C++ vs Matlab vs Python as a main language for Computer Vision Research
- by Hough
Hi all,
Firstly, sorry for a somewhat long question but I think that many people are in the same situation as me and hopefully they can also gain some benefit from this.
I'll be starting my PhD very soon which involves the fields of computer vision, pattern recognition and machine learning. Currently, I'm using opencv (2.1) C++ interface and I especially like its powerful Mat class and the overloaded operations available for matrix and image operations and seamless transformations.
I've also tried (and implemented many small vision projects) using opencv python interface (new bindings; opencv 2.1) and I really enjoy python's ability to integrate opencv, numpy, scipy and matplotlib.
But recently, I went back to opencv C++ interface because I felt that the official python new bindings were not stable enough and no overloaded operations are available for matrices and images, not to mention the lack of machine learning modules and slow speeds in certain operations.
I've also used Matlab extensively in the past and although I've used mex files and other means to speed up the program, I just felt that Matlab's performance was inadequate for real-time vision tasks, be it for fast prototyping or not. When the project becomes larger and larger, many tasks have to be re-written in C and compiled into Mex files increasingly and Matlab becomes nothing more than a glue language.
Here comes the sub-questions:
For carrying out research in these fields (machine learning, vision, pattern recognition), what is your main or ideal programming language for rapid prototyping of ideas and testing algorithms contained in papers?
For computer vision research work, can you list down the pros and cons of using the following languages? C++ (with opencv + gsl + svmlib + other libraries) vs Matlab (with all its toolboxes) vs python (with the imcomplete opencv bindings + numpy + scipy + matplotlib).
Are there computer vision PhD/postgrad students here who are using only C++ (with all its availabe libraries including opencv) without even needing to resort to Matlab or python? In other words, given the current existing computer vision or machine learning libraries, is C++ alone sufficient for fast prototyping of ideas?
If you're currently using Java or C# for your research, can you list down the reasons why they should be used and how they compare to other languages in terms of available libraries?
What is the de facto vision/machine learning programming language and its associated libraries used in your research group?
Thanks in advance.
Edit: As suggested, I've opened the question to both academic and non-academic computer vision/machine learning/pattern recognition researchers and groups.
