Cambricon CNStream

CNStream is a streaming framework with plug-ins. It is used to connect other modules, includes basic functionalities, libraries, and essential elements.

CNStream provides the following built-in modules:

• source: Support RTSP, video file, images and elementary stream in memory （H.264, H.265, and JPEG decoding.）
• inference: MLU-based inference accelerator for detection and classification.
• inference2: Based on infer server to run inference, preprocess and postprocess.
• osd (On-screen display): Module for highlighting objects and text overlay.
• encode: Encode videos or images.
• display: Display the video on screen.
• tracker: Multi-object tracking.
• rtsp_sink：Push RTSP stream to internet
• ipc: Make pipeline across process

Cambricon Dependencies

CNStream depends on the CNCodec library and the CNRT library which are packed in Cambricon CNToolkit package. Therefore, the lastest Cambricon CNToolkit package is required. If you do not have one, please feel free to contact with us. Our mailbox: [email protected]

Install Cambricon CNToolkit package

Ubuntu

  dpkg -i cntoolkit-x.x.x_Ubuntuxx.xx_amd64.deb
  cd /var/cntoolkit-x.x.x
  dpkg -i cncodec-xxx.deb cnrt_xxx.deb

Centos

  yum -y install cntoolkit-x.x.x.el7.x86_64.rpm
  cd /var/cntoolkit-xxx-x.x.x
  yum -y install cncodec-xxx.rpm cnrt-xxx.rpm

After that, Cambricon dependencies that CNStream needed are installed at path '/usr/loacl/neuware'.

Please make sure you must not install cnstream_xxx.deb or cnstream-xxx.rpm.

Quick Start

This section introduces how to quickly build instructions on CNStream and how to develop your own applications based on CNStream. We strongly recommend you execute pre_required_helper.sh to prepare for the environment. If not, please follow the commands below.

Required environments

Before building instructions, you need to install the following software:

• OpenCV 2.4.9+
• GFlags 2.1.2
• GLog 0.3.4
• CMake 2.8.7+
• SDL2 2.0.4+    // If build_display=ON
• FFmpeg 2.8 3.4 4.2

Ubuntu

If you are using Ubuntu, run the following commands:

  OpenCV 2.4.9+  >>>>>>>>>   sudo apt-get install libopencv-dev
  GFlags 2.1.2   >>>>>>>>>   sudo apt-get install libgflags-dev
  GLog 0.3.4     >>>>>>>>>   sudo apt-get install libgoogle-glog-dev
  CMake 2.8.7+   >>>>>>>>>   sudo apt-get install cmake
  SDL2 2.0.4+    >>>>>>>>>   sudo apt-get install libsdl2-dev

Centos

If you are using Centos, run the following commands:

  OpenCV 2.4.9+  >>>>>>>>>   sudo yum install opencv-devel.x86_64
  GFlags 2.1.2   >>>>>>>>>   sudo yum install gflags.x86_64
  GLog 0.3.4     >>>>>>>>>   sudo yum install glog.x86_64
  CMake 2.8.7+   >>>>>>>>>   sudo yum install cmake3.x86_64
  SDL2 2.0.4+    >>>>>>>>>   sudo yum install SDL2_gfx-devel.x86_64

Build Instructions Using CMake

After finished prerequisites, you can build project with the following steps:

1. clone submodule easydk with command as below

   git submodule  update  --init
   

2. Run the following command to create a directory for saving the output.

   mkdir build       # Create a directory to save the output.
   

   A Makefile is generated in the build folder.

3. Run the following command to generate a script for building instructions.

   cd build
   cmake ${CNSTREAM_DIR}  # Generate native build scripts.
   

   Cambricon CNStream provides a CMake script (CMakeLists.txt) to build instructions. You can download CMake for free from http://www.cmake.org/.

   ${CNSTREAM_DIR} specifies the directory where CNStream saves for.

   cmake option	range	default	description
   build_display	ON / OFF	ON	build display module
   build_ipc	ON / OFF	ON	build ipc module
   build_encode	ON / OFF	ON	build encode module
   build_inference	ON / OFF	ON	build inference module
   build_osd	ON / OFF	ON	build osd module
   build_rtsp_sink	ON / OFF	ON	build rtsp_sink module
   build_source	ON / OFF	ON	build source module
   build_track	ON / OFF	ON	build track module
   build_modules_contrib	ON / OFF	ON	build contributed modules
   build_tests	ON / OFF	ON	build tests
   build_samples	ON / OFF	ON	build samples
   RELEASE	ON / OFF	ON	release / debug
   WITH_FFMPEG	ON / OFF	ON	build with FFMPEG
   WITH_OPENCV	ON / OFF	ON	build with OPENCV
   WITH_FREETYPE	ON / OFF	OFF	build with FREETYPE
   WITH_RTSP	ON / OFF	ON	build with RTSP

4. If you want to build CNStream samples:

   a. Run the following command:

   cmake -Dbuild_samples=ON ${CNSTREAM_DIR}
   

   b. If wanna cross compile, please follow command to:

   cmake -DCMAKE_TOOLCHAIN_FILE=${CNSTREAM_DIR}/cmake/cross-compile.cmake ${CNSTREAM_DIR}
   

   Note: you need to configure toolchain by yourself in cross-compile.cmake and cross-compile gflags, glog, opencv, ffmpeg and install them into ${CNSTREAM_DIR}

   take MLU220EDGE as example:

   cmake ${CNSTREAM_DIR} -DCMAKE_TOOLCHAIN_FILE=${CNSTREAM_DIR}/cmake/cross-compile.cmake  -DCNIS_WITH_CURL=OFF -Dbuild_display=OFF -DMLU=MLU220EDGE
   

5. Run the following command to build instructions:

   make
   

6. If wanna install CNStream's head files and libraries to somewhere, please add CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX to cmake command as below:

   cmake {CNSTREAM_DIR} -DCMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/path/to/install
   make
   make install
   

Samples

Classification	Object Detection

Object Tracking	Secondary Classification

Demo Overview

This demo shows how to detect objects using CNStream. It includes the following plug-in modules:

• source: Decodes video streams with MLU, such as local video files, RTMP stream, and RTSP stream.
• detector: Neural Network inference with MLU.
• osd: Draws inference results on images.
• displayer: Displays inference results on the screen.

In the run.sh script, detection_config.json is set as the configuration file. In this configuration file, resnet34_ssd.cambricon is the offline model used for inference, which means, the data will be fed to an SSD model after decoding. And the results will be shown on the screen.

In addition, see the comments in cnstream/samples/demo/run.sh for details.

Also there are several demos as located under classification, detection, track, secondary, rtsp etc.

Run samples

To run the CNStream sample:

1. Follow the steps above to build instructions.

2. Run the demo using the list below:

   cd ${CNSTREAM_DIR}/samples/demo
   
   ./run.sh
   

Best Practices

How to create an application based on CNStream?

You should find a sample from samples/example/example.cpp that helps developers easily understand how to develop an application based on CNStream pipeline.

How to change the input video file?

Modify the files.list_video file, which is under the cnstream/samples/demo directory, to replace the video path. Each line represents one stream. It is recommended to use an absolute path or use a relative path relative to the executor path.

Documentation

Cambricon Forum Docs or CNStream Read-the-Docs

Check out the Examples page for tutorials on how to use CNStream. Concepts page for basic definitions

Community forum

Discuss - General community discussion around CNStream