You could say that computer vision has a large family of relatives. Because computer vision extracts and applies principles and applications from many different fields, its family tree, if you will, branches out widely, showing its relationship to various and diverse fields.
The Ancestry of Computer Vision
Since computer vision encompasses the science and technology of artificial intelligence and machines that see, computer science is the starting point when tracing the relationship of computer vision to other sciences. Computer science itself is a broad discipline, focusing on the science and technology of processing information. It encompasses computation theory, architecture of computer systems, theories of language programming and computer applications, all of which are utilized in computer vision. But artificial intelligence, a branch of computer science, is the science in which computer vision relies heavily upon. It focuses on enabling computers to do things that generally require human intelligence. In order to accomplish this mission, the science of artificial intelligence, along with computer vision, studies such aspects as learning, language interpretation, perception, reasoning and problem-solving.
A close relative to computer vision would be physics, in particular the optics, image sensors and measures involved in computer vision. Computer vision relies on physics when applying theories to the behavior of energy, motion and force. Another close relative is neurobiology, which studies the brain and nervous systems of living beings. This science allows computer vision to mimic the natural vision system and other human and animal behaviors. Also closely related to computer vision is mathematics, specifically signal processing. This field gives computer vision the methods for non-linear and multi-variable signals.
When it comes to application, computer vision turns to the other side of its family and the areas related to integrating the methods of theory. These relatives include image processing and analysis, automation and machine vision. Other methods used in computer vision are related to the fields of geometry, statistics, pattern recognition and optimization. With its reliance on numerous fields of math and science, computer vision has proved invaluable in the medical, military, aeronautics, construction, manufacturing, food processing and industrial areas.
The related sciences and fields of computer vision enable it to handle numerous tasks encompassing recognition, motion, image restoration and scene reconstruction. Among the key applications using computer vision are industrial image processing to handle processes and quality controls; monitoring involving data collection and safety systems, as well as event recognition; robotics encompassing assembly and the use of autonomous systems; and document analysis covering handwritten and graphics recognition. These tasks are wide-ranging and are used by numerous industries in countless applications throughout the world.