Learning OpenCV

The Origin of OpenCV

OpenCV grew out of an Intel Research initiative to advance CPU-intensive applications. Toward this end, Intel launched many projects including real-time ray tracing and 3D display walls. One of the authors working for Intel at that time was visiting universities and noticed that some top university groups, such as the MIT Media Lab, had well-developed and internally open computer vision infrastructures—code that was passed from student to student and that gave each new student a valuable head start in developing his or her own vision application. Instead of reinventing the basic functions from scratch, a new student could begin by building on top of what came before.

Thus, OpenCV was conceived as a way to make computer vision infrastructure universally available. With the aid of Intel's Performance Library Team,^[3] OpenCV started with a core of implemented code and algorithmic specifications being sent to members of Intel's Russian library team. This is the "where" of OpenCV: it started in Intel's research lab with collaboration from the Software Performance Libraries group together with implementation and optimization expertise in Russia.

Chief among the Russian team members was Vadim Pisarevsky, who managed, coded, and optimized much of OpenCV and who is still at the center of much of the OpenCV effort. Along with him, Victor Eruhimov helped develop the early infrastructure, and Valery Kuriakin managed the Russian lab and greatly supported the effort. There ...