DEV Community: Nishiki Asumi Yapa

Azure Computer vision - Introduction

Nishiki Asumi Yapa — Fri, 02 Apr 2021 07:59:27 +0000

This is the first part of the 'Azure cognitive service - Computer vision' article series. The article describes the fundamentals of computer vision service.

What is cognitive service?

Cognitive Services are a set of machine learning algorithms that Microsoft has developed to solve problems in the field of Artificial Intelligence (AI). The importance of the cognitive service is that it is used pre-trained models to analyse images.

There are a set of services under cognitive service as follow.

Vision
Speech
Language
Knowledge
Search

What is computer vision?

The Computer Vision service from Azure provides you with access to advanced algorithms that process images and return information based on the visual features you're interested in. Pixel values of the image can be used as 'features' to train machine learning models and make the prediction.

There are mainly three steps on the ways of using computer vision service.

Step 01 - Create a resource

Before you create a resource on Microfot azure portal, you should have an Azure subscription.

There are basically two (02) types of resources.

Computer vision
If you are using only one cognitive service (only for image analysis), you can use a computer vision resource.
Cognitive service
If you are using more than one cognitive service, you can use a cognitive service resource.

step 02 - get the key and endpoint

After you are choosing the relevant resource type according to your preference, you may create that resource in your account.

You can copy the key and the endpoint from the resource management section, to the code which you are using to implement the service.

key is used to authenticate the client application
endpoint provides the HTTP address at which your resource can be accessed.

step 03 - submit the image

Read the text with the computer vision service

As discussed in the previous topic, we can use either computer vision or cognitive service resource to do the process.

Under the process of reading text, the word OCR (Optimal Character Recognition) is mostly used.

What is OCR?

OCR is the basic foundation of processing printed image. This technique is used to take notes, digitizing forms and, scan printed or handwritten checks, etc.

Computer vision service provides two (02) API's that can be used to read the text in images.

OCR API

OCR API extract a small amount of text in the image. It can be recognized text in numerous languages. This API returns a hierarchy of information to process an image. The hierarchy as follows.

 Region
 Lines
 words

For each element, OCR API also returns boundary box coordinates, which is similar to the outline of the text. It defines a rectangle to indicate the location in the image where the region, lines and words appear.

Read API

Read API is a better option for scanned document with lots of text and to extract text from both handwritten and printed images.

There are mainly three (03) processes to use Read API.

step 01 - submit an image to the API and retrieve an operation ID in response

step 02 - use operation ID to check the state of the image analysis operator and wait until it has completed.

step 03 - retrieve the result of the operation.

Read API also returns the hierarchy of information to process the image.

 Pages
 Lines
 words

How to extract text from the handwritten image and printed image?
Continued for part 02 of this article series... 😉

Nevertheless, Nishiki Coded in 2021! 👩‍💻

Nishiki Asumi Yapa — Fri, 05 Mar 2021 09:36:37 +0000

Hey you! Yes, you! Stop right here ✋

You know what? If I am doing this, you can do it too!

'Nevertheless, she's coded!' As soon as I spotted a post about this on LinkedIn, Me to myself: "Yes, it's time to write another article and share something, Let's give it a try!"

So here I am 😉.

Let me tell you about myself first!

I am Nishiki Asumi Yapa, from a small island in the Indian Ocean called Sri Lanka. I'm reading Software Engineering, and I'm going to graduate in a year from today. After that, I can call myself a 'Software Engineering graduate with a first/second-upper (hopefully 🤞) degree'.

I'll start like this;

What is the most annoying thing you ever heard from others?

"Oh! Can you do the documentation right? Girls can do that task better than boys,"

"Can you check the documents with your girlfriends?"

"Certainly you can do the presentation"

"Let's appoint a boy as a leader"

"Girls can not do coding"

Why do people keep saying these things? Is it their fault? No! No! No!

It's your fault girl! 😥

You are the reason behind their actions!
Maybe you're wondering what is the reason behind their action too!.

I've been volunteering for dev activities for a couple of years now. What I've noticed from the events I've been taking part in is that girls are not involved. It doesn't matter whether it's a hackathon or a technical session or some other competition.

I'm holding a position at Women in FOSS at my university, and even though we're planning any events, the girls don't come forward. No matter how hard we forced them, and request them repeatedly. They won't step up.

Why don't you step forward? Is there anyone who tells you that you can't do it? Is there anyone who tells you that you can't code?

I'm a really shy girl in my first year of college, too. But I realized that there is no one but you are the only person responsible for your life.

If somebody says you can not do it, just show them your capability. Even though we are quarantined and we are spending our new normal life, do not let your skills die.

There is always first time for everything. At first, you might feel it is hard to do, it is impossible to do. but when you start doing something and make it as habit, the impossible will turn into possible task.

No one is perfect, including myself. I am not a super techy person but I am still trying to achieve my goal.

One of my wise friends once said "Grab your opportunities, if not, make opportunities for you!"

Do not give up, believe in yourself! 💖
Good luck with your journey and stay safe

REST architectural constraints

Nishiki Asumi Yapa — Wed, 03 Mar 2021 13:25:51 +0000

REST is a distributed network platform that uses Web protocols and technologies. The REST architecture includes client and server interactions built around resource transfer.
Additionally, online publishers use REST by enabling Web page content and XML statements while delivering syndicated content to users. Users can access the web page through the URL of the website, read the XML file with a web browser, and interpret and use data as appropriate.

Constraints in REST

There are 6 constraints in REST. Such constraints limit the way the server can manage and respond to client requests, such that the system achieves desirable non-functional properties such as consistency, scalability, usability, editability, accessibility, portability and reliability by working within these constraints. If a system violates any of the necessary constraints, it cannot be called RESTful.

uniform interface
client-server
stateless
cacheable
layered system
code on demands

Uniform interface

As the name of the constraint itself applies, you MUST determine the APIs interface for resources within the network that is exposed to and faithfully followed by API users. A device resource should have only one logical URI, and that should provide a way to get relevant or supplementary data.

Client-server

This basically means that applications for clients and servers Should be able to develop independently without any reliance on each other. A client should only know URIs for resources.

Stateless

If the client application needs to be a stateful application for the end-user, where the user logs in once and then conducts other approved operations, then each client request will include all the information required to support the request–including authentication and authorization details.

Cacheable

In REST, where necessary, caching must be applied to resources, and then those resources MUST declare themselves cacheable. Server or client-side caching may be applied.

Layered system

REST allows you to use a layered system architecture to deploy the APIs on server A, store data on server B, and, for example, authenticate requests in server C. A client can’t normally say whether it’s directly connected to the end server, or to an intermediary along the way.

Code on demand

The constraint is optional. Most of the time, you’ll send the static resource representations in XML or JSON format. But if you need to, you are free to return executable code to support a component of your application.

How to create your first application using node.js?

Nishiki Asumi Yapa — Thu, 18 Feb 2021 19:03:29 +0000

What is node.js?

Over the years, the modern web application has really come a long way with the implementation of many common frameworks like bootstrap, Angular JavaScript, etc. All these frameworks are based on popular application JavaScript. Yet there was a kind of void when it came to creating server-based applications, and this is where Node.js comes into the scenario. Node.js is also based on the JavaScript framework.

Node.js is an open-source server-side runtime environment based on the JavaScript V8 engine from Chrome. This offers an event-driven asynchronous I / O and cross-platform runtime environment for the use of JavaScript to create highly scalable server-side applications.

How to install node.js to your machine?

Installation of node.js framework is the first step to start building the Node.js applications. The node.js framework is designed for a range of operating systems, from Windows to Ubuntu to OS X. You can start building your first node.js applications once the node.js framework is installed.

Go to the [Link] https:/nodejs.org/en/download/ website and download the required binary files.

What is NPM (Node Package Manager)?

Node.js is installed to npm. The name NPM(Node Package Manager) derives from the time NPM was first created as Node.js package manager. All the NPM packages are defined in package.json files. The contents of package.json must be written in JSON.

You can check the installed NPM version by using npm -v command in command prompt.

Run your first application ‘Hello World’ in Node.js

After downloading and installing Node.js on your computer, let’s try displaying “Hello World” in a web browser. Let’s create a Node.js file with file name firstprogram.js in notepad.

You can save your code in your preferred location and I’ll save it in: ‘D:\nodeJS’

Navigate to the folder where the file is stored in the command prompt. Type ‘node firstprogram.js’ command in command prompt.

Now your computer is functioning as a server! If anyone on port 8080 tries to access your device, they will get the message “Hello World!” in return! Launch your browser, and enter the following address: http:/localhost:8080

Node.js can be installed through a package manager, too. The windows package manager is called Chocolatey. The Chocolatey package manager automatically downloads the appropriate files and then installs them on the client computer by executing a few simple commands in the command prompt.

A basic program called Node.js consists of building a server that listens to a specific port. The server will immediately send a ‘Hello World’ message to the client when a request hits the server.

Getting started with MongoDB

Nishiki Asumi Yapa — Wed, 17 Feb 2021 21:23:04 +0000

Before we start, let’s discover what is MongoDB and its features.

What is MongoDB?

MongoDB is document-oriented, as known as the non-relational database used for the storage of high volume data.

What are the differences between relational and non-relational?

MongoDB is based on Binary JSON (BSON). And it is a simple query language which combines rich and document-based queries. The MongoDB data contains a flexible schema. Unlike in SQL databases, where you must have the schema of a table declared before inserting data, the collections of MongoDB do not enforce document structure. That kind of flexibility is what makes MongoDB so strong.

The environments on MongoDB are very scalable. Companies worldwide have identified clusters with some running 100 + nodes in the database with around millions of documents.

Why MongoDB?

Since MongoDB is a NoSQL style database, it stores the data in records, rather than having data in a relational type format. That makes MongoDB very versatile and adaptable to the situation and requirements of the real business world. And also Indexes can be created to improve search performance within MongoDB. It is possible to index any area in a MongoDB database.

Below are some of MongoDB’s main term differences with RDBMS.

Procedure for installing MongoDB on windows

download MongoDB Community Edition

[Link] https://www.mongodb.com/download-center/community?jmp=docs

When you select a version, you can select ‘MongoDB server 4.2’ since it is the latest one.
In the package drop down you have to select ‘MSI’.

Run the previously downloaded MongoDB installer.
Follow the MongoDB community edition installation wizard.

For more information on MongoDB installation:

[Link] https://docs.mongodb.com/manual/tutorial/install-mongodb-on-windows/

Crud operations in MongoDB

Insert

There are multiple ways to insert data into the database

Inserting a single document

db.collection.insertOne()

Inserting multiple documents

db.collection.insertmany()

Inserting single/multiple documents

db.collection.insert()

Update

Ways to update data in the database

db.collection.updateOne(, , )
db.collection.updateMany(, , )
db.collection.replaceOne(, , )

Delete

Ways to delete data in the database

db.collection.deleteMany()
db.collection.deleteOne()

You can find more information on MongoDB:

[Link] https://docs.mongodb.com/manual/

What is Artificial Intelligence?

Nishiki Asumi Yapa — Wed, 13 Jan 2021 07:39:04 +0000

When we first hear about artificial intelligence, it’s robots that have come to our mind. Then what is Artificial intelligence? Artificial intelligence as known as AI enables for robots to learn from experience, to adapt to new experiences, and to perform tasks of human nature.

“Artificial intelligence, sometimes called machine intelligence, is intelligence demonstrated by machines, in contrast to the natural intelligence displayed by humans.” ~wikipidia

Nowadays, everyone is using a smartphone. Siri in iPhones, google assistant in android is using this artificial intelligence. AI is used to filtering news in the most popularly used application — Facebook. And also google search engine using the same technology for filtering results. Artificial Intelligence is evolving quickly from these things to immense creatures like self-driving cars.

Deep blue was manufactured by IBM, and that is the first computer to win chess in 1996 against the world record holder, Garry Kasper.

Over time AI is capable of learning from errors, make them and move on. That’s how deep blue could win the competition in 1996. In late 2017 the team at Cornell University unveiled AlphaZero, which uses artificial intelligence to play chess, Go(Baduk), shogi(Japanese chess). In each case, it may be beating a world-champion program.

AI is a fully human being who operates without the influence of other humans. A lot of things can be done using AI. Did you know that AI is capable of producing music without human help? Yes, it can!

How does Artificial Intelligence work?

Data is fed (input) into the computer’s artificial neural network and output data, similar to the human process inside their nervous system. The computer is learning the way to analyze the data through humans at the first stage and then they could do it alone.
In each nation, AI can be used to improve security in slots for parking, expressways, shops etc. In Sri Lanka, there is a company called AI & Vision Technology (Pvt) Ltd that has been working on the equipment that can use AI technology to read number plates on vehicles.

What is the difference between AI and Machine Learning?

Many people have been facing in toughness in differing artificial intelligence and machine learning. People think as both terms are the same but they are not. ML’s purpose is to allow machines to learn on their own using the data provided and to make precise predictions.

ML is a subset of artificial intelligence, merely a technique for AI realization. Computers have two ways to teach approaches as supervised learning and unsupervised instruction.
‘Teachable machine’ is an application which can use to train the computer to recognize images, sounds etc.

https://teachablemachine.withgoogle.com/

Hope to discuss upcoming blogs on these topics. For further information on the AI and ML:

https://www.geeksforgeeks.org/machine-learning-versus-artificial-intelligence/