ID Scanner

Scan government-issued IDs (driver's licenses, etc.) using your camera or photo gallery. Extracts name, date of birth, address, ID number, and state using AWS Textract.

Architecture

• Frontend: Expo (React Native) — runs on iOS, Android, and web
• Backend: Node.js/Express server that handles image processing and AWS Textract calls
• OCR: AWS Textract AnalyzeID

In development, the app hits a local backend (localhost:3001). In production, it points to the deployed backend on Render.

Development Setup

1. Backend

cd backend
npm install

Create a .env file in the project root with your own AWS credentials:

AWS_ACCESS_KEY_ID=your_key
AWS_SECRET_ACCESS_KEY=your_secret
AWS_REGION=us-east-1

Start the backend:

npm run dev

The backend runs on http://localhost:3001.

2. Frontend

npm install
npx expo start

Press w to open in the browser, or scan the QR code with Expo Go for mobile.

Important: In dev mode, the app connects to localhost:3001. You must run your own backend with your own AWS credentials. The production Render backend is not for development use.

Production

• Live Demo: https://69910ad24cfd88129a76a10d--incomparable-donut-edf69d.netlify.app/
• Backend is deployed on Render at https://id-scanner-prototype.onrender.com
• Frontend can be redeployed as a static web export to Netlify/Vercel:

npx expo export --platform web

This outputs to dist/ which can be deployed to any static hosting provider.