If you’ve ever wished your FileMaker solution could “look” at an image and tell you what’s in it, you’ll be interested in this lesson from the AI Essentials for FileMaker Developers course. This is just one of the many features of AI addressed in the course. 

Learn how to use Google Gemini’s Image Analyzer to extract meaning from pictures, whether it is identifying text in a receipt or estimating the value of items on a shelf.

With the included demo file (available in this paid course), you’ll discover first-hand how this works and get practical ideas for adding image analysis to your own solutions.

What is Gemini’s Image Analyzer?

Gemini’s Image Analyzer is an AI tool from Google that can interpret visual content. It can read text in images (OCR), identify objects, and even provide structured, organized data based on what it sees. For you as a FileMaker developer, this means you can feed AI an image from a container field and get back actionable information that is ready to use in scripts, reports, or dashboards.

Gemini is fast, flexible, and works with a range of image types like JPEG, PNG, and HEIC. It can combine OCR with reasoning, giving you more than just a raw text dump. You can instruct it to summarize, categorize, or output data in formats like JSON that drop neatly into your FileMaker workflow.

Real-World Examples

Here are three examples showing you the range of what Gemini can do:

Apple Timeline

Let’s look at an upload of a historical infographic of Apple product releases and company milestones. By asking Gemini to “list the important events,” you get a structured breakdown separated into product launches and company events. You then can refine the prompt to filter only company events and calculate the span of years they cover. This is one of the many ways you can go from an unstructured graphic to a targeted, data-ready summary.

You could apply this to any timeline, chart, or visual report that you need to analyze quickly without manually retyping or sorting information.

Restaurant Receipt

When a restaurant receipt is uploaded into the analyzer, you can prompt Gemini to return the vendor name, subtotal, tax, total, date, and time. Within seconds, the data is cleanly extracted and ready for parsing into FileMaker fields. 

This same capability could be applied to automating expense tracking, logging customer receipts, or importing structured data from invoices without human data entry.

Shelf Contents

Using a photo of a storage shelf with various items, create a prompt that asks Gemini to break down the items by shelf, estimate street values, and calculate a grand total. The output includes shelf-by-shelf lists, totals, and even disclaimers about condition and brand differences. You can also have Gemini return the results as JSON for easy parsing.

You could use this same type of prompt to manage inventory, create a list of household items for insurance documentation, or in any scenario where a quick photographic record needs to be turned into usable text or structured data.

Benefits for Your FileMaker Solutions

Integrating Gemini’s Image Analyzer into your FileMaker solution can:

• Save time by automating data extraction from images. 
• Reduce errors by minimizing manual data entry.
• Enhance decision-making with structured, searchable results.
• Streamline workflows for tasks like inventory, expense reporting, and record keeping.
• Enable new capabilities like visual audits, condition reporting, or rapid analysis of diagrams and infographics.

By building this into your solution, you make it possible for users to upload or snap a photo and instantly get back organized, actionable data without leaving FileMaker.

See it in Action

Image analysis with Gemini, complete with the working demo file, is one of the lessons in the AI Essentials for FileMaker Developers course at Productive Computing University, providing a great in-depth introduction to AI. You’ll learn not just how to set it up, but how to design prompts that return the information you need for your workflow.

Enroll in the AI Essentials course and discover how to add AI-powered image analysis to your own FileMaker projects.

Other products and services Productive Computing, Inc. offers:

• What can PCI do for you? – overview of our services
• Health Assessment – a comprehensive report of your FileMaker system
• Consulting and Development – services billed by the hour
• Maintenance and Support – services billed monthly
• Packaged Services – Security Audit, SSL or Server Installation
• Plug-ins – tools to integrate with QuickBooks, Outlook, Google, and more
• Solutions – free customizable and scalable CRM template
• Claris and FileMaker Licensing – discounts on new seats and renewals
• FileMaker and QuickBooks Hosting – host your files in the cloud
• Productive Computing University – online beginner to advanced training courses
• Certification Programs – expert-led training, hands-on development, and personalized evaluations

The post Interpreting Pictures in FileMaker with Gemini’s Image Analyzer appeared first on Productive Computing, Inc..

View the full article