Craftar Image Recognition service allows you to integrate Image Recognition into your branded mobile and web apps.
The comprehensive solution enables the entire pipeline, from creating content to testing to developing and publishing your apps together with our Image Recognition service.
This article helps you get started in the service and learn how to use some of its key features.
[All video tutorials used in the article represent the view on a desktop device, although you may also access your account on a mobile device.]
One minute help: how to create your first experience
0. Overview of the web interface [Overview; Home]
The structure of the web interface
This video gives a quick overview of the structure of the web interface:
0’23”: Access the Terms of Service.
0’26”: Check our Service Status for any given day, including uptime, response times and historical data.
0’41”: How to log out of Craftar when needed.
We will now help you learn how to fulfill key tasks as a user, pointing to these key sections and the features they include.
The Home section
The Home section is your default view when logging in to Craftar. It provides you with quick access to other useful sections: managing your account, browsing your collections, and getting some basic help if needed.
1.Create Image Recognition experiences with our content management system [Collections]
Our service includes an agile cloud-based content management system that allows you to create content for your Image Recognition experiences. You can use this content in your mobile and web apps.
Here is an overview of the “content hierarchy” followed by our Craftar Image Recognition solution:
We will now help you learn how to create Image Recognition content for your apps.
Create collections
What is a collection?
Collections are groups of items to be recognized in your apps. (For example, a collection can include items representing the different consumer packaged goods in your store, a range of wines, or different pictures in a catalog, etc.)
Image Recognition is always performed within a specific collection. The number of collections you can have depends on your plan.
Each collection has a unique identifier, called token. Tokens are used in the Image Recognition API, in the Craftar demo app, and in the Image Recognition SDKs to specify which collection of images should be searched through.
You can create two types of collections: Cloud and On-Device. Read our article “Tutorial: Create a cloud or on-device collection to learn more about the differences.
How to manage and create collections
You can create, manage and browse your collections in the Collections section in Craftar.
Learn how to create a new collection:
Read more:
- If you choose to run your application on-device, we recommend to follow the Tutorial: Create collection bundles to learn how to generate bundles from your On-Device collections to be embedded into your app.
Create items inside your collections
What is an item?
You can browse, edit and create items inside your specific collections.
An item represents a real-world entity that you want to recognize. (Examples of items are: one specific consumer packaged goods product in your store, an advertisement or poster you want to make interactive, a logo, etc.)
Take a look at the Image Recognition API to learn how the information is received upon recognition.
How to create an item
To create a new item, navigate to one of your collections in the Collections section and click on “Add new item”
How to create an item for an Image Recognition experience
An “Image Recognition only” type of item contains:
- One or more images representing the appearance of the real-world object you want to recognize, i.e. reference image. (For example, in case you want to recognize a bottle of wine, you may use the image file of the front label only, or both the front and back labels as reference images.)
- URL returned upon the recognition (optional). (Typical uses of the URL include a website with information, or public link redirecting the user to a video, which your app will open upon recognition.)
- Custom data returned upon the recognition (optional). (Typical uses of this field include text that describes the item, for instance, product information, or meta information to be automatically processed by your app or backend.)
Learn how to create an Image Recognition item, and see what the item’s overview page contains:
1’40”: How to create an item for Image Recognition
2’10”: The item’s overview page, including the image quality rating
2’35”: How to delete a reference image that belongs to the item
2’40”: How to delete the item itself
Read more, including how to optimize your images for your items:
- Guide on preparing reference images for Image Recognition in Craftar (including how to interpret the image quality rating)
- Reference Image guidelines: quality, dimensions and formats
- How to choose and optimize reference images for image recognition
- Should you rather mask or crop reference images?
2. Test your collections and items [Testing Tools]
Our Testing Tools allow you to test your items and collections, and demo your experiences created in our platform – even before you start developing your own apps.
How to use the Image Recognition Tester
The Image Recognition Tester tool (inside the Testing Tools section in Craftar) lets you perform image recognition queries against a specific collection of items. This way, it helps you optimize your set of reference images and rule out problematic items.
Upload a query image from your hard drive and you’ll see the items in your collection that match your query, including a score representing their similarity.
You can also see the query and response from a developer viewpoint, as if you were using the Image Recognition API from the command line.
Learn how to use the Image Recognition Tester tool:
2.2. How to use the Craftar Demo App (iOS and Android)
You can use the Craftar demo app (available on iOS and Android) to:
- Try the test images we provide to see a sample Image Recognition experience
- Test and share your own demo experiences with no need to code, before you would start to develop your own apps.
How to try our test image in the Craftar Demo App:
How to use the Craftar Demo App to test your own Image Recognition items:
How to use the demo app to share your Image Recognition experiences:
Read more:
3. Develop mobile and web apps with our Image Recognition service [Developer Portal]
As part of our Image Recognition service, we provide you with SDKs, plugins, libraries and APIs that help you easily integrate the service into your mobile and web applications.
The Developer Portal section in Craftar gives you access to these tools.
Manage API access
We offer two APIs to connect to the Craftar Image Recognition service in the cloud.
The Management API allows you to upload content in a batch or connect your backend service directly and inject new content or update existing content when you need to.
The API Key provides authentication for the Management API. You can find your unique API Key inside the Developer Portal’s Manage API Access section in Craftar:
The Image Recognition API provides access to our recognition capabilities so that you can build your own client software.
We use tokens both in the Image Recognition API and Craftar Demo App to identify collections of images to search through.
You can access and generate new tokens inside the Developer Portal’s Manage API Access section.
All our mobile SDKs implement the Image Recognition API.
You can access these libraries from the SDKs, Plugins and Libraries section anytime.
Download our SDKs, plugins, and libraries
To conveniently download all our SDKs, plugins and libraries, go to the SDKs, Plugins and Libraries tab inside the ‘Developer Portal’ section in Craftar.
Access all the Documentation
You can visit the Documentation page of a specific tool, such as an SDK, as you are downloading it.
However, you may also access all our Documentation and Glossary inside the Documentation tab in the Developer Portal section.
The specific Documentation pages typically provide you with pointers to the Tutorials you should follow to integrate the specific tool; the documentation of the Classes; how to run the Examples; the Requirements of your system to use the tool, and Release Notes of our continuous updates.
4. Track and optimize the performance of your content [Analytics]
What is the Analytics tool useful for
The Analytics tool allows you to track and optimize the performance of your items in specific collections over chosen periods of time and export the data.
You can use the dashboard to track your visual scans compared to the number of successful recognitions to
- Identify items that perform well, versus those that are underperforming when it comes to real-world recognition.
- Use the insights to improve your set of items, or know where you need to further educate your users on how to scan and use your app.
To access the tool, navigate to the Analytics section.
How to use the Analytics tool
Watch our video to learn how to use the Analytics tool:c
0’05”: Overview of the Analytics section.
0’17”: Select a collection to look at.
0’23”: Select a specific time frame.
0’31”: What the graphs show.
0’43”: Check which item had the highest number of successful recognitions.
5. Manage your account [My Account]
Use the My Account menu – located in the top right corner of the desktop view of the web interface – to manage all your account-related information and needs in one place.
Check your plan and quotas in Account Overview
You can navigate to the Account Overview section from the My Account menu to check your existing plan and quotas used, or modify the settings of your account.