camgrab 0.8.1

Python library for grabbing images from webcams

Python library to download images from network accessible webcams.

Features

• Out of the box, handles any webcam which provides a publically accessible URL to a JPG snapshot of their current image.

• Easily swap in different downloaders to handle cams which expose their snapshots in a more complex way.

• Highly configurable.

• Provides a simple base for more advanced functionality, such as motion detection, CCTV systems, image analysis, etc.

Installation

pip install camgrab

Quick start

To simply grabbing images from a webcam every 2 seconds and start saving them to the default grabbed_images directory:

from camgrab import Grabber
grabber = Grabber('http://78.100.133.169:8888/out.jpg')
grabber.begin()

Examples

Adding a custom image handler

Grab an image every 5 seconds and it to a custom callable, without saving it, and print the image’s dimensions.

from camgrab import Grabber

url = 'http://62.163.242.211:8080/out.jpg'


def print_dimensions(im, **meta):
    width, height = im.size
    print('{width} pixels wide, {height} pixels high!'.format(width=width, height=height))

grabber = Grabber(url, every=5, send_to_callable=print_dimensions)
grabber.save = False
grabber.begin()

Take control of the main loop

As the main loop created by the begin() method is unthreaded, provides no output, has a static delay between grab attempts, etc. it might be too simple for your needs.

To get around this, simply call the tick() method within your own loop:

from random import random
from time import sleep

from camgrab import Grabber

url = 'http://62.163.242.211:8080/out.jpg'
grabber = Grabber(url)

while True:
    grabber.tick()

    # Wait somewhere between 0 and 10 seconds
    sleep(random() * 10)

License

camgrab is free software, distributed under the MIT license.