As a basic setup, the complete book is based on the OpenCV 3 software. If a chapter does not have a specific OS requirement, then it will run on Windows, Linux, and Mac. As authors, we encourage you to take the latest master branch from the official GitHub repository (https://github.com/Itseez/opencv/) for setting up your OpenCV installation, rather then using the downloadable packages at the official OpenCV website (http://opencv.org/downloads.html), since the latest master branch contains a huge number of fixes compared to the latest stable release.
For hardware, the authors expect that you have a basic computer system setup, either a desktop or a laptop, with at least 4 GB of RAM memory available. Other hardware requirements are mentioned below.
The following chapters have specific requirements that come on top of the OpenCV 3 installation:
Chapter 1, Getting the Most out of Your Camera System:
- Software: OpenNI2 and FlyCapture 2.
- Hardware: PS3 Eye camera or any other USB webcam, an Asus Xtion PRO live or any other OpenNI-compatible depth camera, and a Point Grey Research (PGR) camera with one or more lenses.
- Remarks: The PGR camera setup (with FlyCapture 2) will not run on Mac. Even if you do not have all the required hardware, you can still benefit from some sections of this chapter.
Chapter 2, Photographing Nature and Wildlife with an Automated Camera:
- Software: Linux or Mac operating system.
- Hardware: A portable laptop or a single-board computer (SBC) with battery, combined with a photo camera.
Chapter 4, Panoramic Image Stitching Application Using Android Studio and NDK:
- Software: Android 4.4 or later, Android NDK.
- Hardware: Any mobile device that supports Android 4.4 or later.
Chapter 7, Gyroscopic Video Stabilization:
- Software: NumPy, SciPy, Python, and Android 5.0 or later, and the Android NDK.
- Hardware: A mobile phone that supports Android 5.0 or later for capturing video and gyroscope signals.