does research on software architecture as applied to augmented reality.
Joe works at Ad-Dispatch, an augmented reality company, where he develops applications for mobile devices, kiosks and the Web.
Joe likes cats, kittens, oceans and seas. Felines and saline water sustain him. He lives with his multi-species family in Halifax, on Canada's Atlantic coast.
"About this title" may belong to another edition of this title.
