What is OpenCV and what are its top alternatives?
OpenCV is an open-source computer vision and machine learning software library that is widely used for various image and video processing tasks. It provides a wide range of functions and algorithms for tasks like object detection, image segmentation, facial recognition, and more. Some key features of OpenCV include support for multiple programming languages, a large community for support and development, and compatibility with various operating systems. However, OpenCV can be complex for beginners to use, and its documentation can sometimes be unclear. 1. Dlib: Dlib is a modern C++ toolkit containing machine learning algorithms and tools for computer vision tasks. It provides implementations of various machine learning algorithms, as well as tools for facial recognition and object detection. Pros: Easy to use, well-documented, efficient implementation of machine learning algorithms. Cons: Limited support for certain image processing tasks, less extensive community compared to OpenCV. 2. SimpleCV: SimpleCV is an open-source framework for building computer vision applications in Python. It provides a high-level interface for common image processing tasks, such as color correction, feature extraction, and object tracking. Pros: easy to learn and use, Python-based for rapid prototyping, good for beginners. Cons: limited advanced features compared to OpenCV, less optimized for performance. 3. VLFeat: VLFeat is an open-source library for computer vision and machine learning algorithms. It offers implementations of popular image processing algorithms, such as SIFT and k-means, as well as tools for feature extraction and matching. Pros: efficient implementations of algorithms, good for feature extraction tasks. Cons: limited support for newer machine learning models, not as user-friendly as OpenCV. 4. TensorFlow: TensorFlow is an open-source machine learning framework created by Google. While primarily focused on deep learning tasks, it also offers tools for image processing and computer vision applications. Pros: powerful deep learning capabilities, extensive community support, good for complex image processing tasks. Cons: more complex than OpenCV for basic image processing, requires knowledge of machine learning concepts. 5. Matplotlib: Matplotlib is a popular Python library for creating static, animated, and interactive visualizations in Python. While not specifically designed for computer vision, it can be used for tasks like image plotting, processing, and displaying. Pros: versatile visualization capabilities, easy integration with other Python libraries, good for data exploration. Cons: not as optimized for performance as OpenCV, limited image processing functionalities. 6. Scikit-Image: Scikit-Image is a collection of algorithms for image processing and computer vision tasks built on top of the SciPy stack. It offers tools for image manipulation, filtering, feature detection, and more. Pros: easy to use, well-documented, good for basic image processing tasks. Cons: not as extensive as OpenCV in terms of algorithms and functionalities, may not be suitable for advanced computer vision projects. 7. Mahotas: Mahotas is an open-source computer vision library for Python built on top of NumPy. It provides tools for image processing, filtering, feature extraction, and object recognition. Pros: easy to install and use, efficient data structures for handling images, good for basic computer vision tasks. Cons: limited advanced features compared to OpenCV, may not be suitable for complex image processing tasks. 8. ImageJ: ImageJ is an open-source image processing program developed by the National Institutes of Health. It offers a wide range of tools for image analysis, visualization, and processing, as well as support for plugins and extensions. Pros: extensive features for image analysis, good for scientific image processing tasks, customizable with plugins. Cons: more focused on scientific research applications, not as versatile as OpenCV for general computer vision tasks. 9. Caffe: Caffe is a deep learning framework developed by the Berkeley Vision and Learning Center. It is primarily focused on deep learning tasks, such as image classification and object detection. Pros: optimized for deep learning tasks, good for neural network training, efficient implementations of deep learning algorithms. Cons: less versatile than OpenCV for general image processing tasks, requires knowledge of deep learning concepts. 10. Tesseract: Tesseract is an open-source optical character recognition (OCR) engine that can be used for text detection and extraction from images. It provides tools for text recognition, language support, and image preprocessing. Pros: accurate text recognition capabilities, good for OCR tasks, supports multiple languages. Cons: limited to text-related tasks, not suitable for general image processing tasks.
Top Alternatives to OpenCV
- TensorFlow
TensorFlow is an open source software library for numerical computation using data flow graphs. Nodes in the graph represent mathematical operations, while the graph edges represent the multidimensional data arrays (tensors) communicated between them. The flexible architecture allows you to deploy computation to one or more CPUs or GPUs in a desktop, server, or mobile device with a single API. ...
- CImg
It mainly consists in a (big) single header file CImg.h providing a set of C++ classes and functions that can be used in your own sources, to load/save, manage/process and display generic images. ...
- OpenGL
It is a cross-language, cross-platform application programming interface for rendering 2D and 3D vector graphics. The API is typically used to interact with a graphics processing unit, to achieve hardware-accelerated rendering. ...
- PyTorch
PyTorch is not a Python binding into a monolothic C++ framework. It is built to be deeply integrated into Python. You can use it naturally like you would use numpy / scipy / scikit-learn etc. ...
- OpenCL
It is the open, royalty-free standard for cross-platform, parallel programming of diverse processors found in personal computers, servers, mobile devices and embedded platforms. It greatly improves the speed and responsiveness of a wide spectrum of applications in numerous market categories including gaming and entertainment titles, scientific and medical software, professional creative tools, vision processing, and neural network training and inferencing. ...
- MATLAB
Using MATLAB, you can analyze data, develop algorithms, and create models and applications. The language, tools, and built-in math functions enable you to explore multiple approaches and reach a solution faster than with spreadsheets or traditional programming languages, such as C/C++ or Java. ...
- FFMPEG
The universal multimedia toolkit.
- JavaScript
JavaScript is most known as the scripting language for Web pages, but used in many non-browser environments as well such as node.js or Apache CouchDB. It is a prototype-based, multi-paradigm scripting language that is dynamic,and supports object-oriented, imperative, and functional programming styles. ...
OpenCV alternatives & related posts
- High Performance32
- Connect Research and Production19
- Deep Flexibility16
- Auto-Differentiation12
- True Portability11
- Easy to use6
- High level abstraction5
- Powerful5
- Hard9
- Hard to debug6
- Documentation not very helpful2
related TensorFlow posts
Hi, I have an LMS application, currently developed in Python-Django.
It works all very well, students can view their classes and submit exams, but I have noticed that some students are sharing exam answers with other students and let's say they already have a model of the exams.
I want with the help of artificial intelligence, the exams to have different questions and in a different order for each student, what technology should I learn to develop something like this? I am a Python-Django developer but my focus is on web development, I have never touched anything from A.I.
What do you think about TensorFlow?
Please, I would appreciate all your ideas and opinions, thank you very much in advance.
Google Analytics is a great tool to analyze your traffic. To debug our software and ask questions, we love to use Postman and Stack Overflow. Google Drive helps our team to share documents. We're able to build our great products through the APIs by Google Maps, CloudFlare, Stripe, PayPal, Twilio, Let's Encrypt, and TensorFlow.
related CImg posts
related OpenGL posts
Hello all,
I recently saw someone using OpenGL to create interesting evolving/rotating, mathematical-type visuals that I'd like to use in my honors project. He uses OpenGL but I'm operating on a 2012 MacBook Pro, which won't let me upgrade past macOS Catalina.
Does anyone have any experience with alternative programs that would be just as easy to use, and implement?
Thanks for any help
- Easy to use15
- Developer Friendly11
- Easy to debug10
- Sometimes faster than TensorFlow7
- Lots of code3
- It eats poop1
related PyTorch posts
The algorithms and data infrastructure at Stitch Fix is housed in #AWS. Data acquisition is split between events flowing through Kafka, and periodic snapshots of PostgreSQL DBs. We store data in an Amazon S3 based data warehouse. Apache Spark on Yarn is our tool of choice for data movement and #ETL. Because our storage layer (s3) is decoupled from our processing layer, we are able to scale our compute environment very elastically. We have several semi-permanent, autoscaling Yarn clusters running to serve our data processing needs. While the bulk of our compute infrastructure is dedicated to algorithmic processing, we also implemented Presto for adhoc queries and dashboards.
Beyond data movement and ETL, most #ML centric jobs (e.g. model training and execution) run in a similarly elastic environment as containers running Python and R code on Amazon EC2 Container Service clusters. The execution of batch jobs on top of ECS is managed by Flotilla, a service we built in house and open sourced (see https://github.com/stitchfix/flotilla-os).
At Stitch Fix, algorithmic integrations are pervasive across the business. We have dozens of data products actively integrated systems. That requires serving layer that is robust, agile, flexible, and allows for self-service. Models produced on Flotilla are packaged for deployment in production using Khan, another framework we've developed internally. Khan provides our data scientists the ability to quickly productionize those models they've developed with open source frameworks in Python 3 (e.g. PyTorch, sklearn), by automatically packaging them as Docker containers and deploying to Amazon ECS. This provides our data scientist a one-click method of getting from their algorithms to production. We then integrate those deployments into a service mesh, which allows us to A/B test various implementations in our product.
For more info:
- Our Algorithms Tour: https://algorithms-tour.stitchfix.com/
- Our blog: https://multithreaded.stitchfix.com/blog/
- Careers: https://multithreaded.stitchfix.com/careers/
#DataScience #DataStack #Data
Server side
We decided to use Python for our backend because it is one of the industry standard languages for data analysis and machine learning. It also has a lot of support due to its large user base.
Web Server: We chose Flask because we want to keep our machine learning / data analysis and the web server in the same language. Flask is easy to use and we all have experience with it. Postman will be used for creating and testing APIs due to its convenience.
Machine Learning: We decided to go with PyTorch for machine learning since it is one of the most popular libraries. It is also known to have an easier learning curve than other popular libraries such as Tensorflow. This is important because our team lacks ML experience and learning the tool as fast as possible would increase productivity.
Data Analysis: Some common Python libraries will be used to analyze our data. These include NumPy, Pandas , and matplotlib. These tools combined will help us learn the properties and characteristics of our data. Jupyter notebook will be used to help organize the data analysis process, and improve the code readability.
Client side
UI: We decided to use React for the UI because it helps organize the data and variables of the application into components, making it very convenient to maintain our dashboard. Since React is one of the most popular front end frameworks right now, there will be a lot of support for it as well as a lot of potential new hires that are familiar with the framework. CSS 3 and HTML5 will be used for the basic styling and structure of the web app, as they are the most widely used front end languages.
State Management: We decided to use Redux to manage the state of the application since it works naturally to React. Our team also already has experience working with Redux which gave it a slight edge over the other state management libraries.
Data Visualization: We decided to use the React-based library Victory to visualize the data. They have very user friendly documentation on their official website which we find easy to learn from.
Cache
- Caching: We decided between Redis and memcached because they are two of the most popular open-source cache engines. We ultimately decided to use Redis to improve our web app performance mainly due to the extra functionalities it provides such as fine-tuning cache contents and durability.
Database
- Database: We decided to use a NoSQL database over a relational database because of its flexibility from not having a predefined schema. The user behavior analytics has to be flexible since the data we plan to store may change frequently. We decided on MongoDB because it is lightweight and we can easily host the database with MongoDB Atlas . Everyone on our team also has experience working with MongoDB.
Infrastructure
- Deployment: We decided to use Heroku over AWS, Azure, Google Cloud because it is free. Although there are advantages to the other cloud services, Heroku makes the most sense to our team because our primary goal is to build an MVP.
Other Tools
Communication Slack will be used as the primary source of communication. It provides all the features needed for basic discussions. In terms of more interactive meetings, Zoom will be used for its video calls and screen sharing capabilities.
Source Control The project will be stored on GitHub and all code changes will be done though pull requests. This will help us keep the codebase clean and make it easy to revert changes when we need to.
related OpenCL posts
MATLAB
- Simulink20
- Model based software development5
- Functions, statements, plots, directory navigation easy5
- S-Functions3
- REPL2
- Simple variabel control1
- Solve invertible matrix1
- Parameter-value pairs syntax to pass arguments clunky2
- Doesn't allow unpacking tuples/arguments lists with *2
- Does not support named function arguments2
related MATLAB posts
- Open Source5
related FFMPEG posts
Hi Team,
Could you please suggest which one need to be used in between OpenCV and FFMPEG.
Thank you in Advance.
I have a situation to convert the H264 streams into MP4 format using FFMPEG/GStreamer.
However Im stuck with the gst-ugly plugin, now trying my luck with ffmeg. How big are the ffmeg libs and licensing complications?
JavaScript
- Can be used on frontend/backend1.7K
- It's everywhere1.5K
- Lots of great frameworks1.2K
- Fast898
- Light weight745
- Flexible425
- You can't get a device today that doesn't run js392
- Non-blocking i/o286
- Ubiquitousness237
- Expressive191
- Extended functionality to web pages55
- Relatively easy language49
- Executed on the client side46
- Relatively fast to the end user30
- Pure Javascript25
- Functional programming21
- Async15
- Full-stack13
- Setup is easy12
- Future Language of The Web12
- Its everywhere12
- Because I love functions11
- JavaScript is the New PHP11
- Like it or not, JS is part of the web standard10
- Expansive community9
- Everyone use it9
- Can be used in backend, frontend and DB9
- Easy9
- Most Popular Language in the World8
- Powerful8
- Can be used both as frontend and backend as well8
- For the good parts8
- No need to use PHP8
- Easy to hire developers8
- Agile, packages simple to use7
- Love-hate relationship7
- Photoshop has 3 JS runtimes built in7
- Evolution of C7
- It's fun7
- Hard not to use7
- Versitile7
- Its fun and fast7
- Nice7
- Popularized Class-Less Architecture & Lambdas7
- Supports lambdas and closures7
- It let's me use Babel & Typescript6
- Can be used on frontend/backend/Mobile/create PRO Ui6
- 1.6K Can be used on frontend/backend6
- Client side JS uses the visitors CPU to save Server Res6
- Easy to make something6
- Clojurescript5
- Promise relationship5
- Stockholm Syndrome5
- Function expressions are useful for callbacks5
- Scope manipulation5
- Everywhere5
- Client processing5
- What to add5
- Because it is so simple and lightweight4
- Only Programming language on browser4
- Test1
- Hard to learn1
- Test21
- Not the best1
- Easy to understand1
- Subskill #41
- Easy to learn1
- Hard 彤0
- A constant moving target, too much churn22
- Horribly inconsistent20
- Javascript is the New PHP15
- No ability to monitor memory utilitization9
- Shows Zero output in case of ANY error8
- Thinks strange results are better than errors7
- Can be ugly6
- No GitHub3
- Slow2
- HORRIBLE DOCUMENTS, faulty code, repo has bugs0
related JavaScript posts
Oof. I have truly hated JavaScript for a long time. Like, for over twenty years now. Like, since the Clinton administration. It's always been a nightmare to deal with all of the aspects of that silly language.
But wowza, things have changed. Tooling is just way, way better. I'm primarily web-oriented, and using React and Apollo together the past few years really opened my eyes to building rich apps. And I deeply apologize for using the phrase rich apps; I don't think I've ever said such Enterprisey words before.
But yeah, things are different now. I still love Rails, and still use it for a lot of apps I build. But it's that silly rich apps phrase that's the problem. Users have way more comprehensive expectations than they did even five years ago, and the JS community does a good job at building tools and tech that tackle the problems of making heavy, complicated UI and frontend work.
Obviously there's a lot of things happening here, so just saying "JavaScript isn't terrible" might encompass a huge amount of libraries and frameworks. But if you're like me, yeah, give things another shot- I'm somehow not hating on JavaScript anymore and... gulp... I kinda love it.
How Uber developed the open source, end-to-end distributed tracing Jaeger , now a CNCF project:
Distributed tracing is quickly becoming a must-have component in the tools that organizations use to monitor their complex, microservice-based architectures. At Uber, our open source distributed tracing system Jaeger saw large-scale internal adoption throughout 2016, integrated into hundreds of microservices and now recording thousands of traces every second.
Here is the story of how we got here, from investigating off-the-shelf solutions like Zipkin, to why we switched from pull to push architecture, and how distributed tracing will continue to evolve:
https://eng.uber.com/distributed-tracing/
(GitHub Pages : https://www.jaegertracing.io/, GitHub: https://github.com/jaegertracing/jaeger)
Bindings/Operator: Python Java Node.js Go C++ Kubernetes JavaScript OpenShift C# Apache Spark