Introduction
OpenCV is a library for Python for the purpose of detecting faces using a computer. OpenCV stands for Open Source Computer Vision, a library which acts as a vision object for the computer. It was originally developed by intel and later supported by Willow Garage then Itseez. It is a library file which supports cross-platform and is free for use by the open source license.
Advantages
OpenCV is a cross platform library file and it is open source too. It supports some models from deep learning like TensorFlow, Torch, and some more based on the requirement of the user. These library files have the advantage of tracking images even at a low light and dark light. But those things require a good camera which can record or provide the image in a clear manner. It does not occupy your RAM at a high cost, it just requires about 60 to 70 mb of your RAM. It is portable too.
Files for installation
You can get into OpenCV's official site by clicking
here. This site is for the OpenCV for Python. In Python there is one more added advantage, which is that you do not need to download any package files for installation purposes. But you need to check that your Python has been enabled with the pip installation option. For checking that you can check the version of pip installed in your system by using this command in the command prompt:
This command will display the current version of your pip.
I am using the system with the pip 20.0.2 version.
You can upgrade your pip version by using the below command in the command prompt.
- python -m pip install --upgrade pip
This will update your pip version.
Installing OpenCV
For installing OpenCv for your Python you need to make sure that you added a path while installing the Python. If you don't, you just reinstall your python by adding the path for it. You don't need to worry about the library files, because the reinstallation of Python does not affect the python library files which you already installed.
Make sure that your internet is turned on.
You can install the OpenCV using the code given below in the command prompt.
- pip install opencv-python
By clicking enter it will automatically start to download the package from the internet. The package is not so high. It is just about 33 MB. If it is available in the system it means it will automatically detect that file and use it for installation. After downloading it will automatically install the OpenCV library on your System.
After installation it will show the message that it's successfully installed opencv-python-4.2.0.32. The version of OpenCV depends on the Python version you installed in your system. If you installed the 32 bit version, the OpenCV version will also be 32 bit.
Applications
As I said earlier, it acts as vision for the computer, which enables the computer to recognize everything that it sees. OpenCV leans mostly towards real-time vision applications and takes advantage of MMX and SSE instructions when available. There are over 500 algorithms and about 10 times as many functions that compose or support those algorithms. OpenCV was built to provide a common infrastructure for computer vision applications and to accelerate the use of machine perception in commercial products. It will be used in a lot of projects which are involved in the process of detecting things and people. Some mobile applications also use the OpenCV for detecting the face while taking photos and videos.
Conclusion
The OpenCV library file is widely used for many projects. We can use that to develop our project based on Computer Vision. I think this article will help you install and know about the OpenCV.