5 Exciting Computer Vision Applications

If you have been using Facebook for a long, you may remember that back in the days we used to manually tag the images. Yes, back in the days you would have to tag your friends one by one after uploading the images. However, today we don’t have to do this task manually, right? Somehow, Facebook is able to recognize the persons in the image and give us auto-tagging suggestions, which most of the time are correct. Similarly, you must have used some of the weird filters on Snapchat. But have you ever wondered how the application is able to recognize your face and add the filters at the right place? Or have you ever thought of how our smartphone can identify our faces to unlock it?

Well, computer vision is the technology behind all of these interesting applications.

The various applications of computer vision technology have made it one of the most researched data-science fields. The most amazing part of technology is that it has quietly become an important part of our lives, without us noticing it. As mentioned above, most people use computer vision applications in their daily lives without even thinking about the amazing technology that powers those applications, like unlocking mobiles via face identification.

Well, in this blog we will be looking at some of the most amazing and exciting applications of computer vision.

What is Computer Vision?

Before we start our journey through the amazing and exciting applications of computer vision, let’s first take a step back to get introduced to the technology itself. To put it shortly, computer vision is a field of artificial intelligence, focused to replicate the powers of human vision.

The prime area of research in computer vision remains working with visual recognition techniques like automated image processes, image classification, image captioning, object detection, target detection, image segmentation, optical character recognition, and others.

Recent developments

In recent years, the capabilities of computer vision have significantly improved with regard to visual recognition systems. Today, powerful computer vision algorithms are increasingly becoming capable of performing intricate image processing tasks including automatic target detection, image classifications, and others. The advancement of the technology has also led to the implementation of the technology into various industrial sectors; further widening the applications for the powerful computer vision tools and solutions.

5 Exciting Applications of Computer Vision 

Now that we are done with the introduction to technology, let’s see some exciting applications of computer visions technology;

1. Human Pose Estimation

It already sounds interesting, right? Well, it definitely is one of the coolest and most amazing applications of computer vision. To make things even more interesting, there’s already an open-source model “Posenet” available for users to try this amazing technology.

To put it in simple words, the pose estimator application uses computer vision algorithms to estimate/infer the pose of persons/objects in images/videos. Some of the application of Human Post Estimation includes;

• Activity recognition (used widely for analysis of players poses in real-time sports)
• Training robots
• Creating Augmented reality experiences
• Animation and gaming

2. Image Transformation Using GANs:

Most of the younger generation would already be familiar with the cool and weird application “Faceapp”. The application has become an overnight sensation in the younger generation, offering them weird image manipulation tools, which transform images using various filters. The application includes various filters like aging-filter or gender-swap filter. Browse the internet and you will find thousands and thousands of people using the app and sharing their weird-self using different filters.

But what’s the technology that is powering this application?

Well, you guessed it right. It’s none other than computer vision.

These weird-looking filters are powered by Deep Convolutional Generative Adversarial Networks (GAN), which is a field of computer vision technology.

Now, the Generative Adversarial Network (GAN) is a powerful and even more exciting field and while the concept may have been present for a while, it was only presented in its present form in 2014 by GoodFellow.

Initially, the technology was meant to work as an unsupervised learning mechanism, however, over the years the technology has developed significantly and today it’s also being used for semi-supervised and supervised learning mechanisms.

Today, Generative Adversarial Network (GAN) has various cross-industry applications including;

• Image editing
• Image super-resolution
• Semantic image to photo translation
• Text to image generation
• Image to image translation

3. Social Distancing Tools

The year 2020 has been all about the Covid-19 pandemic that shocked the world to its core. The global pandemic has literally tanked the world economies, forcing the world to go under lock-down multiple times. As I write it, there still is no proven vaccine against the virus and the only thing humans can do is to adopt precautionary measures to stop the spread of the virus.

Some of the most potent precautionary measures against covid-19 include; regular handwashing, using hand-sanitizer, using face masks, and last but not least, following social distancing.

Now you must be wondering about the role computer vision has to play in containing the covid-19 pandemic.

Well, the technology is already taken up by many countries including China as a means to monitor and track people across the streets and areas to ensure they are complying with the protocols of social distancing.

The tool used to track social distancing is an advanced real-time application of object detection, which is being used to surveil people for violations of social distancing protocols. The applications track the movement of people in any area and calculate the average distance between them, to check for protocol compliance. Any violations detected in social distancing protocols are highlighted for authorities to take appropriate measures.

4. Developing 3D Models from 2D Images

Well, the interesting applications of computer vision don’t end here. Next, we have yet another amazing application that lets users transform 2D images into 3D models.

Just imagine, you can use your old collection of photos and bring them to life by transforming them into interactive and detailed 3D models, it’s like resurrecting the old memories.

Various tech companies including Deep Mind and Nvidia have come up with robust AI architecture that can be used for the development of interactive and highly detailed 3D models using 2-dimensional images. Recently, Facebook has also launched its version of this application called “3D Photo Feature”, which lets users construct a 3D model using simple images.

Some of the applications of the technology include;

• Robotics
• Medical diagnosis
• Surgical operations
• Animations and gaming
• Self-driving cars

5. Medical Image Analysis

Medical images like X-Rays and CT-Scans have long been used in the medical industry. All of such imaging techniques already use some sort of computer vision applications. More recently, the advancement of computer vision technology has enabled medical practitioners to get more insights to form the imaging by transforming the images into 3D interactive models.

While this technology is still in its early stage, it’s a high-potential technology that would essentially change the way doctors interpret and diagnose medical conditions from images.

Takeaway

Well, I am sure you must have been amazed at the potential of computer vision technology Logo design NZ and its widespread use across various fields. The technology has already revolutionized various fields and it’s only the beginning and we can expect even more exciting applications to unveil in the future.