Install OpenCV2

Step 1: Install OpenCV software

Follow the following steps mentioned in
https://gist.github.com/dynamicguy/3d1fce8dae65e765f7c4

Here we copy the commands:

# install dependencies
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install -y build-essential
sudo apt-get install -y cmake
sudo apt-get install -y libgtk2.0-dev
sudo apt-get install -y pkg-config
sudo apt-get install -y python-numpy python-dev
sudo apt-get install -y libavcodec-dev libavformat-dev libswscale-dev
sudo apt-get install -y libjpeg-dev libpng-dev libtiff-dev libjasper-dev

sudo apt-get -qq install libopencv-dev build-essential checkinstall cmake pkg-config yasm libjpeg-dev libjasper-dev libavcodec-dev libavformat-dev libswscale-dev libdc1394-22-dev libxine-dev libgstreamer0.10-dev libgstreamer-plugins-base0.10-dev libv4l-dev python-dev python-numpy libtbb-dev libqt4-dev libgtk2.0-dev libmp3lame-dev libopencore-amrnb-dev libopencore-amrwb-dev libtheora-dev libvorbis-dev libxvidcore-dev x264 v4l-utils

# download opencv-2.4.11
wget http://downloads.sourceforge.net/project/opencvlibrary/opencv-unix/2.4.11/opencv-2.4.11.zip
unzip opencv-2.4.11.zip
cd opencv-2.4.11
mkdir release
cd release

# compile and install
cmake -G "Unix Makefiles" -D CMAKE_CXX_COMPILER=/usr/bin/g++ CMAKE_C_COMPILER=/usr/bin/gcc -D CMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=RELEASE -D CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/usr/local -D WITH_TBB=ON -D BUILD_NEW_PYTHON_SUPPORT=ON -D WITH_V4L=ON -D INSTALL_C_EXAMPLES=ON -D INSTALL_PYTHON_EXAMPLES=ON -D BUILD_EXAMPLES=ON -D WITH_QT=ON -D WITH_OPENGL=ON -D BUILD_FAT_JAVA_LIB=ON -D INSTALL_TO_MANGLED_PATHS=ON -D INSTALL_CREATE_DISTRIB=ON -D INSTALL_TESTS=ON -D ENABLE_FAST_MATH=ON -D WITH_IMAGEIO=ON -D BUILD_SHARED_LIBS=OFF -D WITH_GSTREAMER=ON ..
make all -j4 # 4 cores
sudo make install

We may get some errors when trying to install some of the libraries in command line. Since if highly depends on the system, we cannot give a general solution here. At the same time, many people have experiences the same problems and it is easy to find the solution through Google.

Step 2: Add Include path and Libraries.

If everything works, now we should have opencv2 installed. The next step is to configure our IDE. In my case, I use the eclipse. The instruction can be found here:
http://docs.opencv.org/2.4/doc/tutorials/introduction/linux_eclipse/linux_eclipse.html



Step 3: Test OpenCV

In this step, we use the first code example in the book Learning OpenCV (https://www.amazon.com/Learning-OpenCV-Computer-Vision-Library/dp/0596516134).

#include "highgui/highgui_c.h" // In the book, we have     
                               // #include "highgui.h"
                               // which is used in the old
                               // version of OpenCV


int main()
{
    IplImage* img = cvLoadImage(  "path-of-an-image-file"  );
    cvNamedWindow(  "Example1", CV_WINDOW_AUTOSIZE  );
    cvShowImage(  "Example1", img  );
    cvWaitKey( 0 );
    cvReleaseImage(  &img  );
    cvDestroyWindow(  "Example1"  );
 }

If we can see a new window of image pop up, we are all good.