I need to extract certain information from a bunch of images. I'm a Python developer, but know little about this niche. Can somebody suggest particular toolkits to start with?

The problem: The placement of flippers on pinball machines has a rich history. There are thousands of different pinball machines. I would like to identify broad trends and turning points. So I'd like to be able to process photos like this in bulk, spot the flippers, and record their locations relative to the rest of the playfield: https://www.ipdb.org/showpic.pl?id=20&picno=38587

I know how to get the raw data (lists of pinball machines, collection of images) but the part I don't know how to tackle is the image processing (selection of best playfield image, compensating for photographer variation, finding the flippers, extracting their position and angle).

If you've done something like this before, what has worked for you? #pinball #python