Background Research

For centuries, only a subset of species have been able to use light to understand their surroundings. Relatively recently, new technology now can record videos of events and people can watch these videos for any kind of information. However, processes like security need to be analyzed in bulk, which creates a labor problem. Computer vision allows computers to analyze the video for us.

OpenCV is a collection of algorithms that gives computers "vision." Though security cameras can take videos of their surroundings, they can't process the information on their own. Computers with OpenCV can take the videos from the security and comprehend it. You can program the computer to look for a specific thing, such as colors, animals, faces, cars, etc. Then the program can execute the desired function when it recognizes what you programmed it to look for, like notifying you a person has been spotted.

Facial Recognition Software from OpenCV basically looks for key parts of a face and compares it to a database to determine whether or not its a face. When the image matches what the computer thinks is a face, the computer can be automated to do a certain process such as recording a video. Without having to check the raw footage, we already have highlights of the video where there a face has been detected.