Building a Simple Image Classifier App Using Django REST API

Image classification is a common task in machine learning, where a model is trained to classify images into different categories. In this article, we will build a simple image classifier app using Django REST API.

Step 1: Setting Up Django Environment

First, make sure you have Django installed on your machine. You can install it using pip:

        pip install django
    

Next, create a new Django project:

        django-admin startproject image_classifier
    

Then, create a new Django app within the project:

        python manage.py startapp classifier
    

Step 2: Building the Image Classifier Model

Next, we will define the model for our image classifier. Create a new model in the ‘classifier’ app:

        from django.db import models
        class Image(models.Model):
            image = models.ImageField(upload_to='images/')
            label = models.CharField(max_length=100)
    

Don’t forget to run migrations after creating the model:

        python manage.py makemigrations
        python manage.py migrate
    

Step 3: Creating the Django REST API

Now, let’s create a Django REST API for our image classifier. Install the Django REST framework:

        pip install djangorestframework
    

Define a serializer for the Image model:

        from rest_framework import serializers
        from classifier.models import Image

        class ImageSerializer(serializers.ModelSerializer):
            class Meta:
                model = Image
                fields = ['image', 'label']
    

Step 4: Building the Image Classifier App

Finally, we can create views and endpoints for our image classifier app. In the ‘classifier’ app, define a view for uploading images:

        from rest_framework.views import APIView
        from rest_framework.response import Response

        class ImageUploadView(APIView):
            serializer_class = ImageSerializer

            def post(self, request, *args, **kwargs):
                serializer = self.serializer_class(data=request.data)

                if serializer.is_valid():
                    serializer.save()
                    return Response(serializer.data, status=201)
                else:
                    return Response(serializer.errors, status=400)
    

Step 5: Testing the Image Classifier App

Now, you can test your image classifier app by making a POST request to the ‘/upload/’ endpoint with an image file and label. You can also add more functionality to the app, such as training a model or serving predictions.