10.11.2016 Views

Learning Data Mining with Python

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dataset's properties.<br />

Chapter 11<br />

The aim of our project, in this chapter, is to build a classification system that can take<br />

an image like this and predict what the object in it is.<br />

Use cases<br />

Computer vision is used in many scenarios.<br />

Online map websites, such as Google Maps, use computer vision for a number of<br />

reasons. One reason is to automatically blur any faces that they find, in order to give<br />

some privacy to the people being photographed as part of their Street View feature.<br />

Face detection is also used in many industries. Modern cameras automatically detect<br />

faces, as a means to improve the quality of photos taken (the user most often wants<br />

to focus on a visible face). Face detection can also be used for identification. For<br />

example, Facebook automatically recognizes people in photos, allowing for easy<br />

tagging of friends.<br />

As we stated before, autonomous vehicles are highly dependent on computer vision<br />

to recognize their path and avoid obstacles. Computer vision is one of the key<br />

problems that is being addressed not only in research into autonomous vehicles, not<br />

just for consumer use, but also in mining and other industries.<br />

Other industries are using computer vision too, including warehouses examining<br />

goods automatically for defects.<br />

The space industry is also using computer vision, helping to automate the collection<br />

of data. This is critical for effective use of spacecraft, as sending a signal from Earth<br />

to a rover on Mars can take a long time and is not possible at certain times (for<br />

instance, when the two planets are not facing each other). As we start dealing <strong>with</strong><br />

space-based vehicles more frequently, and from a greater distance, increasing the<br />

autonomy of these spacecrafts is absolutely necessary.<br />

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