ESP32-CAM Facial Detection / Recognition

[gfvalvo]

Hey all:
I thought I'd start learning about ESP32-CAM for an upcoming project. So, I got an AI-Thinker (with PSRAM) - http://www.diymalls.com/ESP32-CAM-Devel ... =esp32-cam
and an external antenna.

The CameraWEbServer example compiled and downloaded without issue and worked right out of the box. Well, ALMOST. Streaming video to the browser client worked great. I think it's quite impressive. I poked around a little in the code and saw that esp_camera.h provides some very sophisticated APIs and it will take me quite awhile to learn them ... I got time.

I said it ALMOST worked right out of the box. What didn't work was Facial Detection / Recognition. Nothing happened after enabling those on the Web page. I didn't get the little rectangles around faces as shown in countless YouTube videos.

Looking in app_httpd.cpp, I see a lot of conditionally-compiled code that depends on the macro 'CONFIG_ESP_FACE_DETECT_ENABLED' begin defined. So, I naively defined it and tried to compile again. Now there were complaints that the file "fd_forward.h" couldn't be found.

I have ESP32 cores v2.0.1 and v2.0.2 installed and the file "fd_forward.h" does not exist anywhere in those.

So, finally, the question .... does anyone know of a combination of ESP32 core version and board type selection (and perhaps Aduino IDE version) that has Facial Detection / Recognition working with the built-in CameraWEbServer example?

Thanks.

PS - FYI, I also posted this questions here: https://forum.arduino.cc/t/esp32-cam-fa ... ion/980773

[rpiloverbd]

Hi, have you checked this video along with the troubleshooting guide in the end? https://randomnerdtutorials.com/esp32-c ... duino-ide/

[gfvalvo]

Yes I have, thanks. He appears to be using a very old board package version. He's also using a different Board Manager URL to load the package. In fact he's inconsistent in specifying the URL between his ESP32 Installation video and his written instructions here: https://randomnerdtutorials.com/install ... tructions/

BTW, this is an unending source of annoyance for me. Which is the "CORRECT" ESP32 Board Manager URL? Why are there so many conflicting instructions? I use: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/espre ... index.json

Anyway, traffic here: https://github.com/espressif/arduino-esp32/issues/6508
indicates that Facial Detection / Recognition doesn't work in later version of the ESP32 Board Package. There is a claim that it will be fixed.

I rolled back to ESP32 v1.0.4 and with that Facial Detection / Recognition "works" for some definition "works". But, it slows things down greatly.

[Rick Morris]

Hi did you ever figure this out? I have the same problem. Video works fine but no facial detection/recognition. I'm using Windows but I can't imagine that would make any difference.

I tried going back to 1.0.4 and no change ... camera works but no facial detection/recognition.

Did you ever find out what the proper board manager is?

Thanks

[gfvalvo]

I did get it to "work" using URL https://raw.githubusercontent.com/espre ... index.json and v1.0.4. But, haven't played with it any since.