opencv is a cross-platform software library for computer vision and machine learning.
Can run on Linux, Windows, Android and Mac OS operating systems, it is lightweight and efficient, consists of a series of C functions and a small number of C + + + classes, while providing Python, Ruby, MATLAB and other languages, such as interfaces, the implementation of the image processing and computer vision of many general-purpose algorithms.
With interfaces to C++, Python, Java, and MATLAB, and support for Windows, Linux, Android, and Mac OS, OpenCV tends to focus on real-time vision applications and utilizes MMX and SSE commands when available, and now also offers support for C#, Ch, Ruby, and GO. With a cross-platform mid- and high-level API that includes more than 500 C functions, it has no dependencies on other external libraries, although some can be used.
OpenCV Advantages
Hardware-dependent solutions for specific applications (e.g., video surveillance, manufacturing control systems, medical devices) are the status quo today, and a standard API would simplify the development of computer vision programs and solutions, and OpenCV is committed to becoming such a standard API.
OpenCV is dedicated to real-world, real-time applications, with optimized C code written to bring significant speed improvements to its execution, and can be made even faster with the purchase of Intel's IPP high-performance multimedia library.
OpenCV-2.3.0rc has been released, with a new stitching module, easier Android support, use of the Google?test framework, and other changes that focus on internal performance improvements.
Reference: Baidu Encyclopedia-opencv