Computer Vision has been a field that had enormous potential in many applications ranging from robotics to human interfaces over the last 25 years or so. Unfortunately other fields have become lot more applicable, but computer vision still remains a strong potential technology that could revolutionize applications of computing.
Many companies have been formed to reap this potential.
It is clear that some day this technology will cross the application barrier. Many early hurdles — sensors, processing power, software — have been solved. But we still don;t know how to apply this technology effectively.
There is a great buzz around
http://www.vitamindinc.com/
currently. Most computer vision researchers will recognize that the technology is nothing new. What is new is however is the application environment put around simple computer vision technology. Can this be extended beyond the first set of ‘claimed’ applications? Only time will tell. In my recent memory, the same amount — possibly even more — buzz was created by riya.com, only to become like.com with with relatively modest ambition and almost neglegible use of comuter vision technology.
As a long term researcher in this very exciting field, I do hope that this or some other company will bring computer vision to the center stage in computing. I doubt, however, that that could be done without strong use of context in computer vision system. That will require a change in the mind frame of researchers and technologists. And I do see some signs — in image and video retrieval systems particularly. So I am hoping that This Vitamin will really be a vitamin for computer vision.