Important: This guide assumes you work with OpenCV 3.2.0.
This repository aims to provide tools and information on training your own OpenCV Haar classifier.
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Install OpenCV by running the installation script
sudo ./install-opencv.sh
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Clone this repository
git clone https://github.com/jayluxferro/opencv-haar-classifier-training.git
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Put your positive images in the
./positive_images
folder and create a list of them: cd opencv-haar-classifier-training/find ./positive_images -iname "*.jpg" > positives.txt
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Put the negative images in the
./negative_images
folder and create a list of them:find ./negative_images -iname "*.jpg" > negatives.txt
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Create positive samples with the
bin/createsamples.pl
script and save them to the./samples
folder:perl bin/createsamples.pl positives.txt negatives.txt samples 1500\ "opencv_createsamples -bgcolor 0 -bgthresh 0 -maxxangle 1.1\ -maxyangle 1.1 maxzangle 0.5 -maxidev 40 -w 80 -h 40"
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Use
tools/mergevec.py
to merge the samples in./samples
into one file:python ./tools/mergevec.py -v samples/ -o samples.vec
Note: If you get the error
struct.error: unpack requires a string argument of length 12
then go into your samples directory and delete all files of length 0. -
Start training the classifier with
opencv_traincascade
, which comes with OpenCV, and save the results to./classifier
:opencv_traincascade -data classifier -vec samples.vec -bg negatives.txt\ -numStages 20 -minHitRate 0.999 -maxFalseAlarmRate 0.5 -numPos 1000\ -numNeg 600 -w 80 -h 40 -mode ALL -precalcValBufSize 1024\ -precalcIdxBufSize 1024
After starting the training program it will print back its parameters and then start training. Each stage will print out some analysis as it is trained:
===== TRAINING 0-stage ===== <BEGIN POS count : consumed 1000 : 1000 NEG count : acceptanceRatio 600 : 1 Precalculation time: 11 +----+---------+---------+ | N | HR | FA | +----+---------+---------+ | 1| 1| 1| +----+---------+---------+ | 2| 1| 1| +----+---------+---------+ | 3| 1| 1| +----+---------+---------+ | 4| 1| 1| +----+---------+---------+ | 5| 1| 1| +----+---------+---------+ | 6| 1| 1| +----+---------+---------+ | 7| 1| 0.711667| +----+---------+---------+ | 8| 1| 0.54| +----+---------+---------+ | 9| 1| 0.305| +----+---------+---------+ END> Training until now has taken 0 days 3 hours 19 minutes 16 seconds.
Each row represents a feature that is being trained and contains some output about its HitRatio and FalseAlarm ratio. If a training stage only selects a few features (e.g. N = 2) then its possible something is wrong with your training data.
At the end of each stage the classifier is saved to a file and the process can be stopped and restarted. This is useful if you are tweaking a machine/settings to optimize training speed.
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Wait until the process is finished (which takes a long time — a couple of days probably, depending on the computer you have and how big your images are).
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Use your finished classifier!
cd ~/opencv-2.4.9/samples/c chmod +x build_all.sh ./build_all.sh ./facedetect --cascade="~/finished_classifier.xml"
A huge thanks goes to Naotoshi Seo, who wrote the mergevec.cpp
and
createsamples.cpp
tools and released them under the MIT licencse. His notes
on OpenCV Haar training were a huge help. Thank you, Naotoshi!