The difference between simpleCV and openCV

Question

I don't know which one to use. which is the best one actually ??? Or else, are both of them the same ???

In some article, I read that simpleCV is sort of an interface which gives you access to openCV. I don't understand that point. Then why do we install openCV separately ??

Bozovich

"an interface which gives you access to openCV" - that means SimpleCV is something like a wrapper around something else (OpenCV); SimpleCV exposes a set of easily usable functions that internally call the installed OpenCV software via its less easily usable functions. That is why OpenCV may need to be installed separately. – Decern

if you have to go through the hassle of installing opencv you might as well use it fully. Took me 2 days x.x – Trilbie

SimpleCV, OpenCV – Salem

Answer 1

OpenCV is a library that can be used with tons of different languages (C, C++, Java, Python, etc.). It provides standard things such as image capture, image manipulation, etc.

SimpleCV on the other hand is a framework including several libraries (as far as I know not only OpenCV) and uses Python for scripting. Due to the nature of Python, you can either run scripts or use an interactive shell to do computer vision stuff and related tasks.

Which one to choose? This really depends on your usage scenario. For quick prototyping I'd guess SimpleCV is far superior, but for actual implementation/usage, OpenCV offers a lot more possibilities (although at a higher complexity; e.g. being able to be included in native applications as well as embedded systems).

Lanettelaney

Answer 2

Some simple facts to differentiate OpenCV and SimpleCV

• SimpleCV uses OpenCV (and other libraries like pygame etc.) as a core library to provide a simple introduction to computer vision
• SimpleCV can be tricky to install, the install instructions given are not comprehensive, but if you observe all errors you can get it installed
• SimpleCV forum seems dead, as does the main website - I suspect the project is dead
• Regardless its a good way to get exposed to the concepts of computer vision programming
• There is a book available that is quite detailed "Practical computer vision with SimpleCV
• SimpleCV is great for simple machine projects and hobbies but don't expect high performance, its all in python for a start and so there is a performance penalty just on that

Aciculate

Wait, what ? all in Python so there is a perf penalty ? SimpleCV is in C/C++, as is SDL (used by pygame). Your python code will only be glue code that ties everything together. Most of the expensive computations will actually be run in c/c++. I wouldn't expect the penalty hit for python to be all that much. – Reactive