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Brain Builder for the FLIR Firefly DL Camera

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Brain Builder supports training Classifiers and Detectors that can be deployed to the FLIR Firefly DL camera. This process is similar to training standard Classifiers and Detectors in Brain Builder, but there are a few differences.

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Brain Training for the FLIR Firefly DL camera is available to FLIR customers.

If you require access to this feature, please reach out to your FLIR account representative.

Training Workflow

The workflow to train a Brain for the FLIR Firefly DL is as follows:

  1. For Classifiers, train the "Working Brain" according to the standard Brain Builder training process. For more information on this training process, see Creating Datasets and Uploading Images and Training Classifiers and Anomaly Recognizers. For Detectors, annotate the images with bounding boxes in the same way as for a standard Detector.
  2. Once you are satisfied with the performance of your Working Brain, convert it to the FLIR Firefly DL Brain format.
  3. Download the FLIR Firefly DL Brain to your computer and upload it to the FLIR Firefly DL camera.

Training the Working Brain

The Working Brain is built using Neurala's Lifelong-DNN AI architecture. This is the technology that Brain Builder uses to incrementally train the Brain with each image that is uploaded and labeled in Brain Builder. This technology allows for iteration and development of the Brain during the training process.

The training process is detailed in the Knowledge Base at Creating Datasets and Uploading Images and Training Classifiers and Anomaly Recognizers.

Evaluating Performance of the Working Brain

As you train the Working Brain, Brain Builder measures its accuracy and you can review its performance on the Evaluate page. These metrics are further documented at Evaluating Brain Performance.

When the Working Brain's performance is satisfactory (or close to it), proceed to the next step.

Creating the FLIR Firefly DL Brain

Before you can download the Brain to be used on the FLIR Firefly DL camera, it has to be converted to the appropriate format. This can be done with the following steps:

  1. Navigate to the Evaluate page.
  2. Click on the FLIR Firefly DL Brain header.
  3. Review the options and then click Build FLIR Firefly DL Brain.

Brain Builder will show the progress of the building process as it advances. The time it takes to complete the build is dependent on the number of images that are in the training dataset.

Review Performance of the FLIR Firefly DL Brain

After the build process has completed, Brain Builder will show the measured accuracy of the FLIR Firefly DL Brain.

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Accuracy Differences

The accuracy of the FLIR Firefly DL Brain may be different than the accuracy of the Working Brain. In many cases, the FLIR Firefly DL Brain will have higher average accuracy.

To further improve the accuracy of the FLIR Firefly DL Brain, you can rebuild it with different options selected, or you can update the Working Brain (e.g. by uploading more training images) and then rebuild the FLIR Firefly DL Brain.

Testing the FLIR Firefly DL Brain

Brain Builder provides a test page where you can use new images to further test the performance of the FLIR Firefly DL Brain.

  1. Navigate to the Test screen.
  2. Use the field on the right side to upload an image or provide the URL of an image for the FLIR Firefly DL Brain to analyze.
  3. The FLIR Firefly DL Brain will analyze the image and make a prediction as to its class.

This feature allows you to see how the Brain would classify new images that were not uploaded as part of the training dataset.

Export the FLIR Firefly DL Brain

To deploy the FLIR Firefly DL Brain to the camera, you must first download it from Brain Builder.

  1. Navigate to the Export page.
    If a Region of Interest (ROI) has been used when training the Brain, the details of the ROI will be listed on the Export page with instructions on how to apply then when deploying the Brain on the FLIR Firefly DL camera.
  2. Click the Download Brain button.
  3. The Brain will be downloaded as a .zip file. The zip file includes two files you will need to load the Brain onto the camera - firefly.ncsdk and labels.txt - and an instruction document with details about how to use the FLIR Spinview software to load the Brain onto the camera.
  4. Upload the Brain to the FLIR Firefly DL camera according to the instructions file that is included in the download and/or follow the process documented by FLIR here. Note that if the Brain was trained using an ROI, then the instructions file in the download details how to set the ROI on the Firefly DL camera.

Additional Resources

Training a Brain for the FLIR Firefly DL camera should be done according to the best practices recommended for all Brain Builder training. Here are additional resources that might be helpful:

Updated about 2 months ago