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Subfield · Computer Science

Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition research

Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition is a subfield of Computer Science. Science Explorer counts 1.1M research works in it since 1950. 17.7% of them reached the world's top 10% most cited for their field and year.

In short: computerized information extraction from images.

Research works
1.1M
fractional, since 1950
In the world top 10%
197k
per year above
Top-10% rate
17.7%
share of its works in the world top 10%
Topics
35
Growth, 2013–17 → 2018–22
+34%
the tick is no change

What is Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition research about, and what is growing?

By the world's output in 2019–23, its most used keywords are Deep Learning, Convolutional Neural Networks, Neural Networks, Convolutional Networks, Computer Vision, Image Recognition. Gaining share since 2009–13: Image Recognition, Object Detection, Image Captioning, Visual Question Answering, Computer Vision. Losing share: Hyperspectral Imaging, Local Binary Patterns, Depth Estimation, Stereo Vision.

▲ gaining share of this field◆ holding its share▼ losing share

Size is the world's fractional works in 2019–23 in the topics tagged with each word; colour compares the word's share of this field with 2009–13. Each links to the topic it comes from most.

All 40 words, with their numbers
  1. Deep Learning169k▲ 1.26×18 topics
  2. Convolutional Neural Networks72k▲ 1.76×6 topics
  3. Neural Networks37k▲ 2.1×5 topics
  4. Convolutional Networks34k◆ 1.02×3 topics
  5. Computer Vision28k▲ 3.3×2 topics
  6. Image Recognition24k▲ 14×1 topic
  7. Object Detection24k▲ 14×1 topic
  8. Unsupervised Learning20k◆ 0.91×2 topics
  9. Pose Estimation20k▲ 1.82×2 topics
  10. Sparse Representation19k◆ 0.96×2 topics
  11. Machine Learning18k▼ 0.68×3 topics
  12. Face Recognition18k◆ 0.98×2 topics
  13. Image Processing18k▲ 2.0×3 topics
  14. Object Tracking17k▲ 1.53×1 topic
  15. Visual Tracking17k▲ 1.53×1 topic
  16. Local Binary Patterns17k▼ 0.55×2 topics
  17. Generative Adversarial Networks17k▲ 2.1×2 topics
  18. Feature Matching16k▼ 0.76×1 topic
  19. Local Descriptors16k▼ 0.76×1 topic
  20. Optimal Motion Planning16k◆ 1.10×1 topic
  21. Sampling-Based Algorithms16k◆ 1.10×1 topic
  22. Hyperspectral Imaging14k▼ 0.54×2 topics
  23. Depth Estimation13k▼ 0.63×1 topic
  24. Stereo Vision13k▼ 0.63×1 topic
  25. Medical Image Analysis13k◆ 0.90×2 topics
  26. Image Segmentation12k▼ 0.74×2 topics
  27. Action Recognition11k▲ 2.1×1 topic
  28. Spatiotemporal Features11k▲ 2.1×1 topic
  29. Image Denoising11k▼ 0.67×1 topic
  30. Sparse Representations11k▼ 0.67×1 topic
  31. Education10k▲ 1.59×1 topic
  32. Technology10k▲ 1.59×1 topic
  33. Image9,728▲ 1.40×1 topic
  34. Super-Resolution9,728▲ 1.40×1 topic
  35. Image Captioning9,682▲ 7.2×1 topic
  36. Visual Question Answering9,682▲ 7.2×1 topic
  37. Dimensionality Reduction9,657▼ 0.73×1 topic
  38. Feature Selection9,657▼ 0.73×1 topic
  39. Chaos9,388◆ 0.87×1 topic
  40. Image Encryption9,388◆ 0.87×1 topic

Which countries lead Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition research?

On research quality in 2022–2025, China, the United States and India rank highest in Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition. By volume, China and India publish the most (106k and 32k works in 2022–2025).

By research quality, 2022–2025

  1. 1 China · #2 all time 18.1% top 10% · 106k works
  2. 2 United States · #1 all time 18.7% top 10% · 24k works
  3. 3 India · #9 all time 9.7% top 10% · 32k works
  4. 4 United Kingdom · #3 all time 21.9% top 10% · 6.5k works
  5. 5 Germany · #4 all time 17.5% top 10% · 6.9k works
  6. 6 Hong Kong · #13 all time 31.6% top 10% · 2.5k works
  7. 7 South Korea · #10 all time 17.2% top 10% · 7.3k works
  8. 8 Australia · #7 all time 25.8% top 10% · 3.2k works
  9. 9 Singapore · #15 all time 31.4% top 10% · 2k works
  10. 10 Canada · #6 all time 18.6% top 10% · 3.9k works

The track on each row is that row’s top-10% rate. The ranking itself is the composite score, which the rate is only one part of.

Of 69 countries ranked in Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition. Composite of field-normalised excellence (50%), output (30%) and citations (20%); the bracket is the all-time rank.

All countries ranked in Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition

By volume, 2022–2025

  1. 1 China 106k works
  2. 2 India 32k works
  3. 3 United States 24k works
  4. 4 Japan 7.5k works
  5. 5 South Korea 7.3k works
  6. 6 Germany 6.9k works
  7. 7 United Kingdom 6.5k works
  8. 8 France 4.5k works
  9. 9 Italy 4.3k works
  10. 10 Indonesia 4.2k works

How concentrated that is

The same countries as shares of everything the list above accounts for. A node where two countries do two thirds of the work and one spread evenly across twelve read alike as a ranking and not at all alike here.

China: 52.2%India: 15.7%United States: 11.9%Japan: 3.7%6 others listed: 16.6%52%largest
China106k · 52.2%India32k · 15.7%United States24k · 11.9%Japan7,472 · 3.7%6 others listed34k · 16.6%

Shares of the rows listed above, not of the whole node.

Which institutions lead Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition research?

Tsinghua University (China) ranks first in Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition on research quality in 2022–2025, followed by Nanyang Technological University and Shanghai Jiao Tong University.

By research quality, 2022–2025

  1. 1 Tsinghua University China · Beijing · #6 all time 27.4% top 10% · 1.7k works
  2. 2 Nanyang Technological University Singapore · Singapore · #8 all time 35.7% top 10% · 799 works
  3. 3 Shanghai Jiao Tong University China · Shanghai · #22 all time 22.6% top 10% · 1.7k works
  4. 4 Zhejiang University China · Hangzhou · #24 all time 25.1% top 10% · 1.4k works
  5. 5 Beihang University China · Beijing · #21 all time 22.1% top 10% · 1.3k works
  6. 6 Northwestern Polytechnical University China · Xi'an · #34 all time 27.0% top 10% · 1.2k works
  7. 7 University of Science and Technology of China China · Hefei · #33 all time 23.3% top 10% · 1.4k works
  8. 8 Chinese Academy of Sciences China · Beijing · #13 all time 22.3% top 10% · 1.5k works
  9. 9 Wuhan University China · Wuhan · #31 all time 28.0% top 10% · 1.1k works
  10. 10 University of Hong Kong Hong Kong · Pok Fu Lam · #61 all time 35.9% top 10% · 480 works

The track on each row is that row’s top-10% rate. The ranking itself is the composite score, which the rate is only one part of.

Of 941 institutions above the floor of 40 fractional works in Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition.

Top 100 Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition institutions

By volume, 2022–2025

  1. 1 Shanghai Jiao Tong University China 1.7k works
  2. 2 Tsinghua University China 1.7k works
  3. 3 Chinese Academy of Sciences China 1.5k works
  4. 4 Beijing Institute of Technology China 1.4k works
  5. 5 Harbin Institute of Technology China 1.4k works
  6. 6 University of Science and Technology of China China 1.4k works
  7. 7 Zhejiang University China 1.4k works
  8. 8 Beihang University China 1.3k works
  9. 9 University of Electronic Science and Technology of China China 1.3k works
  10. 10 Xidian University China 1.3k works

Who are the leading researchers in Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition?

Among the most productive authors in Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition, Andrew Zisserman, Yoshua Bengio and Li Fei-Fei rank highest on the composite score.

  1. 1 Andrew Zisserman United Kingdom · #3 worldwide 25k citations · 241 works
  2. 2 Yoshua Bengio Canada · #4 worldwide 17k citations · 298 works
  3. 3 Li Fei-Fei United States · #9 worldwide 17k citations · 188 works
  4. 4 Jitendra Malik United States · #39 worldwide 12k citations · 179 works
  5. 5 Stanley Osher United States · #48 worldwide 8k citations · 207 works
  6. 6 Chen Change Loy Singapore · #75 worldwide 7.7k citations · 173 works
  7. 7 Alex Pentland United States · #100 worldwide 6k citations · 219 works
  8. 8 Wolfram Burgard Germany · #103 worldwide 6.3k citations · 232 works
  9. 9 Sebastian Thrun United States · #118 worldwide 10k citations · 122 works
  10. 10 Cordelia Schmid France · #133 worldwide 5.8k citations · 172 works

Re-ranked on the composite score from the 5,929 highest-output authors in Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition. Identities come from OpenAlex author disambiguation, which occasionally merges or splits people.

Top 100 Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition researchers

Where is Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition research done?

The largest centres of Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition research in 2022–2025 are Beijing (China), Shanghai (China), Xi'an (China) and Nanjing (China). Among places with at least 20 works in it, it is an unusually large share of all research in Chertsey, Cerdanyola del Vallès and Marina del Rey.

Largest cities, 2022–2025

  1. 1 Beijing China 20k works
  2. 2 Shanghai China 7.7k works
  3. 3 Xi'an China 6.3k works
  4. 4 Nanjing China 5.6k works
  5. 5 Wuhan China 5k works
  6. 6 Guangzhou China 4.3k works
  7. 7 Hangzhou China 4k works
  8. 8 Chengdu China 3.6k works
  9. 9 Chennai India 3.5k works
  10. 10 Seoul South Korea 3.5k works

Where it is the local speciality

  1. ChertseyGB · 23.3 works21×
  2. Cerdanyola del Vallès35.3 works19×
  3. Marina del ReyUS · 89.2 works16×
  4. Martigny-CombeCH · 50.0 works15×
  5. George TownKY · 36.8 works13×
  6. Ridgefield ParkUS · 51.7 works11×
  7. Bingen am RheinDE · 33.8 works10×
← less than its size predicts1×more →

Location quotient: how much more of its research is in Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition than the world average.

See Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition on the map

Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition research by country

The best places for Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition research inside each country, with that country's researchers and world standing.

Where is the best place to study Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition?

Among universities, judged by research, Xidian University, Nanyang Technological University and Hong Kong University of Science and Technology score highest, combining excellence, specialisation, size, growth and international reach. Research strength is one signal when choosing where to study; it does not measure teaching.

0%20%40%mean 26.43%fractional works in this node (log) →share in the world top 10% →Xidian University: 1,298, 24.0%Nanyang Technological University: 799, 35.7%Hong Kong University of Science and Technology: 451, 36.4%University of Science and Technology of China: 1,397, 23.3%Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications: 1,186, 15.1%Princess Nourah bint Abdulrahman University: 131, 35.9%Tsinghua University: 1,664, 27.4%University of Chinese Academy of Sciences: 1,069, 21.3%Northwestern Polytechnical University: 1,248, 27.0%Chongqing University of Posts and Telecommunications: 637, 18.2%Hong Kong University…Nanyang Technologica…Xidian UniversityUniversity of Scienc…
above the meannear itbelow it

One dot per university in the table below. The upper left is the interesting corner: small places doing unusually strong work.

#UniversityScoreTop 10%SpecialisationWorksGrowth
1Xidian University China 54.724.0%6.8×1,298 +37.4%
2Nanyang Technological University Singapore 53.835.7%3.8×799 -11.2%
3Hong Kong University of Science and Technology Hong Kong 53.336.4%4.5×451 +3.5%
4University of Science and Technology of China China 51.623.3%4.5×1,397 +75.2%
5Beijing University of Posts and Telecommunications China 50.915.1%7.4×1,186 +58.9%
6Princess Nourah bint Abdulrahman University Saudi Arabia 50.235.9%2.0×131 +1178.4%
7Tsinghua University China 49.727.4%3.3×1,664 +25.3%
8University of Chinese Academy of Sciences China 48.621.3%2.5×1,069 +164.9%
9Northwestern Polytechnical University China 48.427.0%4.2×1,248 +15.5%
10Chongqing University of Posts and Telecommunications China 48.118.2%8.5×637 +13.7%

Universities only. Score blends excellence (30%), specialisation (25%), size (20%), growth (15%) and international reach (10%), 2015–2022; growth compares 2010–14 with 2015–19.

Is Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition research growing?

Output in 2018–2022 was 34% higher than in 2013–2017, peaking in 2025. The fastest-growing topics are Advanced Neural Network Applications, Human Pose and Action Recognition and Video Surveillance and Tracking Methods.

19801990200020102020
grewheldshrank

The same series as a ribbon — one cell per year, darker for more. The line above answers how much; this answers when.

Which topics inside it are moving

Growth and decline on one axis around a shared zero. Two lists side by side hide the thing that matters: whether the growth dwarfs the decline, or the other way round.

  1. Advanced Neural Network Applications+1325%
  2. Human Pose and Action Recognition+195%
  3. Video Surveillance and Tracking Methods+156%
  4. Augmented Reality Applications+153%
  5. Image Enhancement Techniques+124%
  6. Face recognition and analysis+112%
  7. Video Analysis and Summarization-10%
  8. Advanced Data Compression Techniques-50%
← shrinkingno changegrowing →

Growth in output from 2005–09 to 2015–19. Every topic is a page of its own.

What does Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition include?

Advanced Vision and Imag…67kAdvanced Vision and Imaging: 67k fractional worksAdvanced Image and Video…65kAdvanced Image and Video Retrieval Techniques: 65k fractional worksRobotic Path Planning Algorithms: 60k fractional worksImage and Signal Denoising Methods: 59k fractional worksAdvanced Neural Network Applications: 52k fractional worksImage Retrieval and Classification Techniques: 49k fractional worksVideo Surveillance and Tracking Methods: 47k fractional worksOptical measurement and interference techniques: 44k fractional worksMedical Image Segmentation Techniques: 43k fractional worksFace and Expression Recognition: 42k fractional worksChaos-based Image/Signal Encryption: 37k fractional worksContext-Aware Activity Recognition Systems: 36k fractional works

Area is fractional works in that topic. Every name below is a page of its own.