TemplateMatchResearch 1.0

A lightweight package to detect chrome, firefox, edge, and opera browser on a windows user's computer

Template Match Research

The main purpose of this project is to create a lightweight script that can detect browsers on a user's screen. The browsers to be detected are chrome, firefox, edge, and opera. This project will serve as an API to detect the browsers. The project utilizes the OpenCV library with the help of Adrian Rosebrock's imutils library and his template matching optimization.

Installation

Use the pip package manager to install the script.

pip install templateMatchResearch

or

git clone https://github.com/emire1/TemplateMatchResearch

Usage

from browsers_detector import *

auto_detect_taskbar() # returns True if a browser is detected
detect_desktop("chrome") # moves mouse to location of browser and return True if browser is detected
detect_taskbar("opera") # moves mouse to location of browser and return True if browser is detected

Logging into BlackBoard with browser_detector

# This automatically detects any browser on the desktop
# to open it and go to the blackboard link.
from object_detection import *
import pyautogui
from time import sleep
detection = auto_detect_desktop()
if detection is False:
    pyautogui.hotkey("win", "d")
    detection = auto_detect_desktop() 
    if detection is False:
        print()
    else:
        open_link("brockport.edu")
else:
    open_link("brockport.edu")

Updates

This is still a continuing project and will be updated most times, unfortunately, this is only tested on windows operating system as of now

The Functions

grab_screen():

This function takes a screenshot and saves it into the "data/screenshots" folder and it is saved as "screen_shot.JPG". This will also convert the image into grayscale, detect the edges of the image and return it for detection.

grab_screen() 
# returns image

load_template(image):

image = name of any file located in the "data/templates" folder

This function takes an image file from the "templates" folder, read it as grayscale, detect the edges and return it for detection. If there is an error None is returned.

load_template("chrome_taskbar.JPG") 
# returns template or None if there is an error

start_scaling_match(template, screen_shot, scale, threshold):

template = the return value from the load_template() method.

screen_shot = The return value from the grab_screen() method.

scale = the default value is "u" meaning scale up and it could be changed to "d" to scale down. This is used to determine if the main image should be scaled up during the detection process.

threshold = the threshold determines whether the image is detected or not. The default value is .30

This function takes in the template object, screen_shot object, a scale value, and a threshold. This function adopts a template matching algorithm which optimize the template-matching function from the OpenCV library. The algorithm is basically scaling either up or down while applying the template-matching function and comparing the value of the match to the threshold until the value is greater than or equal to the threshold then the location or coordinates (x, y) of the match is returned with a boolean(next_image) value of False. If the value is less than the threshold then the location would be (0,0) with a next_image boolean of True. the next_image is used to determine if a different image should be used to detect a browser.

template = load_template("chrome_desktop.JPG")
screen_shot = grab_screen()
start_scaling_match(template, screen_shot, "d", .75)
# if image is found returns x, y, next_image=False else return 0, 0, next_image=True
# or
# it could be called like:
start_scaling_match(load_template("chrome_taskbar.JPG"), grab_screen(), "d", .50) 

process(template, scale):

template = the actual file name of the browser

scale = the default value is "u" meaning scale up and it could be changed to "d" to scale down. This is used to determine if the main image should be scaled up during the detection process.

This function calls the load_template(), grab_screen(), and start_scaling_match() combine them together to gain the absolute position of the match on the screen and a boolean value. It takes in a template object and a scale value to determine whether the image should be scale up or down during the matching process.

process("chrome_taskbar.JPG", "u")
# returns x, y of match and next_image=False if a match is found.

auto_detect_taskbar():

This function will automatically detect any of the browsers on the Windows taskbar. If a match is found the mouse pointer would be moved to the location of the match and a boolean value of True is returned. If there is no match False is returned.

auto_detect_taskbar() 
# returns True if the match is found and False if the match is not found

auto_detect_desktop():

This function will automatically detect any of the browsers on the Windows desktop. If a match is found the mouse pointer would be moved to the location of the match and a boolean value of True is returned. If there is no match False is returned.

auto_detect_taskbar() 
# returns True if the match is found and False if the match is not found

detect_taskbar(browser):

browser = name of any of the browsers (chrome, opera, edge, firefox)

This function will try to detect the browser on the Windows taskbar and if it is found it will return True and move the mouse pointer to the location of the match. If no match was found it will return False.

detect_taskbar("chrome") 
# returns True if a match is found and False if there were no matches.

detect_desktop(browser):

browser = name of any of the browsers (chrome, opera, edge, firefox)

This function will try to detect the browser on the Windows desktop and if it is found it will return True and move the mouse pointer to the location of the match. If no match was found it will return False.

detect_desktop("firefox") 
# returns True if a match is found and False if there were no matches.

open_link(url):

url = the actual url to be typed into the browser

This function types in the link automatically in the browser and goes to the url. If the url is empty it returns false and returns True otherwise.

open_link("brockport.edu") 
# returns False if url is empty and returns True if the url is not empty

open_with_start(url):

url = the actual url to be typed into the browser

This function types in the link automatically in the start menu and it will open the url with the default browser of the system. If the url is empty it returns false and returns True otherwise.

open_with_start("suny.brockport.edu") 
# returns False if url is empty and returns True if the url is not empty

send_email(message, heading):

message = the message to be sent title = the title of the message. the default value is "" or an empty string

This function attempts to send an email after a user is logged into their blackboard account

send_email("Hello World!", "Hello!")