def _load_pascal_annotation(self, index):
        """
        Load image and bounding boxes info from XML file in the PASCAL VOC
        format.
        """
        filename = os.path.join(self._data_path, 'Annotations', index + '.xml')
        tree = ET.parse(filename)
        objs = tree.findall('object')
        # if not self.config['use_diff']:
        #     # Exclude the samples labeled as difficult
        #     non_diff_objs = [
        #         obj for obj in objs if int(obj.find('difficult').text) == 0]
        #     # if len(non_diff_objs) != len(objs):
        #     #     print 'Removed {} difficult objects'.format(
        #     #         len(objs) - len(non_diff_objs))
        #     objs = non_diff_objs
        num_objs = len(objs)

        boxes = np.zeros((num_objs, 4), dtype=np.uint16)
        gt_classes = np.zeros((num_objs), dtype=np.int32)
        overlaps = np.zeros((num_objs, self.num_classes), dtype=np.float32)
        # "Seg" area for pascal is just the box area
        seg_areas = np.zeros((num_objs), dtype=np.float32)
        ishards = np.zeros((num_objs), dtype=np.int32)

        # Load object bounding boxes into a data frame.
        for ix, obj in enumerate(objs):
            bbox = obj.find('bndbox')
            # Make pixel indexes 0-based
            x1 = float(bbox.find('xmin').text) - 1
            y1 = float(bbox.find('ymin').text) - 1
            x2 = float(bbox.find('xmax').text) - 1
            y2 = float(bbox.find('ymax').text) - 1

            diffc = obj.find('difficult')
            difficult = 0 if diffc == None else int(diffc.text)
            ishards[ix] = difficult

            cls = self._class_to_ind[obj.find('name').text.lower().strip()]
            boxes[ix, :] = [x1, y1, x2, y2]
            gt_classes[ix] = cls
            overlaps[ix, cls] = 1.0
            seg_areas[ix] = (x2 - x1 + 1) * (y2 - y1 + 1)

        overlaps = scipy.sparse.csr_matrix(overlaps)

        return {'boxes': boxes,
                'gt_classes': gt_classes,
                'gt_ishard': ishards,
                'gt_overlaps': overlaps,
                'flipped': False,
                'seg_areas': seg_areas}

        Load image and bounding boxes info from XML file in the PASCAL VOC
        format.
        
lib/datasets/pascal_voc.py