
Machine Vision made Easy - SimpleCV - LiveTheDream
http://www.simplecv.org/
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kscottz
I am one of the SimpleCV Developers. We are overjoyed at all this feedback. We
have a few really exciting things coming up that we would like to share:

1) We will probably release the SimpleCV 1.2 super packs next week. There are
a ton of sweet new features. We could really use some beta testers. Please let
us know if you are interested.

2) We just signed a book deal with O'Reilly Media to make a SimpleCV guide. We
are soliciting input from the community about what CV problems they need
solved, or cool projects they would like us to do.

With respect to our business model, right now we are focused on quickly and
cheaply delivering open-source machine vision solutions for manufacturing. If
you have a manufacturing contact that has a machine vision problem and is
looking for a solution we would love to talk to them. In the next month we
will have a development scrum that will focus on our Seer product. Seer will
the framework for deploying your computer vision projects in a cloud context.
This means being able to remotely deploy and manage a vision system (i.e. CV
as a service). Also along these lines we are actively looking for partners for
the DARPA iFAB BAA that will be released soon (see:
[https://www.fbo.gov/index?s=opportunity&mode=form&id...](https://www.fbo.gov/index?s=opportunity&mode=form&id=d1b63a1890d7c187590e695bc8457fd6&tab=core&_cview=1)).
If you are going to submit a proposal for this contract we would love to talk
to you.

Since we're open source we welcome and encourage community participation and
feedback. If you have a cool project or a pony request shoot us a message via
twitter (@Simple_CV or @IngenuitasInc) and we can chat and perhaps help you
with your project.

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fuzzythinker
For those wanting to know the difference between this and openCV, Anthony
summed it up pretty nicely:

[http://hplusmagazine.com/2011/09/20/make-computers-see-
with-...](http://hplusmagazine.com/2011/09/20/make-computers-see-with-
simplecv-the-open-source-framework-for-vision/) (4th comment)

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nmz787
That doesn't really make any comparison between open and simple CV. The
example towards the end thqt compares two code snippets isn't even comparing
the same operation, in the C code it creates a new image and places text on
it, while the python code merely opens a file... Opening a file and displaying
it in C is about one or two lines more of code

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ecaron
Is CV a common term for "computer vision"? I'm used to CV meaning "curriculum
vitae" and it took me ~2 minutes to realize the site had nothing to do with
it.

 _/me might be in the recruiting realm too long_

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pbh
Yes, I think computer vision is a common term for the area (at least, among
academics and researchers), and CV is a common abbreviation.

Examples include Intel's OpenCV and the CVPR conference.

(I actually thought that it was weird that they called themselves "machine
vision" rather than computer vision in the title.)

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thwest
OpenCV is OSS maintained by Willow Garage. Intel provides the Intel
Performance Primitives which implement basic filtering up through haar,
segementation, optical flow.

Machine vision usually refers to the domain of industrial inspection where the
scene contents are highly controlled, and computer vision usually refers to
harder problems where someone is walking around a real environment with bad
lighting and awkward perspectives.

~~~
ansgri
OpenCV originated at Intel and was based on Intel's IPL.

Some researchers prefer the term 'machine vision' as more general, referring
to the entire field of artificial vision problems, not necessarily involving a
'computer' in common terms (i.e. FPGA-based or analog electronics).

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basman
How does this compare with OpenCV's existing python interface? The examples at
[http://opencv.willowgarage.com/documentation/python/cookbook...](http://opencv.willowgarage.com/documentation/python/cookbook.html)
look fairly simple.

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nmz787
I'd also like to know the answer to this question. Also isn't openFrameworks
supposeds to be more frame-worky than just a library (someone mentioned
earlier simplecv aims to be more of a framework rather than just a library)
Did the developers not realize there are similar solutions already in
existence? Why not develop those further?

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cbo
At first glance, it looks like a good library for starting out with Vision.
It's a very Pythonic library. I especially like some of the blatant honesty in
their docstrings.

[https://github.com/ingenuitas/SimpleCV/blob/master/SimpleCV/...](https://github.com/ingenuitas/SimpleCV/blob/master/SimpleCV/Features/BOFFeatureExtractor.py)

> def _makeCodebook(self,data,ncodes=128):

> """

> Do the k-means ... this is slow as as shit

> """

It certainly looks easier than starting with OpenCV alone.

Moreover, Ingenuitas looks like an interesting company. Open source solutions
for manufacturing is certainly nothing I've heard of before. Definitely
something to keep an eye on.

~~~
kscottz
Thanks! I try to keep things real in the documentation. Sometimes things are
slow, especially with python. After years of working as a closed-source
defense contractor nothing feels better than having someone looking at my code
and agreeing with me that a) it sucks and b) at least it works.

~~~
stephth
Ingenuitas got me curious too. It looks like an interesting team and company,
and all your existing products are open source and free of charge, you don't
seem to be selling anything. How do you make money?

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nateberkopec
The Processing/Java library is stupid easy to use.

<http://ubaa.net/shared/processing/opencv/>

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ansgri
I don't see morphology filters supported. Huge fail.

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jphackworth
It would be cool if there was "computer vision as a service". Just post a pic
to the URL, and it sends back a string describing what it is.

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scommab
<http://developers.face.com/> has already started doing this (Though just for
faces)

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shaheeb
Just wanted to throw in my "hip hip hooray" for SimpleCV. I've been messing
around with it (at shaheeb.com) to work on the DARPA Shredder Challenge
(shredderchallenge.com). The code is transparent, but it still wraps up a lot
of OpenCV boilerplate just right.

I also wanted to mention that the team (Kat, Anthony et al.) are very
responsive to their community and user base.

All around kudos SimpleCV team.

SR

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LiveTheDream
Source: <https://github.com/ingenuitas/SimpleCV.git>

~~~
Luyt
Ah, that'd be <https://github.com/ingenuitas/SimpleCV>

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ivankirigin
"Made easier" would be more accurate

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nobody3141592
To install all you need is opencv, scipy and python

in my experiecne the hardest part of machine vision (on a pC) is getting all
the bits installed and playing nicely with each other

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jallmann
Doesn't sound like you've done a lot of computer vision, then...

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nobody3141592
At least they teach you the maths of separable convolutions -

they don't teach you that the defualt opencv built with vs will clash with Qt
libs built with mingw but the ____ing system won't tell you this!

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dman
If you are developing on Windows you are pushing against the tide.

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nobody3141592
It's generally hard enough persuading someone that you can measure something
from a picture - also telling them that they can't use 'normal' computer
software is even harder.

Of course back in the day, when it had to be a Sparc station crammed full of
custom i860 boards it as even harder!

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ez77
Sorry for not diving into the docs and firing the question... Could this be
used to easily detect where the eyes, mouth, etc. are within an ID picture?
I'm not talking about face recognition, but rather about (the more trivial)
face-element recognition.

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tsumnia
Coincidentally I'm working on this type of thing right now. Right now,
'feature detection' is a tiny bit more difficult. I work with something known
as Active Shape/Appearance Models which do just that. The issue with them is
needing to be roughly in the right spot to correctly conform to the object.
Once you detect the object, you can apply a mesh frame to detect the inner
objects. I'd recommend looking at Stacked Active Shape Modelling for a nice
edge detection approach to feature detection.

SimpleCV just released a video about face detection but I don't think they've
expanded into features yet. Hopefully they don't cause I want to do it!

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kscottz
The short answer is yes this can be done. You can use the Haar cascade wavelet
files that ship with OpenCV 2.3. I will see if I can toss those into SimpleCV.

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kscottz
I ticketed this up and I will get to it Monday. I should be able to ship it
with SimpleCV 1.2. <https://sourceforge.net/p/simplecv/tickets/180/>

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lastsurvivor
I appreciate their effort and work. Nevertheless i believe OpenCV is quite
easy to learn & use in a very short time. Why would i use this toolkit ?

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Kliment
I've written a LOT of OpenCV code. It's a pain. This makes it easier to do the
stuff that is simple but messy to do with the normal OpenCV, and doesn't get
in your way when you want to use the full API. I would have loved to have this
a year ago.

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georgieporgie
Love the cats vs cheesburgers demo.

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kisielk
The demo:
[http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_profilepage&...](http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_profilepage&v=cH5e-ZkJa0U)

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kscottz
Thanks!

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csears
Perhaps it's just my setup (Chrome on Windows), but the site's font looks
pixelated. Irony?

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thorie
Is SimpleCV where I'm supposed to submit my resume?

