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

Sun Oct 29 21:20:51 PDT 2017

Carl, that was a very helpful and thorough response.

We've been using a tool called ImagePlay. http://imageplay.io/ It's open
source and based on OpenCV. The team used it to create a pipeline that has
some potential to help navigation in this year's challenge. Since it's open
source, once you have a pipeline, you can figure out the calls to it makes
to opencv to construct the stages. It's based on the C++ implementation so
the team has to translate that to java for their Android controllers. It
has a very nice pipeline editor that supports branching. The downside is
that it is very unstable and doesn't have anywhere near the number of
filters and algorithms that RoboRealm supports.

We did ask RoboRealm for a license and they responded positively last week!
It took them a while to verify that we were a FIRST robotics team - they
support individual FIRST teams with licenses. It's much easier to
experiment with and they have great documentation so now have an improved
pipeline. It's going to take more work to figure out how to implement that
pipeline in OpenCV. We can't use the RoboRealm capabilities directly. But
as a tool for learning different aspects of computer vision, RoboRealm
rocks. Thanks for your original presentation posted to the DPRG youtube
channel - it helped us get up to speed quickly.

Peace,

Karim

On Thu, Oct 5, 2017 at 7:36 AM, Carl Ott <carl.ott.jr at gmail.com> wrote:

> 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-v
> ision-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/embedde
> d-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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