HOW TO INSTALL OPENCV 3.0.0 IN MAC OS X YOSEMITE

Here you have an easy guide on how to install OpenCV 3.0.0 in OS X Yosemite 

And how to start developing OpenCV projects with Xcode

CEEMPLE OPENCV FOR VISUAL STUDIO

Although I always develop OpenCV applications under linux and always recommend open source environments, many of you use Windows (hey, use whatever suits your needs). So this is for all of you Windows OpenCV developers, you might find it useful:

"Ceemple OpenCV for Visual Studio" - Out of the box OpenCV C++ development for Visual Studio.

MSDN page: https://visualstudiogallery.msdn.microsoft.com/00ebd33e-c7c6-4a02-9466-b619b5eddfb5

Ceemple Page: http://www.ceemple.com/ceemple-opencv-visual-studio/

Features:

• Pre-compiled OpenCV v3.0 built with: CUDA, OpenCL, OpenMP, IPP
• Support for Windows 64 bit distribution and Visual Studio 2013
• Auto installation of Microsoft Image Watch extension
• OpenCV new project wizard
• 70+ examples of OpenCV and CUDA.

Benefits:

• Start programming immediately using OpenCV within Visual Studio.
• OpenCV is ready for use, built with complementary libraries.
• No need for long setups, configurations and adaptation of OpenCV for Visual Studio.
• Learn from the numerous code examples provided.
• Debug with Microsoft Image Watch extension.
• Free use.

HOW TO INSTALL OPENCV 3.0.0 IN WINDOWS 8

Although I always recommend using Linux on any of its variants, Windows is still being used by the majority of beginners in Computer Vision. Therefore, after receiving many requests, here is an explanation on how to install OpenCV 3 in Windows 8 :

and how to set up your Visual Studio 2013 environment to start programming computer vision applications:

Here is the source code for the test described on the video, it just prints out the version of OpenCV installed on your system:

#include <iostream>
#include <opencv2/opencv.hpp>

void main()
{
  std::cout << "OpenCV Version: " << CV_VERSION << std::endl;
}

HAPPY INTERNATIONAL DAY AGAINST DRM!

Hi everyone!

As an advocate of open source software and freedom to share knowledge let me wish you a Happy International Day Against DRM :D

And to celebrate here is an offer from my friends at Packt Publishing: All DRM-free content at just $10 for 24 hours during May 6th!!

Here is their official press release:

Packt celebrates International Day Against DRM, May 6^th 2014

Packt Publishing firmly believes that you should be able to read and interact with your content when you want, where you want, and how you want – to that end they have been advocates of DRM-free content since their very first eBook was published back in 2004.

To show their continuing support for Day Against DRM, Packt Publishing is offering all its DRM-free content at $10 for 24 hours only on May 6^th – that’s all 2000+ eBooks and Videos at www.packtpub.com. 

“Our top priority at Packt has always been to meet the evolving needs of developers in the most practical way possible, while at the same time protecting the hard work of our authors. DRM-free content continues to be instrumental in making that happen, providing the flexibility and freedom that is essential for an efficient and enhanced learning experience. That’s why we’ve been DRM-free from the beginning – we’ll never put limits on the innovation of our users.”

– Dave Maclean, Managing Director

Advocates of Day Against DRM are invited to spread the word and celebrate on May 6^th by exploring the full range of DRM-free content at www.packtpub.com, where all eBooks and Videos will be $10 for 24 hours.

Packt Publishing celebrates their 2000th title with an exclusive offer - We've got IT covered!

Known for their extensive range of pragmatic IT ebooks, Packt Publishing are celebrating their 2000th book title `Learning Dart’– they want their customers to celebrate too.

To mark this milestone Packt Publishing will launch a ‘Buy One Get One Free’ offer across all eBooks on March 18th – for a limited period only.

`Learning Dart’ was selected as a title and published by Packt earlier this year. As a project that aims to revolutionise a language as crucial as JavaScript, Dart is a great example of an emerging technology which aims to support the community and their requirement for constant improvement. The content itself explains how to develop apps using Dart and HTML5 in a model-driven and fast-paced approach, enabling developers to build more complex and high-performing web apps.

David Maclean, Managing Director explains `It’s not by chance that this book is our 2000th title. Our customers and community drive demand and it is our job to ensure that whatever they’re working on, Packt provides practical help and support.

At Packt we understand that sometimes our customers want to learn a new programming language pretty much from scratch, with little knowledge of similar language concepts. Other times our customers know a related language fairly well and therefore want a fast-paced primer that brings them up to a competent professional level quickly.

That’s what makes Packt different: all our books are specifically commissioned by category experts, based on intensive research of the technology and the key tasks.’

Since 2004, Packt Publishing has been providing practical IT-related information that enables everyone to learn and develop their IT knowledge, from novice to expert. 

Packt is one of the most prolific and fast-growing tech book publishers in the world. Originally focused on open source software, Packt contributes back into the community paying a royalty on relevant books directly to open source projects. These projects have received over $400,000 as part of Packt’s Open Source Royalty Scheme to date.

Their books focus on practicality, recognising that readers are ultimately concerned with getting the job done. Packt’s digitally-focused business model allows them to quickly publish up-to-date books in very specific areas across a range of key categories – web development, game development, big data, application development, and more. Their commitment to providing a comprehensive range of titles has seen Packt publish 1054% more titles in 2013 than in 2006.

Erol Staveley, Publisher, says `Recent research shows that 88% of our customers are very satisfied with the service knowing that we offer a wide breadth of titles in a timely manner, and owing to the quality of service that they receive 94% of customers are willing to recommend Packt to friends and family. It’s great that we’ve hit such a significant milestone, and we want to continue delivering this fantastic content to our customers.’

Here are some of the best titles across Packt's main categories - but Buy One, Get One Free will apply across all 2000 titles:

·       　Web Development

·       　Big Data & Cloud

·       　Game Development

·       　App Development

THE NEW TSUKUBA STEREO DATASET IS OUT!

Finally! After so much work we released the "New Tsukuba Stereo Dataset" at ICPR2012

This dataset contains 1800 stereo pairs with ground truth disparity maps, occlusion maps and discontinuity maps that will help to further develop the state of the art of stereo matching algorithms and evaluate its performance. It has been generated using photo-realistic computer graphics techniques and modeled after the original "head and lamp" stereo scene released by University of Tsukuba in 1997. 

The dataset is a 1 minute video sequence and also contains the 3D position and orientation of the camera on each frame, so it also can be used to develop and evaluate camera tracking methods.

It can be downloaded freely from the CVLAB website

Enjoy it!

3D RECONSTRUCTION WITH OPENCV AND POINT CLOUD LIBRARY

Hi everybody!

I bring you a sample of how to reconstruct a scene in 3D using OpenCV and Point Cloud Library (PCL) with a simple program and an example scene.

All we need is the left image of our stereo camera:

(You can implement your own cheap stereo webcam following this post: OpenCV Stereo Webcam)

The disparity map generated with your preferred Stereo Matching algorithm:

(For example you can use OpenCV's stereoBM algorithm: OpenCV StereoBM)

And the reprojection matrix (Q) obtained at calibration time:

<?xml version="1.0"?>
<opencv_storage>
<Q type_id="opencv-matrix">
  <rows>4</rows>
  <cols>4</cols>
  <dt>d</dt>
  <data>
    1. 0. 0. -2.9615028381347656e+02
    0. 1. 0. -2.3373317337036133e+02
    0. 0. 0. 5.6446880931501073e+02
    0. 0. -1.1340974198400260e-01 4.1658568844268817e+00
  </data></Q>
</opencv_storage>

(You can get the matrix Q for your own stereo camera following the instructions in this post: OpenCV Camera Calibration)

Now download the source code (I highly recommend to read the source code to understand what is going on, don't worry there is comments :P):

[NOTE]: You will need to have installed OpenCV Library (you can get it here) and Point Cloud Library (you can get it here). Also you will need CMake to generate the Makefiles.

Once you have downloaded the source code and installed the dependencies, just run:

tar xzvf OpenCVReprojectImageToPointCloud-1.0.tgz
cd OpenCVReprojectImageToPointCloud
cmake .
make
./OpenCVReprojectImageToPointCloud rgb-image.ppm disparity-image.pgm Q.xml

You should see something similar to the following video:

I hope you enjoy it!
[UPDATE: 04/02/2012] I have released a bug-fix. Thanks to Chris for pointing it out.