Software Toolkit for Teaching Image Processing

We introduce a software framework called the Java Vision Toolkit (JVT) for teaching image processing and computer vision. The toolkit provides over 50 image operations and presents them to the user in a GUI that can render grayscale, color and 3D range images. The software is written in Java, enabling it to be integrated into HTML documents and interactive course materials. The framework is designed for extensibility using a source code template that supports the implementation of any new operation with a minimal amount of supporting code. For students, this framework encapsulates the GUI, file I/O and other trivial programming details and allows them the maximum amount of time to spend on understanding computer vision. We compare the JVT with other computer vision software frameworks that are used for teaching and research. We also discuss the use of the JVT in an undergraduate image processing course at the University of South Florida.