Computer Vision is the area of Artificial Intelligence that enables computer science to understand images and extract relevant information from them.
From the collected and appropriately annotated photos or videos, Computer Vision algorithms learn which elements and objects to look for in the images, classify them and replicate what they have learned on a large scale. They can operate on thousands of photos, with a speed and precision unthinkable for humans.
The main activities performed by Computer Vision are Image Classification and Object Detection. The first deals with attributing a class to an image based on its content: an example is the identification of production waste based on the photo of a product. The second deals with identifying a specific element and its position within an image or video, such as detecting a signature and its position within a document.
Computer vision has made its way into a wide variety of sectors, demonstrating great accuracy and speed in identifying relevant details amidst huge quantities of images. Today, it is used by many companies to lower costs and eliminate low-value-added work that was once done by people.