Ninetynine

OpenCV (Open Source Computer Vision Library) is a library of programming functions mainly aimed at real time computer vision, developed by Intel and now supported by Willow Garage. It is free for use under the open source BSD license. The library is cross-platform. It focuses mainly on real-time image processing.

1. Installation of OpenCV 2.3

First of all, Ubuntu 11.10 comes with OpenCV 2.1, and I wanted 2.3. Luckely our friend Gijs Molenaar provides us with a PPA for OpenCV 2.3.

$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:gijzelaar/cuda
$ sudo add-apt-repository ppa:gijzelaar/opencv2.3
$ sudo apt-get update
$ sudo apt-get install libopencv-dev

(Little notice: the package that comes with Ubuntu 11.10 is called libcv-dev, however in the PPA of Gijs the package is called libopencv-dev)

You might also want to install other packages related to OpenCV, just search for them in the Ubuntu Software Center. However, libopencv-dev will do.

2. Installation of Netbeans 7.0

Ubuntu 11.10 also comes with Netbeans 6.9, just download the new version from http://netbeans.org and you’re all set. Be sure you download the version with C/C++ support.

3. Set the project properties

Then create a new C/C++ project in Netbeans 7.0. First, set the project properties correctly. These settings worked for me.

In the C++ Compiler dialog add “/usr/locale/opencv2″ to the “Include Directories” field, also do this in the Linker dialog. In the Linker Dialog, also add the libraries opencv_core and opencv_highgui. You can find these libraries directly under “/usr/lib/”.

4. Set the includes

#include <opencv2/core/core.hpp>
#include <opencv2/highgui/highgui.hpp>

I find it easy to work with the cv and std namespace by default, so I don’t have to type “cv::” before every function.

using namespace cv;
using namespace std;

And if we put this all together in to a little program that shows an image, you have something like this:

#include <opencv2/core/core.hpp>
#include <opencv2/highgui/highgui.hpp>
#include <iostream>
using namespace cv;
using namespace std;
 
int main(int argc, char *argv[]) {
 
    Mat image;
    image = imread(argv[1], CV_LOAD_IMAGE_COLOR);
 
    if (!image.data) // Check for invalid input
    {
        cout &lt;&lt; "Could not open or find the image" &lt;&lt; endl;
        return -1;
    }
 
    namedWindow("Display window", CV_WINDOW_AUTOSIZE); // Create a window for display.
    imshow("Display window", image);
 
    return 0;
}

There we go: Our first OpenCV program in Netbeans! I hope this will work for you too