Microsoft recently introduced a new User Interface (UI) for developers called Vision Studio to try its Computer Vision API.
The Computer Vision API is a part of Microsoft’s Cognitive Services offering in Azure. The API provides access to advanced algorithms for processing media and returning information. Azure’s Computer Vision algorithms can analyze visual content differently based on inputs and user choices by uploading a media asset or specifying a media asset's URL. The most recent 4.0 version of API was released recently in preview, and its capabilities are embedded in Vision Studio.
Vision Studio is intended to allow developers to explore, demo and evaluate features from Computer Vision, regardless of their coding experience. Moreover, they can access documentation, the SDK, and REST API and view the supported languages through the UI.
Developers can try out the Optical Character Recognition (OCR), Spatial Analysis, Face, and Image Analysis services of Computer Vision. They can optionally sign in with their Azure account or create one. Subsequently, choose the service and optionally create a resource. The latter allows developers to upload their own resources. As Kate Browne, a program manager at Microsoft, explains in a Cognitive Services blog post:
Each computer Vision feature has one or more try-it-out experiences in Vision Studio. To use your images in Vision Studio, you'll need an Azure subscription and a resource for Cognitive Services for authentication. Otherwise, you can try Vision Studio without logging in using our sample images. These experiences help you quickly test the features using a no-code approach that provides JSON and text responses.
Other public cloud vendors, like AWS and Google, also offer similar Computer Vision APIs on their platforms. AWS Rekognition provides free tutorials to try out the capabilities, however an AWS account is required. Also, Google has an offering with Vision AI, which can be tested without logging in and by uploading custom images. And finally, according to a verified market resource report, "AI in Computer Vision Market, the market for computer vision capabilities, is projected to reach USD $2,005,104.8 Million by 2030, growing at a CAGR of 37.05% from 2023 to 2030" – hence the investments in these cognitive services by the public cloud vendors.
More details on Computer Vision are available on the documentation landing page. Guidance on how to use Vision Studio can be found on the Microsoft Learn page.