camera-capture 1.0.3

An app to capture and process webcam data.

Camera Capture

A Python application to periodically capture images from a set of webcams of the Aero Club of east Africa: Kenya webcams (https://webcams.aeroclubea.com/index.html), saving them in a structured folder hierarchy. The configuration is managed via a simple CLI and a config file in your user profile.

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How the App Works

1. Configuration
   The app uses a configuration file (camera.config) in your user profile directory to store settings such as the root folder for saving images, capture interval, and start/end times.

2. Camera Locations
   Camera URLs and location names are loaded from a user provided CSV file (default = camera_locations.txt). Each row should have a url and a location column. The user is free to add/remove locations at will.

3. Image Capture
   For each camera, the app downloads the latest image and saves it in a folder structure:
   root_folder/location/YYYY/MM/DD/ The root_folder is read from the configuration file when starting the app.

4. Scheduling
   The app can run once, repeat for the current day, or repeat indefinitely, based on your command line options. For all locations the scheduled start and end time per day are equal.

   The capture moments are equally spaced after the start time and will stop on or before the end time, never after.

5. CLI Configuration
   You can list and update configuration settings using the CLI.

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Command Line Options

The app provides several commands and subcommands:

Main Commands

• run
  Capture images from all cameras once.

  python -m camera run
  

• run_repeat
  Repeat capturing images at the configured interval for the current day.

  python -m camera run_repeat
  

• run_repeat_no_limit
  Repeat capturing images at the configured interval indefinitely.

  python -m camera run_repeat_no_limit
  

Config Subcommands

• config list
  List current configuration settings.

  python -m camera config list
  

• config update
  Update a configuration setting.
  Example: change the image save path

  python -m camera config update image_save_path D:/CameraImages
  

  Example: change the capture interval to 60 minutes

  python -m camera config update interval 60
  

  Example: change the start time to 07:00

  python -m camera config update start 07:00
  

  Example: change the end time to 19:00

  python -m camera config update end 19:00
  

[!TIP] When the app is installed with pip install camera_capture, python -m camera can be replaced with capture.

For example: capture config list instead of python -m camera config list

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Configuration File

The configuration file (camera.config) is stored in your user profile folder (e.g., C:\Users\<username>\camera.config). When the app is first started the configuration file will be created if it does not yet exist. The config file is stored in JSON format. Below is an example file with all currently accepted keys:

{
  "image_save_path": "D:/CameraImages",
  "start": "06:30",
  "end": "18:30",
  "interval": 30,
  "locations_file":"camera_locations.txt",
  "verbose":False
}

Currently these keys are supported:

• image_save_path: The root folder for saving all the captured images.
• start: local time to start the capture (HH:MM)
• end: local time to end the capture (HH:MM)
• interval: time in minutes between captures.
• locations_file: name of the file containing the names of camera locations and their URLs. The file is expected in the current folder.
• verbose: enable verbose output for debugging and information

You can use the CLI to update these values, or manually edit the file.

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Folder Structure

Images are saved in a hierarchy:

<image_save_path>/<location>/<year>/<month>/<day>/<location>_<timestamp>.jpg

The timestamp is in local time.

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Example Usage

• Capture all cameras once:

  python -m camera run
  

• List configuration:

  python -m camera config list
  

• Update interval:

  python -m camera config update interval 60
  

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Requirements

• Python 3.7+
• Depends on: requests, pandas, beautifulsoup4

Installing

pip install camera_capture

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Logging

Logs are written to camera_capture.log in the current directory.

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Troubleshooting

• Use python -m camera config list to check your configuration.
• Use python -m camera config update <key> <value> to fix any settings.
• Ensure camera_locations.txt exists and has url and location columns.

Example camera_locations.txt file:

url,location
https://webcams.aeroclubea.com/Nairobi/nbo_wilsonE.html,Wilson Airport E

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