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Haar Classifier patent infringement?

asked 2012-09-20 19:03:16 -0600

jrop gravatar image

I know nothing about legal matters...say for examples sake I have the following scenarios, all of which use the haar classifier for face detection, will I be in danger of patent infringement?

  • closed source, free application
  • open source, free application

So the point is, I'm not selling my app...anybody here know enough about this to enlighten me? Thanks in advance!

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answered 2012-09-21 01:50:34 -0600

sammy gravatar image

Do not worry - many things are patented these days, and some are image processing tasks - examples include the feature detectors, where patents grow like mushrooms, but the kind guys that invented Haar - Viola and Jones - had a heart for the free development. Anyone is free to re-implement and use their algorithm.

By the way, it is good to know that almost everyone in the computer science/research community allows students/fellow researchers/hobbyists to use their patented code without trouble. Only when you make money out of it they will become interested.

And you should know that there is a legal provision in their licences that allows you to use patented code for non-commercial applications. So, go for it, learn image processing, and worry less about attorneys and lawyers

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Well, I am looking to use Haar cascades in a commercial environment. Do I need to be concerned? This part of OpenCV is not in non-free which implies that it should be OK to use as long as we include the notification that comes with the package.

unxnut gravatar imageunxnut ( 2014-04-08 21:05:37 -0600 )edit

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Asked: 2012-09-20 19:03:16 -0600

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Last updated: Sep 21 '12