5 Python projects to master machine vision

At the end of last year, we showed you two brand-new project pathways based on the themes of well-being and the environment. Once again, we are delighted to share yet another new pathway with you — this one is all about a type of machine learning called machine vision!

Access the machine vision pathway

What is machine vision?

Machine vision can be thought of as the “eyes” of a machine, it allows a computer to perceive its environment. The technology has been around for a while, but it is only in recent decades that it started to become widely used across different industries. Machine learning typically uses a combination of hardware, like cameras or sensors, and software, like technology capable of analysing images. Pretty cool, right?

A rock, paper, scissors game controlled by hand gestures is among the projects

Here’s how to get started!

With this pathway, young people will learn to train their computer to recognise objects in images. The pathway includes five projects, all of which are based on Python — so young people will need to have used Python before. Specifically, they will need to have experience of using variables, lists, and functions. 

Young people don’t need to have any fancy equipment to try these projects. For most activities all they will need is a computer, an internet connection, and a Google account.

One of our favourite projects from the pathway is ‘Cats vs dogs’. Learners find out about the structure of image recognition models and how they can train their computer to identify whether an image is of a cat or a dog! Here’s what our colleague Philip, from the Raspberry Pi Foundation content team, had to say:

“The ‘Cats vs dogs’ project is a favourite of mine because it lets you build on the work of others to achieve a result that would take ages to develop on your own — even just in terms of how long your computer would have to run to train it — in only a few minutes. While the project uses cats and dogs as an example, with the right data you could do the same for photos of basically anything!”

The Cats vs Dogs project is one of our favourites

 

With other projects from the pathway, young people can learn how to “teach a computer to read”; how to build a rock, paper, scissors game controlled by hand gestures; and much more.

Happy coding!

Get started with machine vision!