[Dprglist] for Beginners & Beyond - Re: Computer vision software for beginners

[Carl Ott]

Yes -

I noticed the dramatic change in RoboRealm price structure a couple months
ago when I went to renew.  $50 or a little per year is a good level - the
steady stream of updates and community forum is well worth it.  But
commercial only licenses bumped to $500 - which is too high for my learning
purposes. I found some indication in the forums that a pricing structure
like this was tried some years back, so maybe educational pricing will
return like it appeared to before.  I really wish they'd offer price tiers
based on support, where the educational price level remains available but
perhaps with limited or no official support beyond other users in the
community forum.
Anyhow, I've greatly appreciated the author, who has been very responsive
and helpful with every request I've made. It might be worth reaching out
with a private message to talk about your teams accomplishments and goals,
and see if you could get a special arrangement...

I started to look around for alternatives, but haven't found anything quite
like it.  RoboRealm is unique and quite good for what it does. So I'm going
to stick with the perpetual license I've paid for, at least until I
'finish' the challenge course line follower...

However, as I'm getting close to solving the challenge course, and I'm
still on a cloud style API compatibility kick, I looked around for node.js
compatible stuff.  There are promising results, but nothing with the rich
IDE style framework and hardware interface libraries that RoboRealm
provides.

Check out OpenCV + node.js stuff:

tutorial
https://community.risingstack.com/opencv-tutorial-computer-
vision-with-node-js/

open source bindings
https://github.com/peterbraden/node-opencv
https://www.npmjs.com/package/opencv

(be careful to take the latest official npm install package from
peterbraden. this link highlights a couple variants which contain malicious
code: https://iamakulov.com/notes/npm-malicious-packages/)


examples
https://www.libhive.com/providers/npm/packages/opencv



These show other approaches, for web API style machine vision

http://www.eyesbot.com/blog/?preload=javascript_computer_vision.txt

Python based
https://www.learnopencv.com/turn-your-opencv-code-into-a-
web-api-in-under-10-minutes-part-1/

MS Azure Cognitive Services
(Steve should be proud to see this listed)
https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/azure/cognitive-services/computer-vision/
I'm very interested to try this, but haven't had a chance yet.
this link shows some free / evaluation levels
https://azure.microsoft.com/en-us/try/cognitive-services/

[image: Inline image 1]

-> I believe Google Cloud Compute platform has a similar offering, but
haven't looked closely



some other interesting looking libraries, looks like free/inexpensive yet
solid hands-on learning
http://tangiblejs.com/libraries/computer-vision




Then there of course there is the embedded approach.  Lots in the club have
tried the PIxy / CMUcam.  And Ray has tried RPi & Open CV.


Raspberry Pi
http://homepage.cem.itesm.mx/carbajal/EmbeddedSystems/
SLIDES/Computer%20Vision/Computer%20Vision%20using%20SimpleCV%20and%20the%
20Raspberry%20Pi.pdf
http://www.technolabsz.com/2013/03/how-to-easily-install-opencv-on.html

Alternatives to CMUcam -> JeVois CV module vs. OpenMV Cam

https://diyrobocars.com/2017/05/07/first-experiments-with-jevois-computer-vision-module/



this course started as a Kickstarter

https://www.pyimagesearch.com/pyimagesearch-gurus/



Some other options - seem powerful but maybe heavier lifting or pricing
required - likely not for beginners

looks like a decent site for professional level training
https://www.embedded-vision.com/what-embedded-vision/
embedded-vision-academy/newest


https://www.khronos.org/openvx/

https://software.intel.com/en-us/computer-vision-sdk

https://cogniac.co/


Please do keep us posted if you find anything. This is an interesting
sandbox to play in.  Although the technical know-how & cost barriers to
entry are still 'high', they seem to be steadily dropping...

Carl


On Wed, Oct 4, 2017 at 8:49 PM, Karim Virani <pondersome64 at gmail.com> wrote:

> RoboRealm is a nice way to play with vision processing pipelines and get a
> feel for a large number of algorithms. Now that they no longer support a
> personal edition and the commercial edition starts at $500, can anyone
> recommend a similar suite that is affordable? This is for introducing new
> high school robotics students to machine vision. Any advice appreciated.
>
> Peace,
>
> Karim
>
>
>
> My robot will be based on node.js / javascript and computer vision using a
>> CV software called RoboRealm. And I'm developing algorithms for the
>> physical robot using a custom simulator of both robot and line following
>> course.
>>
>> Hope to see you there...
>>
>> Carl
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> _______________________________________________
>> DPRGlist mailing list
>> DPRGlist at lists.dprg.org
>> http://lists.dprg.org/listinfo.cgi/dprglist-dprg.org
>>
>>
>
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