Microsoft Computer Vision APIs Distilled: Getting Started with Cognitive Services

Description

Dive headfirst into Microsoft's Computer Vision APIs through sample-driven scenarios! Imagine an app that describes to the visually impaired the objects around them, or reads the Sunday paper, a favorite magazine, or a street sign. Or an app that is capable of monitoring what is happening inside an area without human control, and then makes a decision based on interpreting an occurrence detected with a live camera. This book teaches developers Microsoft's Computer Vision APIs, a service capable of understanding and interpreting the content of any image. Author Del Sole begins by providing a succinct "need to know" overview of the service with descriptions. You then learn from hands-on demonstrations that show how basic C# code examples can be re-used across platforms. From there you will be guided through two different kinds of applications that interact with the service in two different ways: the more common means of calling a REST service to get back JSON data, and via the .NET libraries that Microsoft has been building to simplify the job (this latter one with Xamarin). What You'll Learn Understand AI's role and how devices and applications use sophisticated algorithms to improve people's lives and business tasks. Analyze images for Optical Character Recognition to detect written words and sentences Think about the next-generation applications in relation to your customers' needs Get up-to-speed on the latest version of the Computer Vision service, which now comes through Azure Set up an Azure subscription in order to access the Cognitive Services within the portal After reading this book, you will be able to get started with AI services from Microsoft in order to begin building powerful new apps for your company or customers. Who This Book Is For Developers just getting familiar with artificial intelligence. A minimal knowledge of C# is required.;1: Introducing Microsoft Cognitive Services -- 2: Getting Started with Computer Vision APIs -- 3: Invoking the Computer Vision APIs from C# -- 4: Computer Vision on Mobile Apps with Xamarin -- 5: Computer Vision in Web Apps with ASP.NET MVC Core. Contents About the Author Acknowledgments Introduction Chapter 1: Introducing Microsoft Cognitive Services Introducing the Microsoft AI Platform Introducing Microsoft Cognitive Services Introducing Development Tools and Platforms Summary Chapter 2: Getting Started with the Computer Vision API Understanding the Computer Vision API Performing HTTP Requests Handling the HTTP Response Configuring Your Azure Subscription Summary Chapter 3: Invoking the Computer Vision API from C# Getting Sample Images Creating a C# Console Application Creating a Console Application in Visual Studio 2017 Creating a Console Application in Visual Studio for Mac Creating a Console Application in Visual Studio Code Describing and Analyzing Images Describing Images Analyzing Images Generating Thumbnails Tagging Images Working with Optical Character Recognition Retrieving Handwritten Text Working with Domain-Specific Models Summary Chapter 4: Computer Vision on Mobile Apps with Xamarin Creating a Xamarin.Forms Solution Configuring Visual Studio 2017 for Xamarin Introducing the Computer Vision Client Library Creating a Xamarin.Forms Solution in Visual Studio 2017 Creating a Xamarin.Forms Solution in Visual Studio for Mac Instantiating the Service Client Implementing Image Analysis Designing the User Interface Implementing Optical Character Recognition Designing the User Interface Implementing Celebrity Recognition Designing the User Interface Putting It All Together Summary Chapter 5: Computer Vision in Web Apps with ASP.NET MVC Core Creating an ASP.NET MVC Core Application Creating the Web Application with Visual Studio 2017 Creating the Web Application with Visual Studio for Mac Creating the Web Application with Visual Studio Code Implementing the Controller Designing the View Testing the Application Summary Index