How do I research about the latest developments in a field?
Actually, I think you method isn't that bad in practice. I do something along the same lines. I'd just tinker a bit with your approach. For example:

Narrow your area. &quot;Computer vision&quot; sounds quite broad, focus on something more specific (&quot;object recognition&quot;, &quot;object tracking&quot;).
Pay attention to the citation count of a paper you are going to read and use it as a quick way to prioritize your reading.
If you opt to read highly-quoted papers only, it will greatly reduce your effort. You can read less-quoted papers later when you decide that you are interested in the specific problems they address. (&quot;Less quoted&quot; doesn't mean &quot;bad&quot;, it might mean their authors study some narrow domain/problem, and the odds are that you don't need it at your current stage yet).
Use references in the papers you read as your &quot;time machine&quot; to uncover important papers you miss. Very often I see that the same reference constantly pops up here and there, but I miss it because it's too old to make it through my Google Scholar filter.
If you really want to get a broad view of a domain, read at least tables of contents of all major conferences/journals in the field for the past few years.

When I study something new, my first impression is always the same: &quot;oh, lots and lots of papers, impossible to track and read them all; and all the problems are apparently solved here&quot;. However, in a week or so I start noticing that everything isn't so rosy, and there is a lot of work to be done, and many topics barely touched.
I must say though that &quot;topics of higher potential&quot; might be or might not be what you want to study. Consider, at least, your personal preferences (after all, you are going to spend much time working on a topic), and your existing skills/talents. It is possible that you can achieve more in a topic that might not be stellar, but fit nicely into your personality and background.