Machine Vision

Citation

Abbott, P. (1998), "Machine Vision", Assembly Automation, Vol. 18 No. 3. https://doi.org/10.1108/aa.1998.03318cad.009

Machine Vision

Machine Vision

R. Jain, R. Kasturi and BG. SchunckMcGraw-Hill1995549 pagesISBN 0-07-113407-7£23.99

Keywords Machine vision, Publication

A broad and practically-based introduction to the subject of machine vision, aimed as being suitable for the initiate through to a postgraduate level of competence in the field. The authors assume a basic familiarity with mathematics and programming, though some sections require a more advanced ability to be able to follow the development of the more involved techniques.

The book's introduction outlines its terms of reference, outlining the basics of what machine vision is, and how it relates to other engineering topics. Subsequent chapters work from a good coverage of binary image processing through morphological operations and segmentation leading to regional representation of images. The following three chapters cover the relatively-conventional topics of filtering, edge detection and contouring; however, certainly a number of topics within these chapters are covered in greater depth than in a lot of comparable literature. The subjects of texture and its application to the fields of scene and shape classification inter alia conclude the two-dimensional image work. The book deviates briefly with a fairly cursory explanation of radiometry, geometrical optics and colour, before starting out on the latter section of the text, which concerns itself with three-dimensional issues in images and vision, starting with a chapter on camera calibration. Further chapters cover issues in dynamic vision, the detection of changes in images and tracking, before concluding with the major principles of object recognition.

The book's material goes some way beyond a beginner's text, though it is written in a very approachable style and might appeal at most levels. Occasionally, some of the topics appear hurried, but in the majority of cases the authors have managed to combine a brief introduction, the essential mathematics and an algorithmic outline of the important techniques of a topic very succinctly. The inclusion of the material on contours and curve approximation is particularly praiseworthy. The text is well, and appropriately, illustrated throughout, with plenty of comparative photographs of images having undergone the image processing operations discussed. Each chapter is concluded with a further reading section that in addition to recommending more advanced texts, sets the work in the context of the wider subject of image processing and vision systems. Exercises are included for the pedagogical, and the book has a references section relating to both book and paper sources. Not quite a one-stop reference work, but a good overview of the most important topics in the field.