How Does Computer Vision Work?

Technology never stops evolving, and the eyes of the world have been on artificial intelligence for years.

Image by Gerd Altmann from Pixabay

Because yes, humans are not only fascinated by robots and are constantly looking for ways to improve them so that they are just as efficient, smart, and flexible than humans.

And in the broad field of study of artificial intelligence, one key area of interest is computer vision. So what is it and how does it work? Find out the answer in this article. 

What is Computer Vision?

Computer vision is that branch of artificial intelligence which aims to develop image analysis and processing, pattern recognition and much more by a machine, a computer, a robot, or any other electronic device with processing power. The entire field is, of course, 

inspired by the human eye and brain and its great ability to receive, recognize, and analyze an image almost instantaneously when receiving photons of light that fall on the retina. If humans are capable of that, why aren’t robots? What can we do to endow them with the same abilities? These are the questions at the heart of computer vision. 

Some research goes much further and tries to achieve even more astonishing results by aiming to surpass any animal eye developed through evolution such as night vision, a wide field of view, and much more. The research is quite fruitful, and this technology is becoming so important that it sees itself being adopted in business and manufacturing sectors quite rapidly. 

How does it work? In reality, the concept is quite simple. It is simply a matter of processing a few types of information sources:

• Pictures.
• Videos.
• Camera feeds.
• Scanner feeds..

General computer vision algorithms try to extract the maximum amount of information out of each source. The various sources don’t affect the calculations much as videos are just a series of images. The only difference is that the analysis needs to be more time-sensitive and use multiple images to pick up on clues on what is an object, improving accuracy. 

What are the Fields of Application for Computer Vision?

From medicine to industry, many fields today do not function without computer vision, and this is because computer vision can be faster, more specialized, more productive, and more precise than human vision depending on the scenario:

• Control procedures: deciding what a robotic arm should do based on recognizing parts on a manufacturing belt is a widespread example of this..
• Navigation: cars nowadays let you know if you get too close to objects from behind or from the front, and self-driving cars use computer vision extensively. 
• Event detection: a common example is surveillance.
• For organizing data and information.
• For the customized interactions with humans based on emotion detection.
• For detecting tumours, cancer cells, etc. in the field of medicine. 

These are just a few applications of computer vision. There are many more in the real world, and each day, the field makes in-roads into other areas, so you should definitely pay attention to it.