In his article Computer Vision for Artists and Designers, Golan Levin writes about the progression of computer vision and how it has played a crucial role in shaping what we perceive to be interactive tech, art or not. It is interesting to acknowledge that prior to people experimenting with using computer vision for artistic endeavors, the “application development for computer vision technologies, perhaps constrained by conventional structures for research funding, has generally been limited to military and law-enforcement purposes” (Levin). Nevertheless, in our fast-paced and exponentially growing society, it is bizarre to note that with each decade, our computer vision capabilities expand vastly.
In his article, Levin demonstrates multiple examples of where computer vision met artistic and interactive ideas, all ranging in creation times spanning the past few decades. Levin also focused on the different techniques that are used to allow the computing of visual files, mainly by pixel analysis, and this led me to reflect on how, throughout my childhood, we took these technologies for granted. When I was 10, like any other young aspiring boy who liked to play video games, I dreamt of creating the perfect set-up to record myself playing my favorite games. Green screens were extremely popular during that time amongst various creators, and they allowed them to capture and project only the subject of the video onto a different layer. This effect was ultimately used to achieve a better immersive experience for the viewers; however, it is only now that I realize how these applications function and what algorithms and processes are involved to create the seamless effect of being able to change your background. And with each month, we see more implementations of these techniques; for instance, Zoom allows people to change their backgrounds, even without a proper green screen.
In conclusion, I believe that it is a fascinating topic for many to explore, and understanding the complexities behind all the computer vision algorithms is substantially brought into a simpler context in Levin’s article.