Computer vision · Ireland

Teaching computers to see.

Computer vision allows building the systems that make sense of what cameras record — counting, checking, sorting, reading and understanding, without a person watching the screen.

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A street scene marked up the way a computer vision system marks up what it finds A photograph of an Irish shopfront and footpath. Lime rectangles are drawn around two people walking, the shop sign, the OPEN card in the window, and the van's number plate, each with a small label naming what was found. A lime shape is traced around the exact outline of a bin bag on the pavement. bin bag — shape text — “GREYSTONE” text — “OPEN” person 0.98 person 0.94 plate — “211-D-14827” A close view of the same street scene, marked up by a computer vision system A closer crop of the shopfront. A lime rectangle marks the OPEN card in the window, another marks a man walking, and a lime shape is traced round the exact outline of a bin bag on the pavement. bin bag — shape text — “OPEN”
This is roughly what the software sees. A box round each thing it found, the exact shape traced round the bin bag, and the words it read off the signs.

What can Computer Vision do?

Three photographs side by side, each labelled with one word: cat, dog, neither.

Telling what a picture shows

The software looks at a whole picture and gives it a name.

Some people call this: image classification Read this A car park from above with a green box drawn around each car.

Finding things in a picture

The software draws a box around each thing it finds and names it.

Some people call this: object detection Read this An aerial photograph of a field with the flooded part filled in green.

Tracing the exact shape of things

Instead of a rough box, the software marks the exact outline of each thing.

Some people call this: image segmentation Read this A drone photograph of a stone stockpile in a quarry with a dump truck beside it.

Working out how big something is

The software measures real sizes and distances from pictures, not just what is in them.

Some people call this: photogrammetry Read this Two photographs of the same face, each with a green box round it.

Recognising faces and people

The software compares a face in a picture to faces it already has on file.

Some people call this: facial recognition Read this A photograph of a printed invoice with green boxes round the total and the date.

Reading text from pictures

The software finds writing in a picture and turns it into text you can search.

Some people call this: optical character recognition Read this Four frames in a row with a person followed across them.

Understanding video

The software watches a moving picture and follows what happens over time.

Some people call this: video analysis Read this A photograph of a warehouse shelf with a typed question above it.

Asking questions about pictures

You ask a question about a picture in ordinary words, and the software answers in ordinary words.

Some people call this: vision and language Read this
Louis Ryan, photographed on site with a camera mounted on a machine.

Who you'd be working with

I'm Louis Ryan. I've been building computer vision systems for thirteen years, long enough to have developed a feel for the full picture: the camera, the lighting, the mount, and the software that ties it all together.

I spent most of my career in industrial inspection — building systems used by medical device manufacturers to check for defects, measure components to tight tolerances, and inspect stents for breaks. In aerospace, the same systems verified wiring harnesses and checked for contamination after cleaning. I hold six patents on computer vision from that period.

The last product I worked on before going independent was a vision inspection and measurement system that a customer could train themselves — on their own products, on their own faults. It is currently installed and running in over 20,000 locations worldwide. Products I have worked on have been used in medical device plants, aerospace, pharmaceutical laboratories, and by a biological crop protection company to count beneficial insects and mites in production samples.

I work on my own, from Portlaoise. You deal with the person writing the code, not an account manager.

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