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Qualcomm AI Hub contains a large collection of pretrained AI models that are optimized to run on Dragonwing hardware.

End-to-end examples

Here’s a list of example applications (in Python) that implement models from AI Hub, ready to run on the NPU of your Dragonwing board: To run other models, keep reading!

Finding supported models

Models in AI Hub are categorized by the supported Qualcomm chipset. To see models that will run on your development kit:
1

Go to the model list

Go to the model list.
2

Select your chipset

Under ‘Chipset’, select:
  • RB3 Gen 2 Vision Kit: ‘Qualcomm QCS6490 (Proxy)’
  • RUBIK Pi 3: ‘Qualcomm QCS6490 (Proxy)’
  • IQ-9075 EVK: ‘Qualcomm QCS9075 (Proxy)’
3

Filter for quantized models

Under ‘Model precision’, select: ‘Quantized’. The NPU on your Dragonwing board only runs quantized models.

Deploying a model to NPU (Python)

As an example, let’s deploy the Lightweight-Face-Detection model.

Running the example repository

All AI Hub models come with an example repository. This is a good starting point, as it shows exactly how to run the model. It shows what the input to your network should look like, and how to interpret the output (here, to map the output tensor to bounding boxes). The example repositories do NOT run on the NPU or GPU yet - they run without acceleration. Let’s see what our input/output should look like before we move this model to the NPU. On the AI Hub page for Lightweight-Face-Detection, click “Model repository”. This links you to a README file with instructions on how to run the example repository. To deploy this model, open the terminal on your development board, or an ssh session to your development board:
1

Set up environment

Create a new venv and install some base packages:
mkdir -p ~/aihub-demo
cd ~/aihub-demo

python3 -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate

pip3 install numpy setuptools Cython shapely
2

Download a test image

Download an image with a face (640x480 resolution, JPG format) onto your development board:
wget https://cdn.edgeimpulse.com/qc-ai-docs/example-images/three-people-640-480.jpg
Input resolution: AI Hub models require correctly sized inputs. You can find the required resolution under “Technical Details > Input resolution” (in HEIGHT x WIDTH (here 480x640 => 640x480 for wxh)); or inspect the size of the input tensor in the TFLite or ONNX file.
3

Run the example

Follow the instructions under ‘Example & Usage’ for the Facial Landmark Detection model:
# Install the example (add --no-build-isolation)
pip3 install --no-build-isolation "qai-hub-models[face-det-lite]"

# Run the example
#    Use --help to see all options
python3 -m qai_hub_models.models.face_det_lite.demo --quantize w8a8 --image ./three-people-640-480.jpg --output-dir out/
You can find the output image in out/FaceDetLitebNet_output.png.If you’re connected over ssh, you can copy the output image back to your host computer via:
# Find IP via: ifconfig | grep -Eo 'inet (addr:)?([0-9]*\.){3}[0-9]*' | grep -Eo '([0-9]*\.){3}[0-9]*' | grep -v '127.0.0.1'
# Then: (replace 192.168.1.148 by the IP address of your development kit)

scp ubuntu@192.168.1.148:~/aihub-demo/out/FaceDetLitebNet_output.png ~/Downloads/FaceDetLitebNet_output.png
We have a working model. For reference, on the IQ9-EVK, running this model takes 106.86ms per inference.

Porting the model to NPU

Now that we have a working reference model, let’s run it on the NPU. There are three parts that you need to implement:
  1. Preprocess the data — convert the image into features that you can pass to the neural network.
  2. Run inference — export the model to ONNX or TFLite, and run the model through LiteRT or ONNX Runtime.
  3. Postprocess the output — convert the output of the neural network to bounding boxes of faces.
The model is straightforward, as you can read in the LiteRT and ONNX Runtime pages. However, the pre- and post-processing code might not be…

Preprocessing inputs

For image models most AI Hub models take a matrix of (HEIGHT, WIDTH, CHANNELS) (LiteRT) or (CHANNELS, HEIGHT, WIDTH) (ONNX) scaled from 0..1. If you have 1 channel, convert the image to grayscale first. If your model is quantized (most likely) you’ll also need to read zero_point and scale, and scale the pixels accordingly (this is easy in LiteRT as they contain the quantization parameters, but ONNX does not have these). Typically you’ll end up with data scaled linearly 0..255 (uint8) or -128..127 (int8) for quantized models - so that’s relatively easy. A function that demonstrates all this in Python can be found below in the example code (def load_image_litert).
HOWEVER… This is not guaranteed; and this is where the AI Hub example code comes in. Every AI Hub example contains the exact code used to scale inputs. In our current example - Lightweight-Face-Detection - the input is shaped (480, 640, 1). However, if you look at the preprocessing code the data is not converted to grayscale, but instead only the blue channel of an RGB image is taken:
img_array = img_array.astype("float32") / 255.0
img_array = img_array[np.newaxis, ...]
img_tensor = torch.Tensor(img_array)
img_tensor = img_tensor[:, :, :, -1]        # HERE WE TAKE BLUE CHANNEL, NOT CONVERT TO GRAYSCALE
These kind of things are very easy to get wrong. So if you see non-matching results between your implementation and the AI Hub example: read the code. This applies even more for non-image inputs (e.g. audio). Use the demo code to understand what the model actually expects.

Postprocessing outputs

The same applies to postprocessing. For example, there’s no standard way of mapping the output of a neural network to bounding boxes (to detect faces in this case). For Lightweight-Face-Detection you can find the code here: face_det_lite/app.py#L77. If you’re targeting Python, it’s often easiest to copy the postprocessing code into your application; as AI Hub has a lot of dependencies that you might not want. In addition, the postprocessing code operates on PyTorch tensors, and your inference runs under LiteRT or ONNX Runtime; thus, you’ll need to change some small aspects. We’ll show this just below in the end-to-end example.

End-to-end example (Python)

With the explanation behind us, let’s look at some code.
1

Set up base requirements

Open a terminal on your development board:
# Create a new fresh directory
mkdir -p ~/aihub-npu
cd ~/aihub-npu

# Create a new venv
python3 -m venv .venv
source .venv/bin/activate

# Install the LiteRT runtime (to run models) and Pillow (to parse images)
pip3 install ai-edge-litert==1.3.0 Pillow

# Download an example image
wget https://cdn.edgeimpulse.com/qc-ai-docs/example-images/three-people-640-480.jpg
2

Download the model

The NPU only supports uint8/int8 quantized models. Fortunately AI Hub contains pre-quantized and optimized models already. You can either:
  • Download the model for this tutorial (mirrored on CDN):
    wget https://cdn.edgeimpulse.com/qc-ai-docs/models/face_det_lite-lightweight-face-detection-w8a8.tflite
    
  • Or, for any other model, download the model from AI Hub and push to your development board:
    1. Go to Lightweight-Face-Detection.
    2. Click “Download model”.
    3. Select “TFLite” for runtime, and “w8a8” for precision.
      If your model is only available in ONNX format, see Run models using ONNX Runtime for instructions. The same principles as in this tutorial apply.
    4. Download the model.
    5. If you’re not downloading the model directly on your Dragonwing development board, push the model over ssh:
      # Find your board's IP
      ifconfig | grep -Eo 'inet (addr:)?([0-9]*\.){3}[0-9]*' | grep -Eo '([0-9]*\.){3}[0-9]*' | grep -v '127.0.0.1'
      
      # Push the .tflite file (replace IP)
      scp face_det_lite-lightweight-face-detection-w8a8.tflite ubuntu@192.168.1.253:~/face_det_lite-lightweight-face-detection-w8a8.tflite
      
3

Create the inference script

Create a new file face_detection.py. This file contains the model invocation, plus the preprocessing and postprocessing code from the AI Hub example (see inline comments).
import numpy as np
from ai_edge_litert.interpreter import Interpreter, load_delegate
from PIL import Image, ImageDraw
import os, time, sys

def curr_ms():
    return round(time.time() * 1000)

# Paths
IMAGE_IN = 'three-people-640-480.jpg'
IMAGE_OUT = 'three-people-640-480-overlay.jpg'
MODEL_PATH = 'face_det_lite-lightweight-face-detection-w8a8.tflite'

# If we pass in --use-npu we offload to NPU
use_npu = True if len(sys.argv) >= 2 and sys.argv[1] == '--use-npu' else False

experimental_delegates = []
if use_npu:
    experimental_delegates = [load_delegate("libQnnTFLiteDelegate.so", options={"backend_type":"htp"})]

# Load TFLite model and allocate tensors
interpreter = Interpreter(
    model_path=MODEL_PATH,
    experimental_delegates=experimental_delegates
)
interpreter.allocate_tensors()

# Get input and output tensor details
input_details = interpreter.get_input_details()
output_details = interpreter.get_output_details()

# === BEGIN PREPROCESSING ===

# Load an image (using Pillow) and make it in the right format that the interpreter expects (e.g. quantize)
# All AI Hub image models use 0..1 inputs to start.
def load_image_litert(interpreter, path, single_channel_behavior: str = 'grayscale'):
    d = interpreter.get_input_details()[0]
    shape = [int(x) for x in d["shape"]]  # e.g. [1, H, W, C] or [1, C, H, W]
    dtype = d["dtype"]
    scale, zp = d.get("quantization", (0.0, 0))

    if len(shape) != 4 or shape[0] != 1:
        raise ValueError(f"Unexpected input shape: {shape}")

    # Detect layout
    if shape[1] in (1, 3):   # [1, C, H, W]
        layout, C, H, W = "NCHW", shape[1], shape[2], shape[3]
    elif shape[3] in (1, 3): # [1, H, W, C]
        layout, C, H, W = "NHWC", shape[3], shape[1], shape[2]
    else:
        raise ValueError(f"Cannot infer layout from shape {shape}")

    # Load & resize
    img = Image.open(path).convert("RGB").resize((W, H), Image.BILINEAR)
    arr = np.array(img)
    if C == 1:
        if single_channel_behavior == 'grayscale':
            gray = np.asarray(Image.fromarray(arr).convert('L'))
        elif single_channel_behavior in ('red', 'green', 'blue'):
            ch_idx = {'red': 0, 'green': 1, 'blue': 2}[single_channel_behavior]
            gray = arr[:, :, ch_idx]
        else:
            raise ValueError(f"Invalid single_channel_behavior: {single_channel_behavior}")
        arr = gray[..., np.newaxis]

    # HWC -> correct layout
    if layout == "NCHW":
        arr = np.transpose(arr, (2, 0, 1))  # (C,H,W)

    # Scale 0..1 (all AI Hub image models use this)
    arr = (arr / 255.0).astype(np.float32)

    # Quantize if needed
    if scale and float(scale) != 0.0:
        q = np.rint(arr / float(scale) + int(zp))
        if dtype == np.uint8:
            arr = np.clip(q, 0, 255).astype(np.uint8)
        else:
            arr = np.clip(q, -128, 127).astype(np.int8)

    return np.expand_dims(arr, 0)  # add batch

# This model looks like grayscale, but AI Hub inference actually takes the BLUE channel
# see https://github.com/quic/ai-hub-models/blob/8cdeb11df6cc835b9b0b0cf9b602c7aa83ebfaf8/qai_hub_models/models/face_det_lite/app.py#L70
input_data = load_image_litert(interpreter, IMAGE_IN, single_channel_behavior='blue')

# === END PREPROCESSING (input_data contains right data) ===

# Set tensor and run inference
interpreter.set_tensor(input_details[0]['index'], input_data)

# Run once to warmup
interpreter.invoke()

# Then run 10x
start = curr_ms()
for i in range(0, 10):
    interpreter.invoke()
end = curr_ms()

# === BEGIN POSTPROCESSING ===

# Grab 3 output tensors and dequantize
q_output_0 = interpreter.get_tensor(output_details[0]['index'])
scale_0, zero_point_0 = output_details[0]['quantization']
hm = ((q_output_0.astype(np.float32) - zero_point_0) * scale_0)[0]

q_output_1 = interpreter.get_tensor(output_details[1]['index'])
scale_1, zero_point_1 = output_details[1]['quantization']
box = ((q_output_1.astype(np.float32) - zero_point_1) * scale_1)[0]

q_output_2 = interpreter.get_tensor(output_details[2]['index'])
scale_2, zero_point_2 = output_details[2]['quantization']
landmark = ((q_output_2.astype(np.float32) - zero_point_2) * scale_2)[0]

# Taken from https://github.com/quic/ai-hub-models/blob/8cdeb11df6cc835b9b0b0cf9b602c7aa83ebfaf8/qai_hub_models/utils/bounding_box_processing.py#L369
def get_iou(boxA: np.ndarray, boxB: np.ndarray) -> float:
    xA = max(boxA[0], boxB[0])
    yA = max(boxA[1], boxB[1])
    xB = min(boxA[2], boxB[2])
    yB = min(boxA[3], boxB[3])
    inter_area = max(0, xB - xA + 1) * max(0, yB - yA + 1)
    boxA_area = (boxA[2] - boxA[0] + 1) * (boxA[3] - boxA[1] + 1)
    boxB_area = (boxB[2] - boxB[0] + 1) * (boxB[3] - boxB[1] + 1)
    return inter_area / float(boxA_area + boxB_area - inter_area)

# Taken from https://github.com/quic/ai-hub-models/blob/8cdeb11df6cc835b9b0b0cf9b602c7aa83ebfaf8/qai_hub_models/models/face_det_lite/utils.py
class BBox:
    def __init__(self, label, xyrb, score=0, landmark=None, rotate=False):
        self.label = label
        self.score = score
        self.landmark = landmark
        self.x, self.y, self.r, self.b = xyrb
        self.rotate = rotate
        minx = min(self.x, self.r)
        maxx = max(self.x, self.r)
        miny = min(self.y, self.b)
        maxy = max(self.y, self.b)
        self.x, self.y, self.r, self.b = minx, miny, maxx, maxy

    @property
    def width(self): return self.r - self.x + 1
    @property
    def height(self): return self.b - self.y + 1
    @property
    def box(self): return [self.x, self.y, self.r, self.b]
    @box.setter
    def box(self, newvalue): self.x, self.y, self.r, self.b = newvalue
    @property
    def haslandmark(self): return self.landmark is not None
    @property
    def xywh(self): return [self.x, self.y, self.width, self.height]

def nms(objs, iou=0.5):
    if objs is None or len(objs) <= 1:
        return objs
    objs = sorted(objs, key=lambda obj: obj.score, reverse=True)
    keep = []
    flags = [0] * len(objs)
    for index, obj in enumerate(objs):
        if flags[index] != 0:
            continue
        keep.append(obj)
        for j in range(index + 1, len(objs)):
            if flags[j] == 0 and get_iou(np.array(obj.box), np.array(objs[j].box)) > iou:
                flags[j] = 1
    return keep

def detect(hm, box, landmark, threshold=0.2, nms_iou=0.2, stride=8):
    def _sigmoid(x):
        out = np.empty_like(x, dtype=np.float32)
        np.negative(x, out=out)
        np.exp(out, out=out)
        out += 1.0
        np.divide(1.0, out, out=out)
        return out

    def _maxpool3x3_same(x_hw):
        H, W = x_hw.shape
        pad = 1
        xpad = np.pad(x_hw, ((pad, pad), (pad, pad)), mode='constant', constant_values=-np.inf)
        s0, s1 = xpad.strides
        shape = (H, W, 3, 3)
        strides = (s0, s1, s0, s1)
        windows = np.lib.stride_tricks.as_strided(xpad, shape=shape, strides=strides, writeable=False)
        return windows.max(axis=(2, 3))

    def _topk_desc(values_flat, k):
        if k <= 0:
            return np.array([], dtype=values_flat.dtype), np.array([], dtype=np.int64)
        k = min(k, values_flat.size)
        idx_part = np.argpartition(-values_flat, k - 1)[:k]
        order = np.argsort(-values_flat[idx_part])
        idx_sorted = idx_part[order]
        return values_flat[idx_sorted], idx_sorted

    hm = _sigmoid(hm.astype(np.float32, copy=False))
    hm_hw = hm[..., 0]
    hm_pool = _maxpool3x3_same(hm_hw)
    keep = (hm_hw >= hm_pool)
    candidate_scores = np.where(keep, hm_hw, 0.0).ravel()
    num_candidates = int(keep.sum())
    k = min(num_candidates, 2000)
    scores_k, flat_idx_k = _topk_desc(candidate_scores, k)

    H, W = hm_hw.shape
    ys = (flat_idx_k // W).astype(np.int32)
    xs = (flat_idx_k %  W).astype(np.int32)

    objs = []
    for cx, cy, score in zip(xs, ys, scores_k):
        if score < threshold:
            break
        x, y, r, b = box[cy, cx].astype(np.float32, copy=False)
        cxcycxcy = np.array([cx, cy, cx, cy], dtype=np.float32)
        xyrb = (cxcycxcy + np.array([-x, -y, r, b], dtype=np.float32)) * float(stride)
        xyrb = xyrb.astype(np.int32, copy=False).tolist()
        x5y5 = landmark[cy, cx].astype(np.float32, copy=False)
        x5y5 = x5y5 + np.array([cx]*5 + [cy]*5, dtype=np.float32)
        x5y5 *= float(stride)
        box_landmark = list(zip(x5y5[:5].tolist(), x5y5[5:].tolist()))
        objs.append(BBox("0", xyrb=xyrb, score=float(score), landmark=box_landmark))

    if nms_iou != -1:
        return nms(objs, iou=nms_iou)
    return objs

dets = detect(hm, box, landmark, threshold=0.55, nms_iou=-1, stride=8)
res = []
for n in range(0, len(dets)):
    xmin, ymin, w, h = dets[n].xywh
    score = dets[n].score
    L, R, T, B = int(xmin), int(xmin + w), int(ymin), int(ymin + h)
    W, H = int(w), int(h)

    if L < 0: L = 0
    if T < 0: T = 0
    if R >= 640: R = 640 - 1
    if B >= 480: B = 480 - 1

    b_Left = L - int(W * 0.05)
    b_Top = T - int(H * 0.05)
    b_Width = int(W * 1.1)
    b_Height = int(H * 1.1)

    if b_Left >= 0 and b_Top >= 0 and b_Width - 1 + b_Left < 640 and b_Height - 1 + b_Top < 480:
        L, T, W, H = b_Left, b_Top, b_Width, b_Height
        R, B = W - 1 + L, H - 1 + T

    print(f'Found face: x={L}, y={T}, w={W}, h={H}, score={score}')
    res.append([L, T, W, H, score])

# === END POSTPROCESSING ===

# Create output image with bounding boxes
input_reshaped = input_data.reshape(input_data.shape[1:])
if input_reshaped.shape[2] == 1:
    input_reshaped = np.squeeze(input_reshaped, axis=-1)

img_out = Image.fromarray(input_reshaped).convert("RGB")
draw = ImageDraw.Draw(img_out)
for bb in res:
    L, T, W, H, score = bb
    draw.rectangle([L, T, L + W, T + H], outline="#00FF00", width=3)
img_out.save(IMAGE_OUT)

print('')
print(f'Inference took (on average): {(end - start) / 10}ms. per image')
4

Run on CPU

python3 face_detection.py

# INFO: Created TensorFlow Lite XNNPACK delegate for CPU.
# Found face: x=120, y=186, w=62, h=79, score=0.8306506276130676
# Found face: x=311, y=125, w=66, h=81, score=0.8148472309112549
# Found face: x=424, y=173, w=64, h=86, score=0.8093323111534119
#
# Inference took (on average): 29.8ms. per image
This already brings down our time per inference from 106.86ms to 29.8ms.
5

Run on NPU

python3 face_detection.py --use-npu

# Found face: x=312, y=125, w=64, h=81, score=0.8202381134033203
# Found face: x=120, y=186, w=62, h=78, score=0.8202381134033203
# Found face: x=421, y=173, w=67, h=86, score=0.8093323111534119
#
# Inference took (on average): 1.5ms. per image
By quantizing this model and porting it to the NPU we’ve sped the model up 71x. You’re not limited to Python either — the LiteRT page has C++ examples as well.