Transitioning from Azure AI Image Analysis to Florence 2.0 for Background Removal

Julian Korevaar 0

Hi everyone,

I recently received an email from Azure informing me that on January 10, 2025, the Azure AI Image Analysis 4.0 Segment API and its background removal service will be retired. I’ve been using this service to remove backgrounds from uploaded images, and I have a few questions regarding the transition.

The email mentions that to avoid service disruptions, we should switch to Florence 2.0 by the specified date. As someone who’s relatively new to computer vision and AI, the Segment API was a perfect solution for my needs.

It seems like Florence 2.0 offers a "Region to Segmentation" feature, but I’m not sure what steps I need to take to achieve the same outcome — specifically, creating a transparent image with the background removed.

Could anyone guide me on how to use Florence 2.0 for background removal? Any help or advice on this transition would be greatly appreciated!

Thank you,

Julian

SriLakshmi C 745 Reputation points Microsoft Vendor

2024-09-27T09:00:07.31+00:00

Hello Julian Korevaar, Greetings!

We are reaching out to the internal team to get more information related to your query and will get back to you as soon as we have an update.

Thank you!
SriLakshmi C 745 Reputation points Microsoft Vendor

2024-09-27T13:52:52.2733333+00:00
Hello Julian Korevaar,

Thank you for reaching out to the Microsoft Q&A forum.

To continue with background removal after the retirement of the Azure AI Image Analysis 4.0 Segment API, you can switch to using Florence 2.0. The Florence 2.0 is an advanced foundation model trained on billions of text-image pairs and is integrated into Azure Cognitive Services for Vision. It includes a "Region to Segmentation" feature that can achieve similar outcomes as the Segment API.

To use Florence 2.0 for background removal, you can process your images through Azure Computer Vision. Upload your images, which will segment the image into foreground and background. Once the segmentation is done, you’ll get a mask highlighting the foreground object.

Florence 2.0 is a cost-effective, production-ready service that provides enhanced capabilities, allowing you to continue your computer vision tasks seamlessly.

For more info, please refer to:

Announcing a renaissance in computer vision AI with Microsoft

Background removal - Image Analysis - Azure AI services

GitHub - Azure-Samples/azure-ai-vision-sdk: SDK for Microsoft's Azure AI Vision

I hope this answer will helpful. Thank you!
Julian Korevaar 0 Reputation points

2024-09-27T18:52:25.3033333+00:00
Hi @SriLakshmi C ,

Thanks for the response.

I have one follow-up question regarding this Florence 2.0 model that can be used. Right now I am doing an API call to the segment API and send the image in the url of the body. After that call i get the returned image without the background.

~url~/computervision/imageanalysis:segment?api-version=2023-02-01-preview&mode=backgroundRemoval

My question is, what approach would you recomment to also use the Florence 2.0 in an automated way while using an API, and is that even possible?

Hope to hear from you soon!

Kind regards,

Julian
SriLakshmi C 745 Reputation points Microsoft Vendor

2024-10-01T09:40:32.7066667+00:00

Hello Julian Korevaar,

You can automate background removal with Florence 2.0 using Azure Computer Vision's "Region to Segmentation" feature. Send your image via an API call similar to the Segment API, get the segmentation mask, and apply it to the original image to remove the background.
Tabareh 15 Reputation points

2024-10-17T10:50:23.98+00:00

Hello!

We have a very similar situation with a service in production and we're interested into knowing the way forward. I do not find anything in the documentation that explains a replacement feature in Azure Portal. All the links are going to Florence segmentation in hugging face.

Could you please elaborate on the solution with a sample url/documentation for api call for the new way of working? The links you provided before leads to the page with warning for retirement on January 2025.

Thanks in advance.
Soeth, Niels 10 Reputation points

2024-11-05T05:28:51.7766667+00:00

Any updates on this? I can't figure out how to remove the background using Florence. Segmentation is not the same and cannot be used for removing the background from images.
Tabareh 15 Reputation points

2024-11-11T08:44:11.0366667+00:00

Hello again!

The time is running out and our production systems are in danger. Could someone provide a guide or documentation for the api that is mentioned? Or any other way to deploy Florence on Azure and use it that way?

I would like to express that this decommission timeline is not realistic with the level of support that we get to do the transition. Could it be postponed somehow?

Kind regards,

Adel
SriLakshmi C 745 Reputation points Microsoft Vendor

2024-11-11T09:19:44.59+00:00

Hi Tabareh,

I would recommend creating a new thread on the same forum with as many details about your issue as possible. That would make sure that your issue has better visibility in the community.

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Tabareh 15 Reputation points

2024-11-11T13:32:12.1833333+00:00

@Julian Korevaar Have you found any solution/workaround for that?
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Transitioning from Azure AI Image Analysis to Florence 2.0 for Background Removal

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