Computer Vision

Introduction
In the previous chapter, you studied the concepts of Artificial Intelligence for Data Sciences. It is a
concept to unify statistics, data analysis, machine learning and their related methods in order to
understand and analyse actual phenomena with data.

As we all know, artificial intelligence is a technique that enables computers to mimic human
intelligence. As humans we can see things, analyse it and then do the required action on the basis of
what we see.

But can machines do the same? Can machines have the eyes that humans have? If you answered Yes,
then you are absolutely right. The Computer Vision domain of Artificial Intelligence, enables machines
to see through images or visual data, process and analyse them on the basis of algorithms and
methods in order to analyse actual phenomena with images.

Now before we get into the concepts of Computer Vision, let us experience this domain with the help
of the following game:

* Emoji Scavenger Hunt :

https://emojiscavengerhunt.withgoogle.com/

Applications of Computer Vision

The concept of computer vision was first introduced in the 1970s. All these new applications of
computer vision excited everyone. Having said that, the computer vision technology advanced enough
to make these applications available to everyone at ease today. However, in recent years the world
witnessed a significant leap in technology that has put computer vision on the priority list of many
industries. Let us look at some of them:

Facial Recognition*: With the advent of smart cities and smart homes,
Computer Vision plays a vital role in making the home smarter. Security
being the most important application involves use of Computer Vision
for facial recognition. It can be either guest recognition or log
maintenance of the visitors.

It also finds its application in schools for

an attendance system based on facial
recognition of students.

Resource : CBSE study material / Page 1

Face Filters*: The modern-day apps like Instagram and snapchat have a lot of features based on the
usage of computer vision. The application of face filters is one among them. Through the camera the
machine or the algorithm is able to identify the facial dynamics of the person and applies the facial filter
selected.

Google’s Search by Image*: The maximum amount

of searching for data on Google’s search engine comes
from textual data, but at the same time it has an
interesting feature of getting search results through an
image. This uses Computer Vision as it compares
different features of the input image to the database of
images and give us the search result while at the same
time analysing various features of the image.
* Images shown here

Computer Vision in Retail*: The retail field has been one of the
fastest growing field and at the same time is using Computer
Vision for making the user experience more fruitful. Retailers can
use Computer Vision techniques to track customers’ movements
through stores, analyse navigational routes and detect walking
patterns.
Inventory Management is another such application. Through
security camera image analysis, a Computer Vision algorithm can
generate a very accurate estimate of the items available in the
store. Also, it can analyse the use of shelf space to identify
suboptimal configurations and suggest better item placement.

Self-Driving Cars: Computer Vision is the fundamental

technology behind developing autonomous vehicles.
Most leading car manufacturers in the world are
reaping the benefits of investing in artificial intelligence
for developing on-road versions of hands-free
technology.

This involves the process of identifying the objects,

getting navigational routes and also at the same time
environment monitoring.

Medical Imaging*: For the last decades,

computersupported medical imaging application
has been a trustworthy help for physicians. It
doesn’t only create and analyse images, but also
becomes an assistant and helps doctors with their
interpretation. The application is used to read and
convert 2D scan images into interactive 3D models

* Images shown here are the property of individual organisations and are used here for reference purpose only.
that enable medical professionals to gain a detailed understanding of a
patient’s health condition.

Google Translate App*: All you need to do to read signs in a

foreign language is to point your phone’s camera at the words and
let the Google Translate app tell you what it means in your preferred
language almost instantly. By using optical character recognition to
see the image and augmented reality to overlay an accurate
translation, this is a convenient tool that uses Computer Vision.

Computer Vision: Getting Started

Computer Vision is a domain of Artificial Intelligence, that deals with the images. It involves the
concepts of image processing and machine learning models to build a Computer Vision based
application.

Computer Vision Tasks

The various applications of Computer Vision are based on a certain number of tasks which are
performed to get certain information from the input image which can be directly used for prediction
or forms the base for further analysis. The tasks used in a computer vision application are :

For Single For Multiple

Objects Objects

Object
Classification
Detection

Classification + Instance
Localisation Segementation

Classification
Image Classification problem is the task of assigning an input image one label from a fixed set of
categories. This is one of the core problems in CV that, despite its simplicity, has a large variety of
practical applications.

Classification + Localisation
This is the task which involves both processes of identifying what object is present in the image and
at the same time identifying at what location that object is present in that image. It is used only for
single objects.

Object Detection
Object detection is the process of finding instances of real-world objects such as faces, bicycles, and
buildings in images or videos. Object detection algorithms typically use extracted features and

* Images shown here are the property of individual organisations and are used here for reference purpose only.
learning algorithms to recognize instances of an object category. It is commonly used in applications
such as image retrieval and automated vehicle parking systems.

Instance Segmentation
Instance Segmentation is the process of detecting instances of the objects, giving them a category and
then giving each pixel a label on the basis of that. A segmentation algorithm takes an image as input
and outputs a collection of regions (or segments).

Basics of Images
We all see a lot of images around us and use them daily either through our mobile phones or computer
system. But do we ask some basic questions to ourselves while we use them on such a regular basis.

Don’t know the answer yet? Don’t worry, in this section we will study about the basics of an image:

Basics of Pixels
The word “pixel” means a picture element. Every photograph, in digital form, is made up of pixels.
They are the smallest unit of information that make up a picture. Usually round or square, they are
typically arranged in a 2-dimensional grid.

* Images shown here are the property of individual organisations and are used here for reference purpose only.
In the image below, one portion has been magnified many times over so that you can see its individual
composition in pixels. As you can see, the pixels approximate the actual image. The more pixels you
have, the more closely the image resembles the original.

Resolution
The number of pixels in an image is sometimes called the resolution. When the term is used to describe
pixel count, one convention is to express resolution as the width by the height, for example a monitor
resolution of 1280×1024. This means there are 1280 pixels from one side to the other, and 1024 from
top to bottom.

Another convention is to express the number of pixels as a single number, like a 5 mega pixel camera
(a megapixel is a million pixels). This means the pixels along the width multiplied by the pixels along
the height of the image taken by the camera equals 5 million pixels. In the case of our 1280×1024
monitors, it could also be expressed as 1280 x 1024 = 1,310,720, or 1.31 megapixels.

Pixel value
Each of the pixels that represents an image stored inside a computer has a pixel value which describes
how bright that pixel is, and/or what colour it should be. The most common pixel format is the byte
image, where this number is stored as an 8-bit integer giving a range of possible values from 0 to 255.
Typically, zero is to be taken as no colour or black and 255 is taken to be full colour or white.

Why do we have a value of 255 ? In the computer systems, computer data is in the form of ones and
zeros, which we call the binary system. Each bit in a computer system can have either a zero or a one.

Since each pixel uses 1 byte of an image, which is equivalent to 8 bits of data. Since each bit can have
two possible values which tells us that the 8 bit can have 255 possibilities of values which starts from
0 and ends at 255.

* Images shown here are the property of individual organisations and are used here for reference purpose only.
 here

Grayscale Images
Grayscale images are images which have a range of shades of gray without apparent colour. The
darkest possible shade is black, which is the total absence of colour or zero value of pixel. The lightest
possible shade is white, which is the total presence of colour or 255 value of a pixel . Intermediate
shades of gray are represented by equal brightness levels of the three primary colours.

A grayscale has each pixel of size 1 byte having a single plane of 2d array of pixels. The size of a
grayscale image is defined as the Height x Width of that image.

Let us look at an image to understand about grayscale images.

Here is an example of a grayscale image. as you check, the value of pixels are within the range of
0255.The computers store the images we see in the form of these numbers.

RGB Images
All the images that we see around are coloured images. These
images are made up of three primary colours Red, Green and
Blue. All the colours that are present can be made by combining
different intensities of red, green and blue.
Let us experience!

Go to this online link

https://www.w3schools.com/colors/colors_rgb.asp. On the basis of this online tool, try and answer
all the below mentioned questions.

1. What is the output colour when you put R=G=B=255 ?

2. What is the output colour when you put R=G=B=0 ?
3. How does the colour vary when you put either of the three as 0 and then keep on varying the
other two?
4. How does the output colour change when all the three colours are varied in same proportion?
5. What is the RGB value of your favourite colour from the colour palette?
Were you able to answer all the questions? If yes, then you would have understood how every colour
we see around is made.

* Images shown here are the property of individual organisations and are used here for reference purpose only.
Now the question arises, how do computers store RGB images? Every RGB image is stored in the form
of three different channels called the R channel, G channel and the B channel.

Each plane separately has a number of pixels with each pixel value varying from 0 to 255. All the three
planes when combined together form a colour image. This means that in a RGB image, each pixel has
a set of three different values which together give colour to that particular pixel.

For Example,

As you can see, each colour image is stored in the form of three different channels, each having
different intensity. All three channels combine together to form a colour we see.

In the above given image, if we split the image into three different channels, namely Red (R), Green
(G) and Blue (B), the individual layers will have the following intensity of colours of the individual
pixels. These individual layers when stored in the memory looks like the image on the extreme right.
The images look in the grayscale image because each pixel has a value intensity of 0 to 255 and as
studied earlier, 0 is considered as black or no presence of colour and 255 means white or full presence
of colour. These three individual RGB values when combined together form the colour of each pixel.

Therefore, each pixel in the RGB image has three values to form the complete colour.

Image Features
In computer vision and image processing, a feature is a piece of information which is relevant for
solving the computational task related to a certain application. Features may be specific structures in
the image such as points, edges or objects.
For example:
Imagine that your security camera is capturing an image. At the top of the image we are given six small
patches of images. Our task is to find the exact location of those image patches in the image. Take a
pencil and mark the exact location of those patches in the image.

* Images shown here are the property of individual organisations and are used here for reference purpose only.
 1. Were you able to find the exact location of all the patches?
2. Which one was the most difficult to find?
3. Which one was the easiest to find?

Let’s Reflect:
Let us take individual patches into account at once and then check the exact location of those patches.
For Patch A and B: The patch A and B are flat surfaces in the image and are spread over a lot of area.
They can be present at any location in a given area in the image.
For Patch C and D: The patches C and D are simpler as compared to A and B. They are edges of a
building and we can find an approximate location of these patches but finding the exact location is
still difficult. This is because the pattern is the same everywhere along the edge.
For Patch E and F: The patches E and F are the easiest to find in the image. The reason being that E
and F are some corners of the building. This is because at the corners, wherever we move this patch
it will look different.
Conclusion
In image processing, we can get a lot of features from the image. It can be either a blob, an edge or a
corner. These features help us to perform various tasks and then get the analysis done on the basis of
the application. Now the question that arises is which of the following are good features to be used?
As you saw in the previous activity, the features having the corners are easy to find as they can be
found only at a particular location in the image, whereas the edges which are spread over a line or an
edge look the same all along. This tells us that the corners are always good features to extract from
an image followed by the edges.
Let’s look at another example to understand this. Consider the images given below and apply the
concept of good features for the following.

In the above image how would we determine the exact location of each patch?
The blue patch is a flat area and difficult to find and track. Wherever you move the blue patch it looks
the same. The black patch has an edge. Moved along the edge (parallel to edge), it looks the same.
The red patch is a corner. Wherever you move the patch, it looks different, therefore it is unique.
Hence, corners are considered to be good features in an image.

* Images shown here are the property of individual organisations and are used here for reference purpose only.
Introduction to OpenCV
Now that we have learnt about image features and its importance in image processing, we will learn
about a tool we can use to extract these features from our image for further
processing.
OpenCV or Open Source Computer Vision Library is that tool which helps a
computer extract these features from the images. It is used for all kinds of images
and video processing and analysis. It is capable of processing images and videos
to identify objects, faces, or even handwriting. In this chapter we will use
OpenCV for basic image processing operations on images such as resizing,
cropping and many more.
To install OpenCV library, open anaconda prompt and then write the following command:
pip install opencv-python
Now let us take a deep dive on the various functions of OpenCV to understand the various image
processing techniques. Head to Jupyter Notebook for introduction to OpenCV given on this link:
http://bit.ly/cv_notebook

ASSIGNMENT QUESTIONS
1. What is the use of computer vision in AI?
2. What is Computer Vision?
3. Face lock in smart phone is feature of Computer Vision. Briefly
Explain the feature.
4. Explain the tasks used in computer vision for single object.
5. What do you understand by GrayScale image?
6. Write three differences between Computer Vision (CV) and Human
Vision System(HVS).
7. What is OpenCV Computer Vision Library?
8. What is Pixel? Give any two important features of a Pixel in digital
Image.

* Images shown here are the property of individual organisations and are used here for reference purpose only.