Webcam Capture in Python (without OpenCV)

Did you know that there is a python library that allows you to to capture both a webcam stream or a single webcam image? Did you know that this works on every OS? This is what I want to share in this post: A tutorial on how to use imageio to access your webcam on Linux, Windows, or MacOS that works in either a Python script or a Jupyter Notebook. No OpenCV needed 🙂

Before we begin, a caveat for Jupyter: While the notebook is displayed on your current machine, and widgets run locally, your kernel (that runs the python code) may be hosted on a remote server, docker container, virtual machine, … depending on your setup. If this is the case for you, please note that IPython can only access the remote server’s webcam, not your local one.

Installation

pip install imageio[ffmpeg]

Get a single Image/Screenshot

	import imageio as iio
	import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
	camera = iio.get_reader("<video0>")
	screenshot = camera.get_data(0)
	camera.close()
	plt.imshow(screenshot)

view raw webcam_screenshot.py hosted with ❤ by GitHub

Get a Video as a Sequence of Frames

	import imageio as iio
	import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
	import time
	camera = iio.get_reader("<video0>")
	meta = camera.get_meta_data()
	delay = 1/meta["fps"]
	for frame_counter in range(15):
	frame = camera.get_next_data()
	time.sleep(delay)
	camera.close()
	plt.imshow(frame)

view raw webcam_stream.py hosted with ❤ by GitHub

Full example (record a short MP4)

	import imageio as iio
	import matplotlib.pyplot as plt
	import time
	camera = iio.get_reader("<video0>")
	meta = camera.get_meta_data()
	num_frames = 5 * int(meta["fps"])
	delay = 1/meta["fps"]
	buffer = list()
	for frame_counter in range(num_frames):
	frame = camera.get_next_data()
	buffer.append(frame)
	time.sleep(delay)
	camera.close()
	iio.mimwrite("frames.mp4", buffer, macro_block_size=8, fps=meta["fps"])

view raw record_webcam_video.py hosted with ❤ by GitHub

That’s it.

If you happen to run into problems, you have three options to ask for help:

1. Ask a question on StackOverflow and tag it with imageio (I monitor the tag)
2. Comment on this post
3. Create a New Issue / Bug Report on GitHub.

Thanks for reading and Happy Coding!

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