What is computer vision?

Computer vision is a branch of ar­ti­fi­cial in­tel­li­gence that allows computers to interpret images and videos. Instead of just capturing visual data, they can analyse and draw con­clu­sions from it. In doing so, computer vision can automate image and video analysis and deliver more accurate results.

What is computer vision?

Computer vision is a field of ar­ti­fi­cial in­tel­li­gence that focusses on analysing visual data auto­mat­ic­ally. The goal is simple. Computers should not only capture images and videos but also be able to un­der­stand their content. This includes re­cog­nising objects and people, detecting patterns and in­ter­pret­ing entire scenes. To achieve this, computer vision combines several dis­cip­lines. It uses machine learning to learn from data, image pro­cessing to prepare images for analysis, and stat­ist­ics to evaluate results. Deep learning models based on neural networks also play a key role. These models are trained on datasets with large numbers of images so they can identify a range of visual features. As a result, computer vision provides the technical found­a­tion for many real-world ap­plic­a­tions. On top of that, tech­no­lo­gies like autonom­ous systems or in­tel­li­gent image analysis would be difficult to build without it.

How does computer vision work?

Computer vision starts by turning visual input into data a machine can process. Cameras capture images or videos, which are then broken down into pixels. Each pixel contains in­form­a­tion about colour, bright­ness and contrast. AI al­gorithms then extract visual features from this data, such as edges, shapes or textures.

Most modern computer vision models rely on neural networks, es­pe­cially con­vo­lu­tion­al neural networks (CNNs), to extract visual features. During training, neural networks adjust internal para­met­ers until they can recognise objects or patterns for specific tasks, using large datasets with labelled examples. Once complete, the model can analyse new images it has never seen before. Depending on the use case, it may output a clas­si­fic­a­tion, an object location or a prob­ab­il­ity score.

Output quality depends heavily on data quality, dataset size and model design. In­fra­struc­ture matters as well. Many computer vision ap­plic­a­tions run in the cloud because it offers enough computing power to handle complex models and heavy workloads. Others use Edge AI to process images directly on edge devices like cameras, smart­phones or in­dus­tri­al systems. This reduces latency, saves bandwidth and keeps sensitive data local.

What tasks can computer vision handle?

Computer vision works best when visual in­form­a­tion needs automatic analysis. It can process large volumes of image or video data quickly and handle both struc­tured and un­struc­tured data. It also works con­sist­ently and, unlike humans, does not tire, which makes it well suited for re­pet­it­ive tasks. Many computer vision ap­plic­a­tions also operate in real time, which is critical for safety-related use cases.

Common computer vision tasks include:

• Object detection: Computer vision can detect and classify objects in images or videos, such as vehicles, people or products. It can also determine object positions, using bounding boxes.
• Facial re­cog­ni­tion: Computer vision can also identify or verify people based on facial features. This is commonly used to unlock devices, control entry to buildings, or replace passwords during login.
• Image clas­si­fic­a­tion: Images can be auto­mat­ic­ally assigned to cat­egor­ies, such as ‘defective’ or ‘intact,’ a common task in quality control.
• Image and instance seg­ment­a­tion: Computer vision can identify pixels belonging to specific objects or object classes, which allows precise detection of shapes and bound­ar­ies.
• Motion and event detection: Computer vision can also detect changes in video streams, such as unusual movement. This is often used in sur­veil­lance and security ap­plic­a­tions.
• Depth es­tim­a­tion and 3D re­cog­ni­tion: By working with stereo camaras or 3D data, computer vision can determine how objects are po­si­tioned in space.
• Text re­cog­ni­tion (OCR): Computer vision can extract printed or hand­writ­ten text from images using OCR and convert it into machine-readable text. This makes it easier to digitise documents.

Where is computer vision used?

Computer vision is used in many areas of everyday life and industry:

• In in­dus­tri­al man­u­fac­tur­ing, computer vision is used to monitor pro­duc­tion lines and auto­mat­ic­ally detect defective com­pon­ents.
• In health­care it helps clini­cians analyse X-ray, CT and MRI images for more accurate diagnoses.
• Autonom­ous vehicles also use computer vision to detect lanes, traffic signs and other road users to move safely through traffic.
• In retail, computer vision supports automated product analysis, such as shelf mon­it­or­ing and inventory checks, as well as theft detection.
• In logistics, computer vision is used to scan and auto­mat­ic­ally sort packages and shipments.
• In ag­ri­cul­ture, it’s used to detect plant diseases at an early stage.
• Law en­force­ment bodies use computer vision to analyse video footage in public spaces.
• In consumer devices, such as smart­phones, computer visions powers features like facial re­cog­ni­tion and automatic image op­tim­isa­tion.
• Computer vision also plays a key role in extended reality, including augmented and virtual reality.