One of the best things about being a developer is the ability to create cool solutions to problems.  Of course, as technology advances the definition of cool does as well.  For example, the latest buzz-worthy solution out there might be facial recognition.  This feature is the ability to scan images and find a match for a person.  It is CSI and similar TV program technology, but Amazon has made it more accessible.  This latest impressive service from Amazon is called Rekognition.

A High-End AWS Service

Amazon services are all built in a way that allows hobbyists and low budget companies to ease into some otherwise inaccessible solutions.  We have seen this with typical needs like virtual machines, but it does not stop there.  Rekognition (check out the overview here) is not an entry level feature as tech goes even though it does continue the approach of providing an entry-level way into pricing.  This service allows a developer to enter in a collection of facial metadata and then search for it in a group of images.  This is not a simple problem that they solved.

A Lot of Uses

We see this technology used in movies and TV shows to find a bad guy in a crowd.  That is only one possible use of this service.  One use they advertise is the ability to scan images for adult content.  Think about what that could do to make the Internet safer for children.  This filtering includes sex and nudity in pictures, but also could find violent scenes or those depicting weapons being wielded or used instead of simply on display.
Product placement could get a huge boost.  The Shazam app and related technology allowed your phone to listen to music and tell you the title and author; now it could tell you the nearest store to purchase an item.  Better yet, you could potentially take a picture of an item and be shown sites that describe its use.
The tool does focus on generic objects though like people, animals, desks, etc.  This means the best uses will be those centered around what objects appear in an image.  For example, if you allow an image upload to your site and want to use only head shots, this may be a perfect fit.

A Service For Developers

This service is impressive but also requires coding skills unless you are content with a demo.  Thus, it is more of a tool than a service in many ways.  The console application included as a demo shows a good way to utilize the tool and there are some great API examples as well.  The entry into using it is surprisingly quick though so we recommend you take a closer look at this service.  Sometimes a solution helps solve problems you did not know existed.

 

Rob Broadhead

Rob is a founder of, and frequent contributor to, Develpreneur. This includes the Building Better Developers podcast. He is also a lifetime learner as a developer, designer, and manager of software solutions. Rob is the founder of RB Consulting and has managed to author a book about his family experiences and a few about becoming a better developer. In his free time, he stays busy raising five children (although they have grown into adults). When he has a chance to breathe, he is on the ice playing hockey to relax or working on his ballroom dance skills.

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