Start OpenVINO™ toolkit Python Application at Boot Time using System Service on Raspbian* OS

Introduction

This guide provides users with steps for creating a system service to initialize OpenVINO™ toolkit environment variables and run the benchmark_app.py Python application for Raspbian*. This process may apply to other Linux* distributions but this guide was written to work for Raspbian* OS.

The steps below assume you have OpenVINO™ toolkit installed and that your installation has been verified. If you have not yet done so, please visit the following links:

• Cross-Compiling OpenVINO™ Toolkit and NCS2 Plugin Using Pre-configured Dockerfile for 32-Bit Debian* OS
• Install OpenVINO™ toolkit for Raspbian* OS

System Requirements

• Raspbian* Buster, 32-bit

Steps to Create System Service File

1. Install tools and download necessary files:

   sudo pip install progress
   cd ~/
   wget https://storage.openvinotoolkit.org/repositories/open_model_zoo/2022.1/models_bin/3/person-vehicle-bike-detection-crossroad-0078/FP16/person-vehicle-bike-detection-crossroad-0078.bin -O ~/Downloads/person-vehicle-bike-detection-crossroad-0078.bin
   wget https://storage.openvinotoolkit.org/repositories/open_model_zoo/2022.1/models_bin/3/person-vehicle-bike-detection-crossroad-0078/FP16/person-vehicle-bike-detection-crossroad-0078.xml -O ~/Downloads/person-vehicle-bike-detection-crossroad-0078.xml
   wget https://github.com/intel-iot-devkit/sample-videos/raw/master/people-detection.mp4 -O ~/Downloads/people-detection.mp4

2. Create bash script to initialize OpenVINO* environment variables and execute python script:

   vi ~/openvino-object-detection-demo-script

   #!/bin/bash
   source /home/pi/openvino_dist/setupvars.sh
   /usr/bin/python3 /home/pi/openvino_dist/extras/open_model_zoo/demos/object_detection_demo/python/object_detection_demo.py -i /home/pi/Downloads/people-detection.mp4 -m /home/pi/Downloads/person-vehicle-bike-detection-crossroad-0078.xml -d MYRIAD -at ssd

3. Change bash script file permissions and ownership:

   chmod u+x ~/openvino-object-detection-demo-script

4. Create service file under /etc/systemd/system with contents as shown below:

   sudo vi /etc/systemd/system/openvino-object-detection-demo.service

   [Unit]
   Description=Init OpenVINO env and run python object detection demo
   After=network.target

   [Service]
   ExecStart=/home/pi/openvino-object-detection-demo-script
   WorkingDirectory=/home/pi
   StandardOutput=inherit
   StandardError=inherit
   Restart=on-failure
   User=pi

   [Install]
   WantedBy=multi-user.target

5. Enable system service to start at boot and start system service:

   sudo systemctl enable openvino-object-detection-demo.service
   sudo systemctl start openvino-object-detection-demo.service

6. To check system service status:

   sudo systemctl status openvino-object-detection-demo.service

7. Or to disable service during boot time, first stop service and then disable service:

   sudo systemctl stop openvino-object-detection-demo.service
   sudo systemctl disable openvino-object-detection-demo.service

For more information about system service for Linux*, please take a look at the manual page for systemd.

man systemd