VIVA: A visual language for image processing

Visual languages have been developed to help new programmers express algorithms easily. They also help to make experienced programmers more productive by simplifying the organization of a program through the use of visual representations. However, visual languages have not reached their full potential because of several problems including the following: difficulty of producing visual representations for the more abstract computing constructs; the lack of adequate computing power to update the visual representations in response to user actions; the immaturity of the subfield of visual programming and need for additional breakthroughs and standardization of existing mechanisms. Visualization of Vision Algorithms (VIVA) is a proposed visual language for image processing. Its main purpose is to serve as an effective teaching tool for students of image processing. Its design also takes account of several secondary goals, including the completion of a software platform for research in human/image interaction, the creation of a vehicle for studying algorithms and architectures for parallel image processing, and the establishment of a presentation medium for image-processing algorithms.