DEPLOYMENT.md

🍓 Raspberry Pi Deployment Guide

This guide will help you deploy the Realtime Crowd Counting & Detection system on a Raspberry Pi.

Prerequisites

• Hardware: Raspberry Pi 4 or 5 (recommended 4GB+ RAM).
• Camera: Raspberry Pi Camera Module 3 or similar (Picamera2 compatible) OR USB Webcam.
• OS: Raspberry Pi OS (64-bit Bookworm or newer recommended).

Installation

1. Transfer Files: Copy the entire project folder to your Raspberry Pi Desktop.

   /home/pi/Desktop/Realtime-Crowd-Counting-Detection

2. Run Setup Script: Open a terminal in the project folder and run:

   cd /home/pi/Desktop/Realtime-Crowd-Counting-Detection
   chmod +x setup_rpi.sh
   ./setup_rpi.sh

   This script will:

   • Update system packages.
   • Install dependencies (Python, OpenCV, Picamera2).
   • Install the systemd service.

Running the Application

✅ Automatic Start (Service)

The application is set to start automatically on boot.

• Start: sudo systemctl start crowd_counting.service
• Stop: sudo systemctl stop crowd_counting.service
• Restart: sudo systemctl restart crowd_counting.service
• Check Status: sudo systemctl status crowd_counting.service
• View Logs: sudo journalctl -u crowd_counting.service -f

🔧 Manual Run

To run the server manually for debugging:

python3 app.py

Access the web dashboard at: http://<YOUR-PI-IP>:5000

Configuration

• Zone Setup: Go to http://<YOUR-PI-IP>:5000/settings to adjust the counting zone size.
• Camera Selection: The system automatically prioritizes the Pi Camera. If not found, it falls back to USB Webcam (index 0).

Troubleshooting

• Camera not detected? Ensure camera cable is seated correctly and legacy camera stack is disabled (if using libcamera/picamera2).
• Performance issues? Use a smaller model (already using yolo11n.pt) or reduce resolution in app.py.