PART 5 Perspectives on Vision

Part 5 aims to draw together and broaden the topics of the previous chapters. In particular, attention is paid to systematizing the subject of machine vision and to summarizing the tradeoffs among the parameters that are relevant in vision algorithms. In addition, the significance and ultimate value of the Hough transform technique is discussed. Appendix A is highly relevant to providing a sound perspective on the subject, for it brings into relief the essential dichotomy between interpretation and accurate measurement (or between robustness “breakdown point” and measurement “efficiency”). It can probably be said without risk of exaggeration that all practical machine vision systems need to incorporate robust measurement in one way or another—whether, on the one hand, making actual measurements on machined parts or, on the other, arriving at robust interpretations of 3-D pose and motion.