Eleazar is capable of instinctively perceiving the type and strength of supernatural gifts of vampires and humans alike. He does not need to touch the other person, only be in close proximity. He considers it a "haphazard practice," as no one's gift worked in the exact same way because "everyone's mind is different."
Limitations
Though Eleazar's gift works on vampires and humans, he needs to concentrate harder when detecting for a human's gift, because the latent ability is nebulous. And like Edward, Eleazar has to be in close proximity with his target to get a feel of their gifts.
Like the majority of vampire gifts, Eleazar's gift is mental; so his gift can be blocked by Bella's ability to block mental abilities. However, unlike most of Bella's cases, he seems to be able to feel the blockage instead of merely not feeling any gift present.
History
Eleazar was invited to join the Volturi for this reason ― Aro considered very useful the fact he could, potentially, determine which vampires had the strongest offensive gifts, and, therefore, determine the Volturi's most dangerous foes. Aro would often send him searching for rare talents like Bella's or Benjamin's to bring back to him therefore strengthening the Volturi. When Eleazar left after falling in love with Carmen, Aro was very disappointed, as he was losing possibly the best defensive weapon the Volturi had. He only allowed Eleazar to leave in order to preserve his gift for later use because he believed that Eleazar would return to the Volturi if he was needed. Eleazar informed the Cullens of many of the Volturi's powers during the confrontation with them.
Eleazar was the one who helped to discover Bella's own gift once she became a vampire, which was a mental shield. Unlike previous cases, Eleazar's gift was blocked by her shield; and this convinced him that she was indeed using some kind of powerful mental shield. This probably also means that he can sense when his gift is being blocked.
Maggie's and Charles' gifts of lie detection allowed them to determine if someone they converse with is telling a lie, similar to how Eleazar can detect other people's powers.
