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Cover image for How I Built a 140 FPS Real-Time Face Landmark App with Just YOLOv9 + MediaPipe (5-Part Series)
MohammadReza Mahdian
MohammadReza Mahdian

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How I Built a 140 FPS Real-Time Face Landmark App with Just YOLOv9 + MediaPipe (5-Part Series)

A fast, clean, production-ready face detection + detailed facial landmark pipeline built from scratch in pure Python.

Runs at 120–140 FPS on a regular laptop (no dedicated GPU needed).

All 5 parts are now live. Finish the whole series in ~2 hours and walk away with a complete, real-time app.

Series Contents

Part Title Link
1 Project Setup & Clean Architecture Part 1 →
2 ConfigModel – Load YOLO Only Once Part 2 →
3 OpenCVBase – Eliminate Duplicate Code Part 3 →
4 YOLOv9 + MediaPipe FaceMesh (539 refined landmarks) Part 4 →
5 Final Rendering + Complete Real-Time App Part 5 →

Full Source CodeGitHub
DemoLinkedIn

Tech Stack

  • Python 3.11+
  • Ultralytics YOLOv9t-face (lindevs model)
  • MediaPipe FaceMesh with refine_landmarks=True
  • Pure OpenCV (no heavy extra dependencies)

Why this series stands out

  • Zero code duplication
  • Models loaded only once → maximum FPS
  • Fully modular OOP design – extend in minutes
  • Perfect portfolio / resume / startup prototype project

Prerequisites: Basic Python + some OpenCV knowledge (Part 1 covers the rest).

If you enjoyed this series — star the repo, give this post 50 claps (really helps!), and follow for more production-grade computer vision content.

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