aiocamera

Camera as a service — discover, capture, and serve camera frames over ZMQ.

A background daemon automatically detects connected cameras (Intel RealSense, Luxonis OAK, generic USB webcams), continuously captures frames, and serves the latest frame on demand via ZMQ IPC. Includes a CLI, a Python client library, and a browser-based MJPEG debug viewer.

Install

pip install aiocamera                # core only (opencv, pyzmq, numpy, click)
pip install "aiocamera[realsense]"   # + pyrealsense2
pip install "aiocamera[oak]"         # + depthai
pip install "aiocamera[all]"         # everything

aiocamera uses OpenCV's contrib build (opencv-contrib-python), as aprilcube does, so both install together. Do not add opencv-python to the same environment: both wheels provide cv2. For development, pip install -e ".[all]".

CLI

aiocamera start                        # uses latest matching profile, or prompts
aiocamera start --fresh                # ignore saved profiles, prompt and optionally save
aiocamera start --profile my_setup     # use a specific saved profile
aiocamera status                       # show detected cameras and active streams
aiocamera stop                         # stop the daemon
aiocamera profiles                     # list all saved configuration profiles
aiocamera web-debug [PORT]             # MJPEG viewer at http://localhost:PORT (default 8080)

# Runtime reconfiguration (while service is running)
aiocamera config rs_234322071225 --resolution 1280x720 --fps 30
aiocamera config rs_234322071225 --exposure 500
aiocamera config rs_234322071225 --exposure auto
aiocamera config rs_234322071225   # list supported modes

Python API

Start / Stop

import aiocamera

# Start the daemon
aiocamera.start()                          # uses latest matching profile, or prompts
aiocamera.start(fresh=True)                # ignore profiles, prompt, offer to save
aiocamera.start(profile="my_setup")        # use a specific saved profile
aiocamera.start(camera_configs={           # explicit configs, no prompts or profiles
    "rs_234322071225": {"resolution": [1280, 720], "fps": 30, "exposure": 500},
})
# Returns PID, or None if already running

aiocamera.stop()                           # stop the daemon

Client

from aiocamera import CameraClient

with CameraClient() as client:
    cameras = client.list_cameras()
    status  = client.status()

    # Get frame at capture resolution
    frame = client.get_frame("rs_234322071225_color")  # numpy.ndarray

    # Get frame at a specific resolution (resized server-side)
    frame = client.get_frame("rs_234322071225_color", resolution=(320, 240))

    # Set a default resolution for all subsequent get_frame() calls
    client.set_resolution(320, 240)
    frame = client.get_frame("rs_234322071225_color")  # 320x240
    client.set_resolution(0, 0)                        # clear → back to capture resolution

    # Runtime reconfiguration
    modes = client.get_supported_modes("rs_234322071225")  # valid (w,h,fps) combos
    client.set_config("rs_234322071225", resolution=(1280, 720), fps=30)  # blocking
    client.set_exposure("rs_234322071225", 500)     # immediate, no restart
    client.set_exposure("rs_234322071225", None)     # auto exposure

    # Intrinsics
    intrinsics = client.get_intrinsics("rs_234322071225")
    K = client.get_intrinsics_matrix("rs_234322071225")  # 3x3 numpy array

Camera IDs

Camera IDs are based on serial numbers for stability across plug/unplug cycles:

Stream names are {camera_id}_{stream} — e.g. rs_234322071225_color, rs_234322071225_depth, oak_18443010A1B2C3D4_CAM_A.

Supported Cameras

Architecture

aiocamera daemon
├── discovery: RealSense → OAK → webcam (avoids double-counting)
├── per-camera capture threads (as fast as possible)
├── frame store (dict: stream_id → latest numpy frame)
├── reconfigure coordination (per-driver threading events)
└── ZMQ REP socket (ipc:///tmp/aiocamera.sock)

aiocamera client (CameraClient)
└── ZMQ REQ socket → get_frame / set_config / set_exposure / list_cameras / status / stop

Files

• ~/.config/aiocamera/camera_configs.json — saved configuration profiles (matched by camera serial set)
• /tmp/aiocamera.pid — daemon PID file
• /tmp/aiocamera.log — daemon log output
• /tmp/aiocamera.sock — ZMQ IPC socket

aiocamera was called pycaas before its first release. Profiles saved by pycaas (~/.config/pycaas/camera_configs.json) are used until a profile is saved under aiocamera. A running pycaas daemon holds the cameras: stop it (pycaas stop) before aiocamera start.