Foundations
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Below are the slides and videos covering core concepts in computer vision and AI.
All of our materials are open source and free for anyone to use and adapt, including videos.
Our project is ongoing and curriculum is currently in development. If you have questions or feedback, please let us know.
For standards-aligned, specific 6th-8th grade lessons created by our ImageSTEAM cohort teachers, please see the Curriculum page.
Foundational Topic Lessons
Topic
Introduction to Artificial Intelligence
Define Artificial Intelligence and machine learning and give examples relevant to every day life. Define data and talk about where data comes from and how it is used to help AI and ML systems run. Discuss AI art, creativity, and fake media.
image is computer generated, taken from https://imagen.research.google
VIDEOS
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AI and ML
AI and Creativity
Deepfakes
Topic
Introduction to Digital Images
An overview of digital images and digital color.
How does a computer understand and display images and colors? What is a pixel? What is transparency? Foundational knowledge necessary to understand, manipulate, and create digital images, and understand how a computer understands, manipulates, and creates digital images.
VIDEOS
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What is a pixel?
Pixlr.com/e overview
Red, Green and Blue
Every tool in pixlr.com/e
HSV vs RGB
Project: color and masking in Pixlr.com/e
Image Transparency
Topic
What is a camera? How do people and computers see?
An overview of cameras and how we capture and process images.
How do cameras and our eyes work to take in light from the world and make sense of it? What makes a "good" image? Identify the basics of a camera including the roles of its lens, focus, exposure in forming an image. Understand how the physical world and light via photons interact with sensors to form images we capture with cameras.
VIDEOS
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Lights, camera, computation!
Life of a Photon: Meet Pho
Topic
Segmentation, Grid Systems, and Cropping
Segmentation is the term for splitting an image up into different parts to be used in different ways. It is similar to cropping, except cropping is selecting part of the image and deleting it, whereas segmentation is selecting parts of the image and then choosing one of many options; delete, replace, apply a filter or classification algorithm, etc.
In this lesson, students will use image editing tools to manually segment using masking, and will use AI image editing tools built-in to their program to allow an AI to help with their digital editing process.
See basics of digital images slides
VIDEOS
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What is a pixel?
Compositing and Green Screen
What is segmentation?
Edge detection
Image Transparency
Topic
Image Classification
Learn how computers look at images and make predictions about what is in them.
Learn how modern AI systems utilize machine learning to recognize objects and patterns. Much of our content makes use of Google's Teachable Machine to allow anyone to train neural network to recognize images from a custom dataset they create.
VIDEOS
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Artificial Neural Networks
Object Classification
Google's Teachable Machine 2.0
Teachable Machine Step-by-Step Introdution
Teachable Machine [watch up to 8:57 mark]
Topic
Object Detection
Learn about the specific computer vision task called object detection, where objects of interest are selected using a box in the image automatically. Using pre-existing code in Google Colab, students experiment with template matching using a Where's Waldo panorama. See an object detection algorithm in action on live video.
VIDEOS
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Object Detection
Topic
Image Generation through Stable Diffusion and GANs (Generative Adversarial Networks)
Recently new machine learning algorithms have become robust and capable of producing highly accurate new images and video. Introduction to the models and see examples of the images it can create. Begins to explore the ethical challenges, including mass scale fake media, deep fakes videos, legal challenges of use of copyrighted images to build models.
VIDEOS
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Dan Shiffman: What is a GAN (start at 3:15:00)
AI and Creativity
Deepfakes
Topic
Building 3D worlds with AI
Learn how AI assists the process of constructing and designing 3D virtual worlds, especially replicating existing physical objects. This process has enormous impact on the future of VR and AR applications.
VIDEOS
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Building 3D worlds with machine learning