• added support for both 2.4 and 3.0 libraries
• added support for 64-bit platforms (3.0 only)
• dropped armeabi-v7a without NEON
• dropped native camera support (existing OpenCV 2.4-based native or Java applications, as well as new OpenCV 3.0-based Java applications should work well)

To enter beta testing, follow these steps:

• Subscribe to android-opencv@googlegroups.com Google group (https://groups.google.com/d/forum/android-opencv)
• Visit one of the links below and push “Become a tester” button to activate beta-channel for corresponding application:
• OpenCV Manager – https://play.google.com/apps/testing/org.opencv.engine
• OpenCV 15 puzzle – https://play.google.com/apps/testing/org.opencv.samples.puzzle15
• OpenCV Face Detection – https://play.google.com/apps/testing/org.opencv.samples.facedetect
• Visit Google Play on your device and upgrade selected application or wait for the auto-upgrade

Please, post your questions and issues to http://answers.opencv.org/questions/
The general information about OpenCV for Android can be found here: http://opencv.org/platforms/android.html

The changes since 3.0-rc, as well previous changes, can be found at http://code.opencv.org/projects/opencv/wiki/ChangeLog. This is a short executive summary on what’s new in 3.0 vs 2.4:

• ~1500 patches, submitted as PR @ github. All our patches go the same route.
• opencv_contrib (http://github.com/itseez/opencv_contrib) repository has been added. A lot of new functionality is there already! opencv_contrib is only compatible with 3.0/master, not 2.4. Clone the repository and use “cmake … -D OPENCV_EXTRA_MODULES_PATH=<path_to opencv_contrib/modules> …” to build opencv and opencv_contrib together.
• a subset of Intel IPP (IPPCV) is given to us and our users free of charge, free of licensing fees, for commercial and non-commerical use. It’s used by default in x86 and x64 builds on Windows, Linux and Mac.
• T-API (transparent API) has been introduced, this is transparent GPU acceleration layer using OpenCL. It does not add any compile-time or runtime dependency of OpenCL. When OpenCL is available, it’s detected and used, but it can be disabled at compile time or at runtime. It covers ~100 OpenCV functions. This work has been done by contract and with generous support from AMD and Intel companies.
• ~40 OpenCV functions have been accelerated using NEON intrinsics and because these are mostly basic functions, some higher-level functions got accelerated as well.
• There is also new OpenCV HAL layer that will simplifies creation of NEON-optimized code and that should form a base for the open-source and proprietary OpenCV accelerators.
• The documentation is now in Doxygen: http://docs.opencv.org/master/
• We cleaned up API of many high-level algorithms from features2d, calib3d, objdetect etc. They now follow the uniform “abstract interface – hidden implementation” pattern and make extensive use of smart pointers (Ptr<>).
• Greatly improved and extended Python & Java bindings (also, see below on the Python bindings), newly introduced Matlab bindings (still in alpha stage).
• Improved Android support – now OpenCV Manager is in Java and supports both 2.4 and 3.0.
• Greatly improved WinRT support, including video capturing and multi-threading capabilities. Thanks for Microsoft team for this!
• Big thanks to Google who funded several successive GSoC programs and let OpenCV in. The results of many successful GSoC 2013 and 2014 projects have been integrated in opencv 3.0 and opencv_contrib (earlier results are also available in OpenCV 2.4.x). We can name:
  • text detection
  • many computational photography algorithms (HDR, inpainting, edge-aware filters, superpixels, …)
  • tracking and optical flow algorithms
  • new features, including line descriptors, KAZE/AKAZE
  • general use optimization (hill climbing, linear programming)
  • greatly improved Python support, including Python 3.0 support, many new tutorials & samples on how to use OpenCV with Python.
  • 2d shape matching module and 3d surface matching module
  • RGB-D module
  • VTK-based 3D visualization module
    etc.
• Besides Google, we enjoyed (and hope that you will enjoy too) many useful contributions from community, like:
  • biologically inspired vision module
  • DAISY features, LATCH descriptor, improved BRIEF
  • image registration module
    etc.

(note: if anything is missing here, please, mail to us and we will update the announcement and the changelog).

The release is pretty much compatible with 2.4.x, but there are some notable differences, which are described in the still-updated 2.4=>3.0 transition guide: http://docs.opencv.org/master/db/dfa/tutorial_transition_guide.html in particular, we have to remove some obsolete/unstable algorithms, functions, we moved some other stuff between modules or to opencv_contrib.

Since 3.0 release we change the version enumeration scheme. Instead of 3-digit version number, like 2.4.9 (where 4-digit version 2.4.9.1 is used for intermediate updates), we will use 2-digit (3.0, 3.1 etc.) with the 3rd digit used for the intermediate updates.

In other words, in the next 1-2+ years we will have evolving 3.x series of releases with very good compatibility between them.

We would like to sincerely thank everybody who helped us to prepare the release, who submitted new functionality, patches, who submitted bug reports, who mentored the students, who donated to OpenCV.org, the companies who funded 3.0 development and everybody else to helped us in one or another way.

This is list of contributors, based on the git logs:

opencv:
Ilya Lavrenov, Vladislav Vinogradov, Vadim Pisarevsky, Roman Donchenko, Alexander Alekhin, Anatoly Baksheev, Alexander Karsakov, vbystricky, ozantonkal, Alexander Smorkalov, Maksim Shabunin, edgarriba, hbristow, Elena Gvozdeva, StevenPuttemans, Konstantin Matskevich, Andrey Pavlenko, Ievgen Khvedchenia, Adrien BAK, Erik Karlsson, Rahul Kavi, peng xiao, Fedor Morozov, Jin Ma, Olexa Bilaniuk, Alexander Shishkov, siddharth, Alex Leontiev, laurentBerger, Alexander Mordvintsev, Ozan Tonkal, lluis, berak, Daniel Angelov, Dmitry-Me, Maxim Kostin, orestis, Hilton Bristow, Tony, Ernest Galbrun, Nghia Ho, Artur Wieczorek, Mathieu Barnachon, Vladimir Bystricky, Aaron Denney, Ovidiu Parvu, abidrahmank, Dmitriy Anisimov, Ilya Krylov, Yan Wang, krodyush, mlyashko, yao, Philipp Hasper, Pierre-Emmanuel Viel, Rok Mandeljc, kdrobnyh, Adi Shavit, Maks Naumov, ilya-lavrenov, perping, Philippe FOUBERT, VBystricky, Vincent Rabaud, cbalint13, Aaron Kunze, Ashod Nakashian, Dikay900, GregoryMorse, Juan Manuel Perez, Marc Rollins, Michael Pratt, Fco. Javier Delgado del Hoyo, Greg Hale, Matthias Bady, Nisarg Thakkar, Peter Andreas Entschev, PhilLab, Rohit Girdhar, yash, Adil Ibragimov, Adrian Stratulat, Alexey Spizhevoy, Andrey Kamaev, Baichuan Su, Daniil Osokin, Jan Starzynski, Joe Howse, Jose-Luis Blanco-Claraco, Marvin Smith, Alexander Nitsch, Andrew Senin, Bahram Dahi, Evgeny Agafonchikov, Mimmmo Cosenza, Vladimir Dudnik, Chechli, Cosmin Boaca, Deanna Hood, Dmitry Retinskiy, ElenaGvozdeva, GilLevi, Nick D’Ademo, Peng Xiao, TobyWanKenobi, Zhigang Gong, dbloisi, konstantin, theodore, Сергей Нужный, Bo Li, Chuanbo Weng, Firat Kalaycilar, Hamid Bazargani, Istvan Sarandi, John Stowers, Kirill Kornyakov, Koji Miyazato, Martin Dlouhy, Matt Venn, Matti Picus, Max Khardin, Pavel Rojtberg, Samson Yilma, Stuart Cunningham, kalistratovag, kamjagin, mletavin, pradeep, Alexander Duda, Ben Hagen, Brian Park, Eric Sommerlade, Gabe Schwartz, Gustavo Vargas, Igor Kuzmin, Juan Carlos Niebles, Kang Liu, Kenaniah Cerny, Leszek Swirski, Michele Adduci, Miroslav Kobetski, Nicu Știurcă, Ruslan Baratov, Sander Mathijs van Veen, Sebastian Krämer, Seunghoon Park, Simon Heinen, Séverin Lemaignan, Takahiro Poly Horikawa, WonderRico, Ying Xiong, f-morozov, jaco, kocheganovvm, look4pritam, pengxiao, pxli168, rajithr, sgjava, xantares, 1Hyena, ASUS, Ahmatnurov Dinar, Alessandro Trebbi, Alexander Pacha, Ana Huaman Quispe, Andreas Stührk, Bence Magyar, Bo Hu, Boaz Stolk, Changlin Hsieh, Christian Richardt, Cody Rigney, Daniel Fernandes, DeanF, Denis Zaryaev, Frédéric Devernay, Hanusz Leszek, Jason Newton, Joe Minichino, Josep Bosch, Kazuki Matsuda, Kobi Gurkan, Lars Glud, Luis Díaz Más, Mansour Moufid, Marek Nogacki, Martin Jul, Martin Ueding, Mike Maraya, Miroslav Benes, Naer Chang, Nicolas Gryman, Nikita Manovich, Nils Plath, Owen Healy, Pablo Speciale, Pat O’Keefe, Pavel Vlasov, Pierre Moulon, Piotr Miecielica, RJ2, S. Garrido, Samyak Datta, Sancho McCann, Scott Breyfogle, Sergey Nikulov, Shubhra Pandit, Sync-my-L2P, U-WBI\nlv20442, Vladimir Kolesnikov, Volodymyr Kysenko, Yash Vadalia, Yury Gorbachev, Zac Stewart, Ziyang LI, eltermann, guopei, ippei ito, juanmanpr, karelknoest, micha137, moodoki, sanuj, sprice, thoinvil, zio dodo, Abhijit Kundu, Abid K, Achal Dave, Adam Borowski, Adam Greig, AfterEight, Aleksandr Petrikov, Alex Willisson, Alexander Bohn / FI$H2k, Alexey Stadnik, Alfonso (the fonz) de la Osa, András Kovács, Anish Pednekar, Anna Kogan, Ari Suwendi, Ariel Elkin, Arun JVS, Baris Evrim Demiroz, Basheer Subei, Beat Küng, Belev, Benjamin Flesch, Benoit Seguin, Björn Wöldecke, Bob Igo, Boris Daskalov, Camille, Chris Mayo, Claudio Caraffi, Clemens Korner, ComFreek, Craig Reynolds, Csaba Kertesz, Daeyun Shin, Daniel Neel, Daniel Sjölie, Daniel Stonier, Dave Hughes, David Bradley, David Hirvonen, David Rolland, David Schmidt, Dinar Valeev, Diogo Rolo, Dirk Van Haerenborgh, Dmitry Gribanov, Drew Jetter, Ehren Metcalfe, Elliot Godzich, Eric Martin Christiansen, Evgeniy, Felix Endres, Florian Verdet, George Andrew Brindeiro, GrinIara, Guo Yejun, Han Qiang, Hans Johnson, Harris Gasparakis, Heinz Hofbauer, HelenWong, Hernan Badino, Huu Nguyen, Ian Taylor, Ivy Lee, Jasper, Jay Bosamiya, JinoBetti, Jiri Drbalek, Joan Puigcerver, John Kua, Jonathan Viney, Julien Nabet, Jüri Aedla, Kai Wolf, KayKwon, Kevin, Kevin Mitchell, Kevin Squire, Kiran Pradeep, Kyrylo Shegeda, Leonid Beynenson, Ling Wang@z77x, Linquize, LorenaGdL, Low Chin Kian, Luis Zarrabeitia, Manfred Georg, Maria Dimashova, Marijan Vukcevich, MarkBelmont, Martijn Liem, Martin Chodakowski, Matthew Conway, Max Kostin, Maximilien Cuony, Michae Gharbi, Michael Hanselmann, Michael Vukadinovic, Michaël Sdika, Mike Izbicki, Milania1, Modesto Castrillón, Muto Masayuki, Nathan Jackson, Neo Alienson, Nghia, Nicolas Martin, Nicolas Riebesel, Niklas Frisk, Patrick Tsai, Patrik Huber, Petr Glotov, Pierrick Koch, Piotr Dobrowolski, Poly Takahiro Horikawa, Prof. Dr. Rudolf Haussmann, Quentin Minster, RafaRuiz, Robbert Klarenbeek, Roy Reapor, Samed Ozdemir, Samuel Martin, Samuel Wejéus, Saree90, Scott Graybill, Sebastian Krämer, Sergei Nikulov, Shai, Shervin Emami, Shiquan Wang, Sven Wehner, Thierry Hoinville, Thomas Gabrowski, Tim D. Smith, Timur Sattarov, Tomasz Posłuszny, Tzafrir, U-KruchininD-ПК\KruchininD, UQ Times, Vicente Olivert Riera, Vlad Shakhuro, Yang Fan, Yantao Xie, Yusuke Suzuki, ZlodeiBaal, ahb, akrynski, aletheios, antonella, atinfinity, bartaandras, burun, dkanafeev, dpen2000, exeltior, fhsm, fm, gleb.sternharz, greensea, hahne, huangs, jeremy, jormansa, kuroda sho, kurodash, lujia, mariadeanton, msandler, potpath, sergei, shawke, soyer, tambo83, tcavallari, tim36272, tt, ttagu99, vincentweb, yanlend, ytxie, zenev, ziyangli, 侯骥

opencv_contrib:
jaco, biagio montesano, Vlad Shakhuro, Alex Leontiev, Bellaktris, Vadim Pisarevsky, cbalint13, lluis, dmitriy.anisimov, Maksim Shabunin, vludv, Dmitriy Anisimov, Alexandre Benoit, GilLevi, Alexander Shishkov, Bence Magyar, Daniel Angelov, ahb, Kirill Kornyakov, Beat Küng, berak, tpietruszka, StevenPuttemans, Alexander Mordvintsev, Alfonso Sanchez-Beato, Ilya Lavrenov, fpuja, manuele, vbystricky, Antonella Cascitelli, Auron-X, Dikay900, Philipp Hasper, Rok Mandeljc, Sancho McCann, Str3iber, Alexander Alekhin, Jay Bosamiya, Vincent Rabaud, laurentBerger, Aliaksandr, BISMOY MURASING, Dinar Ahmatnurov, Ernest Galbrun, Michele Adduci, Nisarg Thakkar, Poly Takahiro Horikawa, Sh0, Shuda Li, VBystricky, Vladimir, Yan Wang, jiaolong_cvc228, pmkalshetti, root, tolgabirdal, yifita

As usual, the latest version can be downloaded from SourceForge:

• Windows self-extracting archive: https://sourceforge.net/projects/opencvlibrary/files/opencv-win/3.0.0/
• iOS framework: https://sourceforge.net/projects/opencvlibrary/files/opencv-ios/3.0.0/
• and the source code for all the platforms can be downloaded from GitHub: https://github.com/Itseez/opencv/archive/3.0.0.zip

Wish you pleasant experience with OpenCV 3.0!

Intel® INDE adds computer vision capabilities for applications developers on Windows & Android with OpenCV 3.0 beta

Key features supported with Intel® INDE OpenCV beta component are:

• Compatibility with OpenCV 3.0 Beta
• Precompiled binaries for Windows and Android,
• Based on the open source OpenCV 3.0 Beta
• Legal clearance, no use of IP protected building blocks.
• Easy to use and to maintain
• Microsoft Visual Studio* integration for Windows development
• Eclipse and Android Studio* integration for Android development
• Quick getting started with project wizards, code samples, and tutorials.
• Support with Intel® INDE support channels
• Performance optimization with Intel INDE Platform Analyzer
• Optimized for Intel® platforms and heterogeneous computing
• Transparent OpenCL acceleration with Intel® Processor Graphics
• CPU acceleration with Intel® TBB and Intel® IPP. Enabled by default.
• More performance benefits and benchmarks here

Learn more at https://software.intel.com/en-us/articles/getting-started-with-opencv

Download now

The release main goal was to finalise the API, simplify migration from OpenCV 2.4 and stabilize the code. We are still in the bug fixing mode, so the upcoming 3.0 should be even more stable. It’s a good moment now to try the rc and report the found issues at http://code.opencv.org (or even fix them!)

These are the main changes since 3.0 beta (see also http://code.opencv.org/projects/opencv/wiki/ChangeLog):

• Improved compatibility with 2.4, including smart pointer (cv::Ptr) API, support for trained opencv_ml 2.4 models etc. There are still some differences, assumed by the major version increment; check this transition guide: http://docs.opencv.org/3.0-rc1/db/dfa/tutorial_transition_guide.html
• The new acceleration layer, OpenCV HAL, will help to accelerate OpenCV on various platforms. It will grow substantially during OpenCV 3.x lifetime; now it can be considered as technology preview thing. Yet, it can be already useful because of the so-called “universal intrinsics” that will let you to write a code that is optimized for both SSE and NEON.
• Self-contained motion jpeg codec has been added, which could be a nice replacement for ffmpeg when it’s not available or can not be used due to licensing restriction. While not providing the best compression ratio, it’s quite efficient, even on ARM. Thanks to Alexander Kalistratov for the decoder part and to Yury Gorbachev for optimizing parts of the encoder!
• There is solid Android support and even OpenCV3 Manager, thanks to Alexander Smorkalov, Maksim Shabunin and other guys.
• Microsoft team, in particular Max Kostin, have contributed several important improvements and bug fixes for WinRT port of OpenCV.
• Over 500 pull requests have been merged in since 3.0 beta. Big thanks to everybody who contributed the patches to opencv (github login’s listed, you guys know who you are):

  opencv:
  Vladislav Vinogradov, Maksim Shabunin, Ilya Lavrenov,
  Erik Karlsson, Olexa Bilaniuk, Vadim Pisarevsky, Dmitry-Me,
  orestis, StevenPuttemans, Maxim Kostin, Yan Wang,
  Alexander Alekhin, Roman Donchenko, Ashod Nakashian,
  Joe Howse, Nisarg Thakkar, Andrey Kamaev, Dikay900,
  Alexander Nitsch, Evgeny Agafonchikov, TobyWanKenobi,
  theodore, Сергей Нужный, Andrew Senin, Artur Wieczorek,
  Hamid Bazargani, Pavel Rojtberg, berak, Alexander Smorkalov,
  Ben Hagen, Deanna Hood, Marvin Smith, Nicu Știurcă,
  Philipp Hasper, Simon Heinen, Takahiro Poly Horikawa,
  Ying Xiong, ASUS, Ahmatnurov Dinar, Alexander Duda,
  Ana Huaman Quispe, Eric Sommerlade, Naer Chang,
  Nils Plath, Sync-my-L2P, VBystricky, guopei, ippei ito,
  kalistratovag, karelknoest, sanuj, vbystricky, Adam Borowski,
  Adam Greig, Alexander Bohn / FI$H2k, Alexander Karsakov,
  Andrey Pavlenko, Ari Suwendi, Basheer Subei, Boaz Stolk,
  Chris Mayo, Chuanbo Weng, Claudio Caraffi, Daeyun Shin,
  Daniel Angelov, Daniel Sjölie, Dmitriy Anisimov, Florian Verdet,
  Guo Yejun, HelenWong, Jay Bosamiya, Jiri Drbalek,
  Jonathan Viney, Josep Bosch, Julien Nabet, Kai Wolf,
  Kevin Squire, LorenaGdL, Max Kostin, Michae Gharbi,
  Mike Izbicki, Nicolas Riebesel, Owen Healy, Pat O’Keefe,
  Pavel Vlasov, Prof. Dr. Rudolf Haussmann, Quentin Minster,
  RafaRuiz, Rok Mandeljc, S. Garrido, Samyak Datta,
  Sancho McCann, Scott Graybill, Shiquan Wang,
  Tim D. Smith, Timur Sattarov, Tzafrir, UQ Times,
  Yang Fan, burun, eltermann, exeltior, fhsm, greensea,
  hahne, mariadeanton, potpath, sergei, soyer, tcavallari,
  tt, ttagu99, vincentweb

  opencv_contrib:
  Maksim Shabunin, cbalint13, Auron-X, Dikay900, Str3iber,
  Dmitriy Anisimov, Jay Bosamiya, Rok Mandeljc,
  Vadim Pisarevsky, berak, Alfonso Sanchez-Beato,
  Antonella Cascitelli, Beat Küng, Dinar Ahmatnurov,
  Nisarg Thakkar, Sh0, Shuda Li, StevenPuttemans,
  Vladimir, Yan Wang, jiaolong_cvc228, pmkalshetti, yifita

  Special thanks goes to Steven Puttemans, who takes active part in submitting & reviewing patches, as well as in actually putting some answers to answers.opencv.org in order to make the site name more or less relevant

As usual, the latest version can be downloaded from SourceForge:

• Windows self-extracting archive:
  https://sourceforge.net/projects/opencvlibrary/files/opencv-win/3.0.0-rc1/
• iOS framework:
  https://sourceforge.net/projects/opencvlibrary/files/opencv-ios/3.0.0-rc1/
• The source code for all the platforms can be downloaded from GitHub:
  https://github.com/Itseez/opencv/archive/3.0.0-rc1.zip

Enjoy!

1. Yury Gorbachev: “OpenCV for Embedded: Lessons Learned”
2. Gary Bradski: “The OpenCV Open Source Computer Vision Library: Latest Developments”

Well, in its awesomeness, Google is sponsoring OpenCV for the 5th year in a row! Thank you!

OpenCV page on GSoC website: https://www.google-melange.com/gsoc/org2/google/gsoc2015/opencv

Google Summer of Code is a global program that offers post-secondary student developers aged 18+ stipends to write code for various open source software projects. We have worked with open source, free software, and technology-related groups to identify and fund projects over a three month period. Since its inception in 2005, the program has brought together over 7,500 successful student participants and over 7,000 mentors from over 100 countries worldwide to produce over 50 million lines of code. Through Google Summer of Code, accepted student applicants are paired with a mentor or mentors from the participating projects, thus gaining exposure to real-world software development scenarios and the opportunity for employment in areas related to their academic pursuits. In turn, the participating projects are able to more easily identify and bring in new developers. Best of all, more source code is created and released for the use and benefit of all.

We have setup guidelines on how to apply here. You have until March 27th to apply so be quick if you want your work in a cool video like in 2014 and 2013!

Cassandra 11.5’s unique selling points:

• Features more than 100 new stations to enhance Cassandra’s modular structure
• Covers an impressive range of bug fixes, encompassing more than 50 different varieties
• Equipped with an integrated Kinect plug-in for depth-enhanced images
• An additional 3D charts plug-in rounds off this innovative software

Visit http://www.cassandra-vision.com/cassandra-studio to download Cassandra 11.5 – for free!

For intermediate and advanced programmers, this book teaches a broad range of skills in computer vision, signal processing, and application development. Even experienced users of OpenCV will discover new ideas and techniques in the book’s projects, which help readers achieve the following objectives:

• Create a search engine that finds images of real estate and classifies these images as “luxury” or “Stalinist”, based on color histogram analysis.
• Detect and recognize human faces and cat faces as a means of controlling an alarm.
• Detect motion and recognize gestures to control a smartphone game.
• Detect car headlights and estimate distances to them. Run this application in a car using a Raspberry Pi.
• Using a real-time implementation of Eulerian video magnification, amplify motion so that a person’s heartbeat and breathing become clearly visible.
• Draw a puzzle on paper and see it come to life as a physics simulation on a smartphone.
• Use OpenCV with Python (Windows, Mac, Linux), Java (Android), and C# (the Unity game engine).

As the title suggests, OpenCV for Secret Agents takes inspiration from spy fiction, especially the James Bond franchise. It is an adventure into a world of smart gadgets, unexpected use cases, and excruciating puns.

The author, Joseph Howse, is President of Nummist Media, which provides training, consulting, and software development services.

The book can be purchased from PacktPub as either a physical book or as a PDF eBook.

Source code is available from the author’s website.

Note: We have collected all information about OpenCV books here.

Ceemple announces the release of OpenCV distribution for Visual Studio, for out of the box OpenCV C++ development.

Features:

• Pre-compiled OpenCV v3.0 built with CUDA, OpenCL, OpenMP, and IPP
• Support for Windows 64 bit and Visual Studio 2013
• Auto installation of Microsoft Image Watch plugin
• OpenCV new project wizard
• 70+ examples of OpenCV and CUDA.

Benefits:

• Start programming using OpenCV immediately within Visual Studio.
• OpenCV is ready for use, built with complementary libraries.
• No need for long setups, configurations and adaptation of OpenCVfor Visual Studio.
• Learn from the numerous code examples provided.
• Debug with Microsoft Image Watch plugin.

More information:

• Ceemple OpenCV page on MSDN: https://visualstudiogallery.msdn.microsoft.com/00ebd33e-c7c6-4a02-9466-b619b5eddfb5