diff --git a/dlib/image_processing/object_detector.h b/dlib/image_processing/object_detector.h
index 9092102fa..92e5d6a4a 100644
--- a/dlib/image_processing/object_detector.h
+++ b/dlib/image_processing/object_detector.h
@@ -45,6 +45,14 @@ namespace dlib
             const image_type& img
         ) const;
 
+        template <
+            typename image_type
+            >
+        void operator() (
+            const image_type& img,
+            std::vector<std::pair<double, rectangle> >& final_dets
+        ) const;
+
         template <typename T, typename U>
         friend void serialize (
             const object_detector<T,U>& item,
@@ -72,6 +80,19 @@ namespace dlib
             return false;
         }
 
+        bool overlaps_any_box (
+            const std::vector<std::pair<double,rectangle> >& rects,
+            const dlib::rectangle& rect
+        ) const
+        {
+            for (unsigned long i = 0; i < rects.size(); ++i)
+            {
+                if (boxes_overlap(rects[i].second, rect))
+                    return true;
+            }
+            return false;
+        }
+
         overlap_tester_type boxes_overlap;
         matrix<double,0,1> w;
         mutable image_scanner_type scanner;
@@ -221,6 +242,41 @@ namespace dlib
         return final_dets;
     }
 
+// ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
+
+    template <
+        typename image_scanner_type,
+        typename overlap_tester_type
+        >
+    template <
+        typename image_type
+        >
+    void object_detector<image_scanner_type,overlap_tester_type>::
+    operator() (
+        const image_type& img,
+        std::vector<std::pair<double, rectangle> >& final_dets
+    ) const
+    {
+        final_dets.clear();
+        if (w.size() != 0)
+        {
+            std::vector<std::pair<double, rectangle> > dets;
+            const double thresh = w(scanner.get_num_dimensions());
+
+            scanner.load(img);
+            scanner.detect(w, dets, thresh);
+
+            for (unsigned long i = 0; i < dets.size(); ++i)
+            {
+                if (overlaps_any_box(final_dets, dets[i].second))
+                    continue;
+
+                dets[i].first -= thresh;
+                final_dets.push_back(dets[i]);
+            }
+        }
+    }
+
 // ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 
 }
diff --git a/dlib/image_processing/object_detector_abstract.h b/dlib/image_processing/object_detector_abstract.h
index d44e03d0e..bf76a41cb 100644
--- a/dlib/image_processing/object_detector_abstract.h
+++ b/dlib/image_processing/object_detector_abstract.h
@@ -99,6 +99,29 @@ namespace dlib
                   element 1 the next best, and so on.
         !*/
 
+        template <
+            typename image_type
+            >
+        void operator() (
+            const image_type& img,
+            std::vector<std::pair<double, rectangle> >& dets 
+        ) const;
+        /*!
+            requires
+                - img == an object which can be accepted by image_scanner_type::load()
+            ensures
+                - performs object detection on the given image and stores the
+                  detected objects into #dets.  In particular, we will have that:
+                    - #dets is sorted such that the highest confidence detections 
+                      come first.  E.g. element 0 is the best detection, element 1 
+                      the next best, and so on.
+                    - #dets.size() == the number of detected objects.
+                    - #dets[i].first gives the "detection confidence", of the i-th 
+                      detection.  This is the detection value output by the scanner 
+                      minus the threshold, therefore this is a value > 0.
+                    - #dets[i].second == the bounding box for the i-th detection.
+        !*/
+
     };
 
 // ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------