OpenCV for Secret Agents

About This Book

• Build OpenCV apps for the desktop, the Raspberry Pi, Android, and the Unity game engine
• Learn real-time techniques that can be used to classify images, detecting and recognizing any person or animal, and studying motion and distance with superhuman precision
• Design hands-free interfaces that are practical in home automation, in cars, and in discrete surveillance

Who This Book Is For

This book is for programmers who want to expand their skills by building fun, smart, and useful systems with OpenCV. The projects are ideal in helping you to think creatively about the uses of computer vision, natural user interfaces, and ubiquitous computers (in your home, car, and hand).

What You Will Learn

• Install OpenCV, a Python development environment, and an Android development environment on Windows, Mac, or Linux and install a Unity development environment on Windows or Mac
• Get to grips with motion detection and gesture recognition as a means of controlling a guessing game on a smartphone
• Detect car headlights, estimate distances to them, and provide feedback to the driver
• Spot and recognize human faces and cat faces as a means of controlling an alarm
• Amplify motion in real-time video so that a person's heartbeat and breathing become clearly visible
• Draw a ball-in-a-maze puzzle on paper and see it come to life as a physics simulation on a smartphone
• Integrate OpenCV with other libraries, as well as popular frameworks for GUI apps and games

In Detail

OpenCV is a grand collection of image processing functions and computer vision algorithms. It is open source, it supports many programming languages and platforms, and it is fast enough for many real-time applications. What a lot of gadgets we can build with such a handy library!

Taking inspiration from the world of James Bond, this book adds a spark of adventure and computer vision to your daily routine. Protect your home and car with intelligent camera systems that analyze people, cats, and obstacles. Let your search engine praise or criticize the images that it finds. Hear a voice from your phone that responds to your body language. Attune yourself to another person's rhythm by glancing at a display that magnifies a heartbeat or a breath. Learn OpenCV and see your world as never before.