camera-capture 1.1.0

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.

---

Requirements

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

Installing

pip install camera-capture

[!CAUTION]

When installing on Windows, preferable make sure Python is installed from https://python.org.

If however, Python is installed from the Microsoft Store, pip install camera-capture will properly install, but not fully adjust the Path environment variable. The installation issues a warning. Consider adding the mentioned directory to PATH.

---

How to use the app

The app provides several commands and subcommands:

Main Commands

• run
  Capture images from all cameras once.

  capture run
  

  Or, as fallback (see the caution above)

  python -m camera run
  

• run-repeat
  Repeat capturing images at the configured interval for the current day.

  capture run-repeat
  

• run-repeat-no-limit
  Repeat capturing images at the configured interval indefinitely.

  capture run-repeat-no-limit
  

[!NOTE]

Instead of using the run-repeat commands an alternative way is using the scheduler (Windows) or setting up cron jobs (Linux), and only use the capture run command.

There is an obvious downside of running the capture app using the run-repeat commands in a terminal: when the terminal it is running on is closed the image capture will stop.

Config Subcommands

• config list
  List current configuration settings.

  capture config list
  

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

  capture config update image_save_path D:/CameraImages
  

  Example: change the capture interval to 60 minutes

  capture config update interval 60
  

  Example: change the start time to 07:00

  capture config update start 07:00
  

  Example: change the end time to 19:00

  capture config update end 19:00
  

---

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.

---

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.

---

Folder Structure

Images are saved in a hierarchy:

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

The timestamp is in local time.

---

Example Usage

• Capture all cameras once:

  capture run
  

• List configuration:

  capture config list
  

• Update interval:

  capture config update interval 60
  

---

Logging

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

---

Troubleshooting

• Use capture config list to check your configuration.
• Use capture 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

---