Getting Started in Computer Vision

 

Online Resources

  • CVOnline: a collection of online explanations and tutorials on computer-vision topics

  • OpenCV: a free, open-source library of computer-vision methods from Intel

  • VXL (the Vision-something-Libraries): another free library of computer-vision methods. This one's from Cambridge University

  • TNT: freeware linear algebra libraries from NIST

 

Introductory Texts for Computer Vision

There's a lot of overlap in the books listed below. I think each has both strengths and weaknesses. Most university intro courses seem to be using Trucco and Verri for their text, so if you're looking for one book to start learning from, that would probably be a good choice.

  • Introductory Techniques for 3-D Computer Vision, by Trucco and Verri, 1998.
    This is a first edition, and it has quite a few errors. Some can throw you if you're not careful. But overall, it's good. Very broad coverage in a short, tightly-written text. It gives you a good overview and enough specifics to get started.

  • Robot Vision, by B.K.P. Horn, 1986.
    A classic. You may gasp at the publication date, but if you start getting into this stuff, you'll probably wind up with it on your bookshelf eventually. It goes deeply into the derivations of some core techniques and concepts. More math than algorithms. Dense, but well worth the effort.

  • Computer Vision: A Modern Approach, by Forsyth and Ponce, 2003.
    A big book - 680 pages. It covers more topics than do the others, but I found the authors' writing style hard to follow. That may be just me though. I didn't get much out of it until after I'd worked my way through large sections of the other texts.

  • Machine Vision: Theory, Algorithms, Practicalities, by E.R. Davies, 2004.
    Clear and concise explanations and derivations of many basic image-processing algorithms. I got started by working through an earlier version of this book, and it's still one of my favorites.

 

Useful Math and Physics Texts

I like texts that explain the basics in clear, simple language, that give worked examples, and that have exercises with solutions. The texts below are the ones I found most helpful for learning basic math and physics principles for computer-vision work.

 
Home