Could not install pycocotools in windows: fatal error C1083: Cannot open include file: 'io.h': No such file or directory error:

Question

I'm new to machine learning and have started with a windows 8.1 pc having GeForce GTX 540M. I followed this tutorial to get started with the object detection models. I built my own dataset and tried to train it as per the tutorial but with "ssd_mobilenet_v1_coco_2017_11_17" model. But could not perform it successfully as i had troubles with the "train.py" file given in the tutorial.

So I googled and found that we have to use "model_main.py" to train the model. While trying to train using "model_main.py" I got this error:
"ImportModuleError: No module named 'pycocotools' was found"

So I tried to install the cocoapi from this link . I followed the instructions as given, but got stuck with the error shown below, I've tried a lot of solutions but nothing worked. Any help will be much appreciated.

(tensorflow1) C:\tensorflow1\models\research\object_detection>pip install git+https://github.com/philferriere/cocoapi.git#subdirectory=PythonAPI
Collecting git+https://github.com/philferriere/cocoapi.git#subdirectory=PythonAPI
  Cloning https://github.com/philferriere/cocoapi.git to c:\users\home\appdata\l
ocal\temp\pip-req-build-76t4e6ys
Building wheels for collected packages: pycocotools
  Running setup.py bdist_wheel for pycocotools ... error
  Complete output from command c:\users\home\anaconda3\envs\tensorflow1\python.exe -u -c "import setuptools, tokenize;__file__='C:\\Users\\Home\\AppData\\Local\\Temp\\pip-req-build-76t4e6ys\\PythonAPI\\setup.py';f=getattr(tokenize, 'open',open)(__file__);code=f.read().replace('\r\n', '\n');f.close();exec(compile(code, __file__, 'exec'))" bdist_wheel -d C:\Users\Home\AppData\Local\Temp\pip-wheel-4_r37hm6 --python-tag cp36:
  running bdist_wheel
  running build
  running build_py
  creating build
  creating build\lib.win-amd64-3.6
  creating build\lib.win-amd64-3.6\pycocotools
  copying pycocotools\coco.py -> build\lib.win-amd64-3.6\pycocotools
  copying pycocotools\cocoeval.py -> build\lib.win-amd64-3.6\pycocotools
  copying pycocotools\mask.py -> build\lib.win-amd64-3.6\pycocotools
  copying pycocotools\__init__.py -> build\lib.win-amd64-3.6\pycocotools
  running build_ext
  building 'pycocotools._mask' extension
  creating build\temp.win-amd64-3.6
  creating build\temp.win-amd64-3.6\Release
  creating build\temp.win-amd64-3.6\Release\pycocotools
  creating build\temp.win-amd64-3.6\common
  C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2017\Community\VC\Tools\MSVC\14.15.26726\bin\HostX86\x64\cl.exe /c/nologo /Ox /W3 /GL /DNDEBUG /MD -Ic:\users\home\anaconda3\envs\tensorflow1\lib\site-packages\numpy\core\include -I../common -Ic:\users\home\anaconda3\envs\tensorflow1\include -Ic:\users\home\anaconda3\envs\tensorflow1\include "-IC:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2017\Community\VC\Tools\MSVC\14.15.26726\ATLMFC\include" "-IC:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2017\Community\VC\Tools\MSVC\14.15.26726\include" /Tcpycocotools/_mask.c /Fobuild\temp.win-amd64-3.6\Release\pycocotools/_mask.obj
  _mask.c
  c:\users\home\anaconda3\envs\tensorflow1\include\pyconfig.h(59): fatal error C1083: Cannot open include file: 'io.h': No such file or directory
  error: command 'C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Microsoft Visual Studio\\2017\\Community\\VC\\Tools\\MSVC\\14.15.26726\\bin\\HostX86\\x64\\cl.exe' failed with exit status 2

  ----------------------------------------
  Failed building wheel for pycocotools
  Running setup.py clean for pycocotools
  Complete output from command c:\users\home\anaconda3\envs\tensorflow1\python.exe -u -c "import setuptools, tokenize;__file__='C:\\Users\\Home\\AppData\\Local\\Temp\\pip-req-build-76t4e6ys\\PythonAPI\\setup.py';f=getattr(tokenize, 'open',open)(__file__);code=f.read().replace('\r\n', '\n');f.close();exec(compile(code, __file__, 'exec'))" clean --all:
  Traceback (most recent call last):
    File "<string>", line 1, in <module>
    File "C:\Users\Home\AppData\Local\Temp\pip-req-build-76t4e6ys\PythonAPI\setup.py", line 25, in <module>
      cythonize(ext_modules)
    File "c:\users\home\anaconda3\envs\tensorflow1\lib\site-packages\Cython\Build\Dependencies.py", line 956, in cythonize
      aliases=aliases)
    File "c:\users\home\anaconda3\envs\tensorflow1\lib\site-packages\Cython\Buil
d\Dependencies.py", line 801, in create_extension_list
      for file in nonempty(sorted(extended_iglob(filepattern)), "'%s' doesn't ma
tch any files" % filepattern):
    File "c:\users\home\anaconda3\envs\tensorflow1\lib\site-packages\Cython\Buil
d\Dependencies.py", line 111, in nonempty
      raise ValueError(error_msg)
  ValueError: 'pycocotools/_mask.pyx' doesn't match any files

  ----------------------------------------
  Failed cleaning build dir for pycocotools
Failed to build pycocotools
Installing collected packages: pycocotools
  Running setup.py install for pycocotools ... error
    Complete output from command c:\users\home\anaconda3\envs\tensorflow1\python.exe -u -c "import setuptools, tokenize;__file__='C:\\Users\\Home\\AppData\\Local\\Temp\\pip-req-build-76t4e6ys\\PythonAPI\\setup.py';f=getattr(tokenize, 'open', open)(__file__);code=f.read().replace('\r\n', '\n');f.close();exec(compile(code, __file__, 'exec'))" build_ext "-L/C:/Program Files (x86)/Windows Kits/10/Include/10.0.17134.0/ucrt" install --record C:\Users\Home\AppData\Local\Temp\pip-record-ykypadav\install-record.txt --single-version-externally-managed --compile:
    running build_ext
    building 'pycocotools._mask' extension
    C:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2017\Community\VC\Tools\MSVC\14.15.26726\bin\HostX86\x64\cl.exe /c/nologo /Ox /W3 /GL /DNDEBUG /MD -Ic:\users\home\anaconda3\envs\tensorflow1\lib\site-packages\numpy\core\include -I../common -Ic:\users\home\anaconda3\envs\tensorflow1\include -Ic:\users\home\anaconda3\envs\tensorflow1\include "-IC:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2017\Community\VC\Tools\MSVC\14.15.26726\ATLMFC\include" "-IC:\Program Files (x86)\Microsoft Visual Studio\2017\Community\VC\Tools\MSVC\14.15.26726\include" /Tcpycocotools/_mask.c /Fobuild\temp.win-amd64-3.6\Release\pycocotools/_mask.obj
    _mask.c
    c:\users\home\anaconda3\envs\tensorflow1\include\pyconfig.h(59): fatal error
 C1083: Cannot open include file: 'io.h': No such file or directory
    error: command 'C:\\Program Files (x86)\\Microsoft Visual Studio\\2017\\Community\\VC\\Tools\\MSVC\\14.15.26726\\bin\\HostX86\\x64\\cl.exe' failed with exit
 status 2

    ----------------------------------------
Command "c:\users\home\anaconda3\envs\tensorflow1\python.exe -u -c "import setup
tools, tokenize;__file__='C:\\Users\\Home\\AppData\\Local\\Temp\\pip-req-build-76t4e6ys\\PythonAPI\\setup.py';f=getattr(tokenize, 'open', open)(__file__);code=f.read().replace('\r\n', '\n');f.close();exec(compile(code, __file__, 'exec'))" build_ext "-L/C:/Program Files (x86)/Windows Kits/10/Include/10.0.17134.0/ucrt" install --record C:\Users\Home\AppData\Local\Temp\pip-record-ykypadav\install-record.txt --single-version-externally-managed --compile" failed with error code 1
in C:\Users\Home\AppData\Local\Temp\pip-req-build-76t4e6ys\PythonAPI

(tensorflow1) C:\tensorflow1\models\research\object_detection>

Answer 1

easy fix, use pip install pycocotools-windows

Answer 2

First install Visual C++ 2015 Build Tools from https://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=691126 with default selection. Then,
pip install git+https://github.com/philferriere/cocoapi.git#egg=pycocotools^&subdirectory=PythonAPI