Accessing a webcam in Python

[JoshHendo]

Hi Everyone,

I am just looking for a simple way to access a webcam from within python (in Ubuntu of course). Basically, I want to be able to access the webcam, take a still from it, store it on disk and close the connection to the webcam. I am currently not using any GUI.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks, Josh.

[kknd]

You can use gstreamer.

[Zugzwang]

The simplest way is to use some command line tool to do this task for you. For example, you can use mencoder to capture a picture or video.

http://mydebian.blogdns.org/?p=120

Using gstreamer is almost guaranteed to be more complicated. You can also call mencoder from your Python program if you want to.

[themusicwave]

The simplest way is to use some command line tool to do this task for you. For example, you can use mencoder to capture a picture or video.

http://mydebian.blogdns.org/?p=120

Using gstreamer is almost guaranteed to be more complicated. You can also call mencoder from your Python program if you want to.

That is pretty cool! Once I finishing painting, sanding, and otherwise remodeling my house maybe I will setup a camera. Kinda a poor mans security system.

[LaRoza]

That is pretty cool! Once I finishing painting, sanding, and otherwise remodeling my house maybe I will setup a camera. Kinda a poor mans security system.

Search the repos from "motion" it is a motion activated features rich yet very light webcam software :-)

[JoshHendo]

The simplest way is to use some command line tool to do this task for you. For example, you can use mencoder to capture a picture or video.

http://mydebian.blogdns.org/?p=120

Using gstreamer is almost guaranteed to be more complicated. You can also call mencoder from your Python program if you want to.
Works great. Thanks. What I am doing currently is using popen to run the command... is there a better way to do this (I am sure there is).

Also, how can I specify the output of the jpegs? My program is similar to motion in the sense that it is a security program, so I want to store all the jpegs in a certain folder, not just where the person is running the script from in the terminal.

Thanks, Josh.

[Zugzwang]

Also, how can I specify the output of the jpegs? My program is similar to motion in the sense that it is a security program, so I want to store all the jpegs in a certain folder, not just where the person is running the script from in the terminal.


You could chdir() to that directory before running mencoder *or* tell mencoder where to put the files. Just look into mencoder's 4000-lines-or-so man page. Will the somewhere there. :-)

[edajai]

Using gstreamer(pygst) and pygtk



#!/usr/bin/env python

import sys, os
import pygtk, gtk, gobject
import pygst
pygst.require("0.10")
import gst

class GTK_Main:

def __init__(self):
window = gtk.Window(gtk.WINDOW_TOPLEVEL)
window.set_title("Webcam-Viewer")
window.set_default_size(500, 400)
window.connect("destroy", gtk.main_quit, "WM destroy")
vbox = gtk.VBox()
window.add(vbox)
self.movie_window = gtk.DrawingArea()
vbox.add(self.movie_window)
hbox = gtk.HBox()
vbox.pack_start(hbox, False)

hbox.set_border_width(10)
hbox.pack_start(gtk.Label())
self.button = gtk.Button("Start")
self.button.connect("clicked", self.start_stop)
hbox.pack_start(self.button, False)
self.button2 = gtk.Button("Quit")
self.button2.connect("clicked", self.exit)
hbox.pack_start(self.button2, False)
hbox.add(gtk.Label())

window.show_all()

# Set up the gstreamer pipepile
self.player = gst.parse_launch ("v4l2src ! autovideosink")

bus = self.player.get_bus()
bus.add_signal_watch()
bus.enable_sync_message_emission()
bus.connect('message', self.on_message)
bus.connect('sync-message::element', self.on_sync_message)

def start_stop(self, w):
if self.button.get_label() == "Start":
self.button.set_label("Stop")
self.player.set_state(gst.STATE_PLAYING)
else:
self.player.set_state(gst.STATE_NULL)
self.button.set_label("Start")

def exit(self, widget, data=None):
gtk.main_quit()

def on_message(self, bus, message):
t = message.type
if t == gst.MESSAGE_EOS:
self.player.set_state(gst.STATE_NULL)
self.button.set_label("Start")
elif t == gst.MESSAGE_ERROR:
err, debug = message.parse_error()
print "Error: %s" % err, debug
self.player.set_state(gst.STATE_NULL)
self.button.set_label("Start")

def on_sync_message(self, bus, message):
if message.structure is None:
return
message_name = message.structure.get_name()
if message_name == 'prepare-xwindow-id':
# Assign the viewport
imagesink = message.src
imagesink.set_property('force-aspect-ratio', True)
imagesink.set_xwindow_id(self.movie_window.window. xid)

GTK_Main()
gtk.gdk.threads_init()
gtk.main()


source:http://www.ndeschildre.net/2008/04/04/python-power/

[idlecool]

hey! thanks for the code. its works..