This post will cover the coding aspect of Image Processing (computer science students should like this ;p), to tell you the platforms to use and how to get started.
Firstly, understand that IP and Computer Vision are the same (if anything, CV is a subset of IP). The Matlab projects link in the last post should have given you an idea about the new realm computer vision opens up for you.
Now, OpenCV (Open Source Computer Vision) is a library [in both c++ and python] that has algorithms and functions that help in IP. The library has more than 2500 optimized algorithms. They can be used to detect and recognize faces, identify objects, classify human actions in videos, track camera movements, track moving objects, extract 3D models of objects, and Much More!!!
The OpenCV lib is used by many big companies (including Google and Microsoft:) )across the globe. Though it is written in c++ it has bindings in python, java and Matlab, and also had wrappers for Ruby, Perl and C#.

If you know c++, the best place to get started in the official website. See the installation procedure for Windows (visual studio) and Linux below.

For ubuntu 14.04 refer the vid. below…

On the official website browse to the tutorials page and get started. A tip for learning fast…

Step1. Read one tutorial fully and understand all the components used and syntax
Step2. Implement the tutorial and refer back to the site if you have a doubt.
Step3. After you finish the tutorials upto pick up this project and try and do it yourself!

 

The whole thing should take you like a week or so but it will definitely be worth your time.

(You can also get started on Matlab… which is what I’ll be telling you about in the next post, when I start to tell you the math involved