skimage and opencv

[Stéfan van der Walt]

Hi Francois

On Thu, Dec 27, 2012 at 2:06 PM, François <francois.boulogne at gmail.com> wrote:
> I understand that numpy intregrates some basic features and we need some
> advanced features but I have the feeling that skimages is redoundant with
> opencv in some ways.
> What's the position of skimage about that?

Thanks for your question--it's a good one.  There are several reasons
for a separate project, some of them already highlighted by
Emmanuelle.  A few years ago, we had to decide whether we wanted to
build on top of OpenCV, and the general consensus was that it is too
heavy a dependency.  We have three aims with `skimage`:

1. Provide a highly Pythonic interface to building blocks for
reproducible image processing reseach
2. Have simple, well-written and clear implementations of common
algorithms for use in education
3. Provide tools for solving industry problems efficiently

I think OpenCV does number 3 particularly well, while some projects
such as SimpleCV take on number 1.  But when it comes to education and
reproducible research, I believe `skimage` still holds a significant
advantage, in terms of the transparency and clarity of the code, as
well as the examples provided.

`skimage` plays particularly well with the scipy stack of tools, and I
find that the pipelining tools (dtype conversion, color space
handling, exposure adjustment, etc.) significantly improve my research
productivity.

Your comments and criticisms are most welcome; we are always keen to
hear good feedback!

Regards
Stéfan