Face Blur

Face Blur is a Python script that automatically detects and blurs faces in images using the MTCNN (Multi-task Cascaded Convolutional Networks) face detection model.

Prerequisites

Before running this script, ensure you have Python 3.6 or later installed on your system. You can download Python from python.org.

Installation

1. Clone this repository or download the script to your local machine.

2. Open a terminal or command prompt and navigate to the directory containing the script.

3. It's recommended to create a virtual environment:

python -m venv venv

4. Activate the virtual environment:

• On Windows:

  venv\Scripts\activate
  

• On macOS and Linux:

  source venv/bin/activate
  

5. Install the required packages using pip:

pip install opencv-python numpy mtcnn

Usage

1. Ensure your virtual environment is activated.

2. Run the script using Python:

python face_blur.py

3. When prompted, enter the full path to the directory containing the images you want to process.

Example:

Enter the path of the directory containing images to process: C:\Users\YourName\Pictures\ToBlur

4. The script will process all image files (jpg, jpeg, png, bmp) in the specified directory.

How it works

1. The script uses the MTCNN model to detect faces in each image.
2. It then applies a Gaussian blur to each detected face region.
3. The processed images are saved in a new directory named "blurred_results" within the input directory.

Output

• Processed images are saved in a new folder named "blurred_results" within the input directory.
• The original filenames are preserved for the blurred images.
• Console output provides information about each step of the process, including:
• When image processing starts
• Number of faces detected in each image
• When face blurring is completed
• The path where each processed image is saved

Supported Image Formats

• JPEG (.jpg, .jpeg)
• PNG (.png)
• BMP (.bmp)

Notes

• Ensure you have the necessary permissions to read from the input directory and write to the output directory.
• The script processes only the images in the specified directory, not in its subdirectories.
• Processing time may vary depending on the number and size of the images, as well as the number of faces in each image.

Trouble shooting

If you encounter any issues:

• Ensure all required packages are correctly installed.
• Check that the input directory path is correct and accessible.
• Verify that you have write permissions in the input directory to create the "blurred_results" folder.

For any other issues, please open an issue in the GitHub repository.