python - error: (-215) !empty() in function detectMultiScale

Question

I'm trying to learn cv2 in python 2.7, but when I run my code, in the specific part of it:

face_cascade = cv2.CascadeClassifier('haarcascade_frontalface_default.xml')
 eye_cascade = cv2.CascadeClassifier('haarcascade_eye.xml')


img = cv2.imread('2015-05-27-191152.jpg')
gray = cv2.cvtColor(img, cv2.COLOR_BGR2GRAY)

faces = face_cascade.detectMultiScale(gray, 1.3, 5)
for (x,y,w,h) in faces:
    img = cv2.rectangle(img,(x,y),(x+w,y+h),(255,0,0),2)

it returns this:

File "face_detection.py", line 11, in <module>
    faces = face_cascade.detectMultiScale(gray, 1.3, 5)
cv2.error: /home/arthurckl/Desktop/opencv-3.0.0-rc1/modules/objdetect/src/cascadedetect.cpp:1595: error: (-215) !empty() in function detectMultiScale

I tried to search the answer here but the best i could find is that I must be loading the face_cascade the wrong way... Any help?

Answer 1

I had the same issue.

I didn't need to download anything else to solve this. CV2 had everything I needed.

Instead of trying to figure out where the .xml files are and hard coding the values, I used a property given by cv2.

From OP

face_cascade = cv2.CascadeClassifier('haarcascade_frontalface_default.xml')
eye_cascade = cv2.CascadeClassifier('haarcascade_eye.xml')

Becomes

face_cascade = cv2.CascadeClassifier(cv2.data.haarcascades + 'haarcascade_frontalface_default.xml')
eye_cascade = cv2.CascadeClassifier(cv2.data.haarcascades + 'haarcascade_eye.xml')