Repository for OpenVINO's extra modules

This repository is intended for the development of so-called "extra" modules, contributed functionality. New modules quite often do not have stable API, and they are not well-tested. Thus, they shouldn't be released as a part of official OpenVINO distribution, since the library maintains backward compatibility, and tries to provide decent performance and stability.

So, all the new modules should be developed separately, and published in the openvino_contrib repository at first. Later, when the module matures and gains popularity, it is moved to the central OpenVINO repository, and the development team provides production-quality support for this module.

An overview of the openvino_contrib modules

This list gives an overview of all modules available inside the contrib repository.

• arm_plugin: ARM CPU Plugin -- allows to perform deep neural networks inference on ARM CPUs, using OpenVINO API.
• nvidia_plugin: NVIDIA GPU Plugin -- allows to perform deep neural networks inference on NVIDIA GPUs using CUDA, using OpenVINO API.
• java_api: Inference Engine Java API -- provides Java wrappers for Inference Engine public API.
• Azure Video Analyzer: Azure Video Analyzer Extension -- enables exchange of video frames and inference results between Azure Video Analyzer (AVA) and OpenVINO™ Model Server.
• custom_operations: Collection of Custom Operations -- implement Custom Operations with OpenVINO Extensibility Mechanism.

How to build OpenVINO with extra modules

You can build OpenVINO, so it will include the modules from this repository. Contrib modules are under constant development and it is recommended to use them alongside the master branch or latest releases of OpenVINO.

Here is the CMake command for you:

$ cd <openvino_build_directory>
$ cmake -DOPENVINO_EXTRA_MODULES=<openvino_contrib>/modules <openvino_source_directory>
$ cmake --build . -j8

As the result, OpenVINO will be built in the <openvino_build_directory> with all modules from openvino_contrib repository. To disable specific modules, use CMake's BUILD_<module_name> boolean options. Like in this example:

$ cmake -DOPENVINO_EXTRA_MODULES=<openvino_contrib>/modules -DBUILD_java_api=OFF <openvino_source_directory>

Additional build instructions are available for the following modules:

• nvidia_plugin
• ovms_ai_extension
• custom_operations

Update the repository documentation

In order to keep a clean overview containing all contributed modules, the following files need to be created/adapted:

• Update this file. Here, you add your module with a single line description.

• Add a README.md inside your own module folder. This README explains which functionality (separate functions) is available, explains in somewhat more detail what the module is expected to do. If any extra requirements are needed to build the module without problems, add them here also.

How to Contribute

We welcome community contributions to the openvino_contrib repository. If you have an idea how to improve the modules, please share it with us. All guidelines for contributing to the repository can be found here.