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With more than 3 years from the time of previous version release OpenCV 3.0, the team happily announced the alpha release of the most awaited OpenCV 4.0. The new version is set to encompass exclusive features such as 3D dense reconstruction algorithm, newest improvements and bug fixes to recent maintenance release of OpenCV 3.4.

Key Features:

  • OpenCV is a C++11 library now
  • Default features include lambda functions, convenient iteration, and initialization of cv::Mat
  • Added new chessboard detector
  • Added exclusive HPX parallel backend and basic FP16 support
  • Standard std::string and std::shared_ptr replaced hand-crafted cv::String and cv::Ptr
  • parallel_for can now use the pool of std::threads as backend

Major improvements and bug fixes:

  • ONNX parser added to existing OpenCV DNN module
  • Support to various classification networks – AlexNet, Inception v2, Resnet, VGG
  • Partial support to YOLO v2 object detection network
  • Faster object detection using Intel Inference Engine, part of Intel OpenVINO
  • Added stability improvements in the OpenCL backend
  • Fast QR code detector with support to add QR code decoder soon
  • SSE4-, AVX2- and NEON-optimized kernels expanded
  • Legacy C API from OpenCV 1.x partially excluded

This alpha release appears to be a massive version with 85 patches including 28 merge requests. This release is assumed to be quite stable although few changes in OpenCV API and implementation are expected before 4.0 final release. For more information on the detailed list of features and improvements, please read official documentation.

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Category Manager and tech enthusiast. Previously worked on global market research and lead generation assignments. Keeps a constant eye on Artificial Intelligence.