The recently released version 2.6 of the Java neural network framework Neuroph includes a handy new version of the image recognition tool, which is part of the NetBeans Platform based application Neuroph Studio. This new image reognition tool is the first project completed by the NetBeans Platform development team founded at the University of Belgrade, Serbia.

The new image recognition tool provides a simple way to create neural network based image recognition components and to add image recognition capabilities to Java programs with a very simple API. The step by step tutorial for this is available here.

The NetBeans Platform development team at University of Belgrade was founded after the previous NetBeans Platform trainings, and initially there were three small teams working on NetBeans-related projects. After the last training, 15 students volunteered to join the projects, about 10 of them were activly contributing to development, and for now, the Image Recognition team which includes 3 students, is the first team that completed their project. Team members are Djordje Glogorijevic, Marjan Hrzic, and Vedrana Gajic, and let's hope we'll here more from them!

Next, we'll push the other two projects which are related to the NetBeans UML Plugin and a neural network visual editor based on the NetBeans Visual Library. Although they're not completed, some work has been done there too.

Our future efforts will include giving NetBeans Platform trainings to students, getting them involved in work on NetBeans Platform open source projects, and getting them to join project teams. Our plan is to give two more trainings this year and hopefully get up to 10 highly motivated and dedicated students to join our projects.