less expensive alternative arduino board to CMUcam4
I have used OpenCV on Intel Galileo for doing recognition of sub images from a larger image (given the cover of a magazine, identify it in a pile of magazines partially covering it). The frame rate is far from stellar.
I haven't tried with Edison but it should be much faster, as it's an Atom core vs the pentium-like Quark. OpenCV is optimized for x86.

I used a normal webcam to capture the image, so this solution gives more flexibility in the choice of the sensor.

You could have a look at ROS on Edison.