What is Computer Vision?

Computer vision is the science of teaching a computer how to interpret images. The goal is to bridge the gap between pixels on the screen and the meaning behind them. Check out the timeline below for some important milestones in computer vision. Click on Applications to see how computer vision is used in our society today, and don't forget to visit the Tutorials page to learn about some of the algorithms behind these applications.

Historical Roots of Computer Vision

The historical roots of computer vision began in the 1950s and is closely intertwined with the study of human vision. To teach computers how to be able to "see," researchers have sought inspiration from visual perception in humans.

For computers to emulate visual perception in humans, researchers must first understand how human vision works. Some of the first milestones started in the 1950s; they explored and gained deeper understandings of the inner workings of the human eye and then extended their findings to computer vision.