计算机视觉是一门研究如何使机器“看”的科学，更进一步的说，就是指用摄影机和计算机代替人眼对目标进行识别、跟踪和测量等机器视觉，并进一步做图像处理，用计算机处理成为更适合人眼观察或传送给仪器检测的图像。

作为一门科学学科，计算机视觉研究相关的理论和技术，试图创建能够从图像或者多维数据中获取「信息」的人工智能系统。这里所指的信息指香农定义的，可以用来帮助做一个“决定”的信息。因为感知可以看作是从感官信号中提取信息，所以计算机视觉也可以看作是研究如何使人工系统从图像或多维数据中“感知”的科学。

作为一个工程学科，计算机视觉寻求基于相关理论与模型来创建计算机视觉系统。这类系统的组成部分包括：

Computer vision is a field that includes methods for acquiring, processing, analyzing, and understanding images and, in general, high-dimensional data from the real world in order to produce numerical or symbolic information, e.g., in the forms of decisions. A theme in the development of this field has been to duplicate the abilities of human vision by electronically perceiving and understanding an image. Understanding in this context means the transformation of visual images (the input of retina) into descriptions of world that can interface with other thought processes and elicit appropriate action. This image understanding can be seen as the disentangling of symbolic information from image data using models constructed with the aid of geometry, physics, statistics, and learning theory. Computer vision has also been described as the enterprise of automating and integrating a wide range of processes and representations for vision pe****tion.