Intel/object-counting

Object Counting

Property	Value
Category	Object Detection + Counting (80-class COCO)
Base Model	YOLO26 (Ultralytics, default) or DETR (Facebook, alternative)
Source Framework	PyTorch (Ultralytics, Hugging Face Transformers)
Supported Precisions	FP32, FP16, INT8 (mixed-precision)
Inference Engine	OpenVINO
Hardware	CPU, GPU, NPU
Detected Class(es)	All 80 COCO classes (counted per class)

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Overview

Object Counting is a Metro Analytics use case that detects objects and reports how many of each class are present in an image or per video frame. It is built on YOLO26, a state-of-the-art real-time object detector, quantized to INT8 for efficient inference on Intel hardware. Counting is implemented as a thin aggregation layer on top of the strongest general-purpose detector, which keeps it accurate and reusable across classes. The DLStreamer sample below demonstrates this on a traffic scene sample video, counting person, bicycle, and car detections per frame.

Typical Metro deployments include:

• Occupancy Counting -- count people on a platform or in a waiting area.
• Vehicle Counting -- count cars, buses, and trucks at an intersection.
• Inventory Counting -- count bags, bottles, or other items in a zone.
• Throughput Metrics -- aggregate per-frame counts into time series.

Available variants: yolo26n, yolo26s, yolo26m, yolo26l. Smaller variants (yolo26n, yolo26s) are recommended for high-FPS edge deployment; larger variants improve recall for small or distant objects.

For line-crossing counts (directional entry/exit), see the vehicle-entry-exit-logging use case.

Model Selection

DETR (DEtection TRansformer) is available as an alternative to YOLO26. DETR is a transformer-based, NMS-free detector trained on COCO and released under the Apache-2.0 license. The export script embeds DETR normalization, box decoding, and the class remap into the OpenVINO IR, so the DETR model produces the same output layout and class ids as YOLO26. The same OpenVINO and DLStreamer samples run either model; select one with the MODEL constant at the top of each sample.

Model	Variants	Input Size	Output	License
YOLO26 (default)	yolo26n, yolo26s, yolo26m, yolo26l	640 x 640	[1, 300, 6]	AGPL-3.0
DETR	detr-resnet-50	800 x 800	[1, 100, 6]	Apache-2.0

Choose YOLO26 for maximum throughput on edge devices. Choose DETR when a permissively licensed transformer detector is preferred; it is heavier and runs at a lower frame rate.

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Prerequisites

Target stack: Intel DLStreamer 2026.3.0 RC1 with the matching OpenVINO GenAI bundle 2026.5.0.0.dev20261030 (OpenVINO Runtime 2026.5.0.dev20261030). Use the native RC1 setup before running these samples; this is a development stack, not a stable release. See the device validation matrix for measured CPU, GPU, and NPU results.

• Python 3.11+
• Install OpenVINO (latest version)
• Install Intel DLStreamer (latest version)

Create and activate a Python virtual environment before running the scripts:

python3 -m venv .venv --system-site-packages
source .venv/bin/activate

Note: The --system-site-packages flag is required so the virtual environment can access the system-installed OpenVINO and DLStreamer Python packages.

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Getting Started

Download and Quantize Model

Run the provided script to download, export to OpenVINO IR, and optionally quantize:

chmod +x export_and_quantize.sh
./export_and_quantize.sh

This exports the default yolo26n model in FP16 precision.

Optional: Select a Different Model, Variant, or Precision

./export_and_quantize.sh yolo26n FP32          # full-precision
./export_and_quantize.sh yolo26n INT8          # quantized
./export_and_quantize.sh yolo26s               # larger variant, default FP16
./export_and_quantize.sh detr-resnet-50        # DETR alternative, default FP16
./export_and_quantize.sh detr-resnet-50 INT8   # DETR quantized

The first argument selects the model: any YOLO26 variant (yolo26n, yolo26s, yolo26m, yolo26l) or DETR (detr-resnet-50). The second argument selects the precision (FP32, FP16, INT8); the default is FP16.

The script performs the following steps:

1. Installs dependencies (openvino, ultralytics for YOLO26 or transformers, torch for DETR; adds nncf for INT8).
2. Downloads a sample test image (test.jpg) and a sample test video (test_video.mp4, the person-bicycle-car-detection.mp4 street scene from Intel IoT DevKit's sample-videos repository).
3. Downloads the PyTorch weights and exports to OpenVINO IR.
4. (INT8 only) Quantizes the model using NNCF post-training quantization.

Output files (replace yolo26n with the selected model, for example detr-resnet-50):

• yolo26n_openvino_model/ -- FP32 or FP16 OpenVINO IR model directory.
• yolo26n_objcount_int8.xml / yolo26n_objcount_int8.bin -- INT8 quantized model (only when INT8 is selected).

Precision / Device Compatibility

Precision	CPU	GPU	NPU
FP32	Yes	Yes	No
FP16	Yes	Yes	Yes
INT8	Yes	Yes	Yes

Note: The INT8 calibration uses the bundled sample image. For production accuracy, replace it with a representative set of frames from the target deployment site.

OpenVINO Sample

The sample below runs YOLO26 inference, then aggregates detections into a per-class count and a total count for a single image. YOLO26 is end-to-end (NMS-free), so no manual non-maximum suppression is needed. Change the device string to run on CPU, GPU, or NPU.

The full sample is in openvino_sample.py; run it with python3 openvino_sample.py or copy the code below.

# SPDX-License-Identifier: MIT
# Copyright (C) Intel Corporation
#
# Object Counting: OpenVINO Runtime sample.
# See README.md for prerequisites and inputs. Run: python3 openvino_sample.py

from collections import Counter

import cv2
import numpy as np
import openvino as ov

CONF_THRESHOLD = 0.4
# Select the model: "yolo26n" (default) or "detr-resnet-50".
MODEL = "yolo26n"
INPUT_SIZE = 800 if MODEL.startswith("detr") else 640

core = ov.Core()
model = core.read_model(f"{MODEL}_openvino_model/{MODEL}.xml")

# YOLO26 embeds the 80 COCO class names in rt_info -- read them instead of
# hardcoding the list. Ultralytics separates multi-word names with
# underscores (e.g. "traffic_light"), so restore spaces for display.
COCO_NAMES = [
    name.replace("_", " ")
    for name in model.get_rt_info()["model_info"]["labels"].value.split()
]

# Change device to "GPU" or "NPU" to run on integrated GPU or NPU.
compiled = core.compile_model(model, "CPU")

image = cv2.imread("test.jpg")
h0, w0 = image.shape[:2]

blob = cv2.resize(image, (INPUT_SIZE, INPUT_SIZE))
blob = cv2.cvtColor(blob, cv2.COLOR_BGR2RGB).astype(np.float32) / 255.0
blob = blob.transpose(2, 0, 1)[np.newaxis, ...]  # NCHW

# End-to-end output: [1, N, 6] = [x1, y1, x2, y2, confidence, class_id]
# (N = 300 for YOLO26, 100 for DETR)
output = compiled([blob])[compiled.output(0)][0]
dets = output[output[:, 4] >= CONF_THRESHOLD]

sx, sy = w0 / INPUT_SIZE, h0 / INPUT_SIZE
counts = Counter(COCO_NAMES[int(d[5])] for d in dets)

print(f"Total objects: {len(dets)}")
print("Object counts:")
for name, n in sorted(counts.items(), key=lambda kv: (-kv[1], kv[0])):
    print(f"  {name}: {n}")

colors = np.random.RandomState(42).randint(0, 255, (80, 3)).tolist()
for det in dets:
    x1, y1, x2, y2 = (int(det[0] * sx), int(det[1] * sy),
                      int(det[2] * sx), int(det[3] * sy))
    cid = int(det[5])
    cv2.rectangle(image, (x1, y1), (x2, y2), colors[cid], 2)
    cv2.putText(image, COCO_NAMES[cid], (x1, y1 - 5),
                cv2.FONT_HERSHEY_SIMPLEX, 0.6, colors[cid], 2)

summary = ", ".join(f"{n} {name}" for name, n in counts.items())
cv2.putText(image, summary[:60], (10, 30),
            cv2.FONT_HERSHEY_SIMPLEX, 0.6, (0, 255, 0), 2)
cv2.imwrite("output_openvino.jpg", image)

Device targets:

• "CPU" -- default, works on all Intel platforms.
• "GPU" -- Intel integrated or discrete GPU.
• "NPU" -- Intel NPU (validate with benchmark_app -d NPU).

Try It on a Sample Image

The export_and_quantize.sh script downloads test.jpg automatically. Re-run the OpenVINO sample above. The script reads test.jpg, prints the per-class counts to the console, and writes the annotated frame to output_openvino.jpg.

Expected console output (representative):

Total objects: 5
Object counts:
  person: 4
  bus: 1

Expected Output

DLStreamer Sample

The pipeline below runs the FP16 YOLO26 detector on the sample video via gvadetect, overlays bounding boxes with gvawatermark, saves the annotated result to output_dlstreamer.mp4, and prints the per-frame person, bicycle, and car counts by reading the GstAnalytics detection metadata. The sample video (person-bicycle-car-detection.mp4) is a street scene containing pedestrians, a cyclist, and cars, matching the three classes counted below.

Notes on running this sample:

• Use the FP16 IR (yolo26n_openvino_model/yolo26n.xml or detr-resnet-50_openvino_model/detr-resnet-50.xml). Class names are read automatically from the model's embedded metadata.yaml by DLStreamer 2026.0+ -- no external labels-file is required.

• Export PYTHONPATH so the DLStreamer Python module is importable:

  source /opt/intel/openvino_2026/setupvars.sh
  source /opt/intel/dlstreamer/scripts/setup_dls_env.sh
  export PYTHONPATH=/opt/intel/dlstreamer/python:\
  /opt/intel/dlstreamer/gstreamer/lib/python3/dist-packages:${PYTHONPATH:-}
  

The full sample is in dlstreamer_sample.py; run it with python3 dlstreamer_sample.py or copy the code below.

# SPDX-License-Identifier: MIT
# Copyright (C) Intel Corporation
#
# Object Counting: DLStreamer pipeline sample.
# See README.md for prerequisites and inputs. Run: python3 dlstreamer_sample.py

from collections import Counter

import gi

gi.require_version("Gst", "1.0")
gi.require_version("GstAnalytics", "1.0")
from gi.repository import Gst, GLib, GstAnalytics

Gst.init([])

INPUT_VIDEO = "test_video.mp4"

# Only these classes are counted; the sample video contains pedestrians,
# a cyclist, and cars.
CLASSES_OF_INTEREST = {"person", "bicycle", "car"}

# Select the model: "yolo26n" (default) or "detr-resnet-50".
MODEL = "yolo26n"

# For CPU: change device=GPU to device=CPU.
# For NPU: change device=GPU to device=NPU (batch-size=1, nireq=4 recommended).
pipeline_str = (
    f"filesrc location={INPUT_VIDEO} ! decodebin3 ! "
    "videoconvert ! "
    f"gvadetect model={MODEL}_openvino_model/{MODEL}.xml "
    "device=GPU "
    "threshold=0.4 ! queue ! "
    "gvawatermark ! videoconvert ! video/x-raw,format=I420 ! "
    "openh264enc ! h264parse ! "
    "mp4mux ! filesink name=sink location=output_dlstreamer.mp4"
)
pipeline = Gst.parse_launch(pipeline_str)


def on_buffer(pad, info):
    buf = info.get_buffer()
    rmeta = GstAnalytics.buffer_get_analytics_relation_meta(buf)
    if rmeta is None:
        return Gst.PadProbeReturn.OK
    counts = Counter()
    idx = 1
    while True:
        ok, od = rmeta.get_od_mtd(idx)
        if not ok:
            break
        label = GLib.quark_to_string(od.get_obj_type())
        if label in CLASSES_OF_INTEREST:
            counts[label] += 1
        idx += 1
    if counts:
        summary = ", ".join(f"{n} {name}" for name, n in counts.items())
        print(f"Object counts: {summary}", flush=True)
    return Gst.PadProbeReturn.OK


sink = pipeline.get_by_name("sink")
sink.get_static_pad("sink").add_probe(Gst.PadProbeType.BUFFER, on_buffer)

pipeline.set_state(Gst.State.PLAYING)
bus = pipeline.get_bus()
bus.timed_pop_filtered(
    Gst.CLOCK_TIME_NONE,
    Gst.MessageType.EOS | Gst.MessageType.ERROR,
)
pipeline.set_state(Gst.State.NULL)

Device targets:

• device=GPU -- default in the sample code.
• device=CPU -- change device=GPU to device=CPU.
• device=NPU -- change device=GPU to device=NPU; use batch-size=1 and nireq=4 for best NPU utilization.

Expected Output

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License

Licensed under the MIT License. See LICENSE for details.

References

• YOLO26 Documentation
• DETR Model Card (facebook/detr-resnet-50)
• End-to-End Object Detection with Transformers (DETR paper)
• Ultralytics Object Counting Guide
• Intel DLStreamer gvadetect
• OpenVINO Documentation
• NNCF Post-Training Quantization
• Intel DLStreamer