17 October 2009

OpenCV Wishlist

OpenCV has an extensive set of image processing and vision algorithms. Everyone will have their own pet list of things which they would like to see in this. Some of mine "requests" are

  1. Level Sets; even a base level implementation; there are a number of libraries out there, integration will be a huge headache/challenge!
  2. Colour Edge detection, without taking recourse to grayscale conversion. Maybe DiZenzo's algorithm could be a used.
Regarding the general development of OpenCV and computer vision algorithms in general, I think that research groups should be more proactive in contributing code, rather than issue MATLAB dll which would work only on certain versions. After a ll, knowledge is for sharing and it would also increase the citation count if the code were available. Rather than churning out paper after paper using a mysterious black code which is available only to the select coterie, it would be nice if the code were freed up. After all, publishing in academia is about sharing knowledge. If it were an industry code, then perhaps the information hiding is perfectly understood.

OpenCV 2.0 VS 2008 Compilation

A very concise method for building OpenCV 2.0 using Visual Studio 2008 is given here. One can follow the instructions blindly; however there is a problem building the highgui libraries. The error is as follows:
Compiling... ffopencv.cpp Linking... LINK : fatal error LNK1104: cannot open file 'libgcc_.a'

Have posted to the developers as well as yahoo groups.. awaiting response. Will update as soon as i get some reply.

01 October 2009

Laptop and Fedora 11

Finally, I achieved my major goal of buying a laptop. I acquired an Acer 5738G, since it had reasonably good configuration at affordable price. Also, there were no reports of the model coming apart within a few months, though this might be because it is a relatively new model. Acer has played a dirty trick regarding the installation media but more of that later.
I managed to shrink the original C drive to 160GB and create a new partition for installing some version of GNU Linux. I finally installed Fedora 11, 64 bit version. Funnily, there are no Latex packages available on the installation DVD. Also, some programs crib about the non availability of some gdk header files. I did a lot of searching for the missing latex/tetex/texlive packages on Google, but drew exactly blank. If some kind soul could clarify the mystery of Missing Latex packages, I would be eternally indebted. Perhaps the packagers in their infinite wisdom thought that latex packages are too "geeky", and put in exotic language support as default rather than this...
Update
So, I partitioned the original hard disk to get a 100GB partition. The Vista disk partitioner did a great job of it; creating a new partition while the OS is actually using it. I am not aware of any tool for GNU/Linux which does the same job. Anyways, there is a size restriction on the base partition that it should not be below some X GB; I think X=160/120. Fedora installation was also fine. The major problem is that running Fedora 11 gives just the 50% of the battery life of Vista. Is this a problem with the OS? Seems to be so....

OpenCV 2.0 released!

Downloads available at Sourceforge...