Advanced video analysys - how to bite it?

Question

I need to do an application that:

• captures video data from camcorder,
• do some processing (Monte Carlo methods, Markov's fields and chains, etc.),
• saves the data as video file, enriched with upper surface containing information about the processing (e.g. found object will be marked),
• saves everything (not the video itself but positions of objects, etc.) to database to future statistical management.

All that needs to be done in real-time, continuously.

I'm database programmer (C#, Java, Python) so it's something new for me... what language to pick and how to start, being said that I know much about processing that needs to be done but just in theory - I know the steps, calculations... just need a tool.

Answer 1

This all seems far removed from your filed. Would be nice if you could give a purpose for the application you want to do.

But, it seems that you want to do a little bit of Computer Vision/Image Processing. My preferable language for that is C++, and OpenCV library provides may implementations of current computer vision algorithms and image processing methods.

C++ is very good for image processing because it's a fairly "low level" language compared to the languages you're used to, so writing code fast in it might be a bit more difficult, but writing fast code is a bit easier.

Another good thing about OpenCV library is that a version exists for Python. It's easier to manipulate and experiment with certain operations in Python than C++, and allows for a quicker way to test an idea that you can later integrate in your application.

Also, for some simple image processing operations, Matlab might be sufficient. It also provides a lot of methods but is fairly slow compared to C++ (and I think, even Python).

Last of all, looks like object detection and whatever else you plan to do is a new field to you. You could skim (or read, depending on available time) some introductory materials (introductory and chosen chapters of books, for example) on Computer Vision and Image Processing. For recommended reading materials, I suggest you search through Stack Overflow as well as Signal Processing at Stackexchange. Also, both of these sites can help you with your more specific programming as well as approach problems if you show effort yourself.