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HEXFELLOW Camera Driver

Project description

HEXFELLOW CAMERA DRIVER

DOI       


📖 Overview

What is hex_driver_camera

hex_driver_camera is a Python library for managing RGB and RGB-D cameras with a unified interface. It supports dummy cameras (for testing), USB cameras, Intel RealSense, and Berxel depth cameras. The library runs each camera in a separate process, streams frames via shared‑memory ring buffers, and provides simple get_color_img/get_depth_img APIs.

What problem it solves

  • Unified camera interface: Use the same API for dummy, USB, RealSense, and Berxel cameras.
  • Background acquisition: Each camera runs in its own process; the main thread only reads the latest frame when needed.
  • Low‑latency sharing: Frames are passed through shared‑memory ring buffers, avoiding serialization overhead.
  • Optional‑dependency handling: RealSense and Berxel support are extra dependencies; the core works without them.

Target users

  • Developers who need a simple, consistent way to capture from multiple camera types.
  • Robotics researchers prototyping vision pipelines with real or simulated cameras.
  • Anyone who wants to switch between a dummy camera (for testing) and a real camera without changing client code.

📦 Installation

Requirements

  • Python ≥ 3.10
  • OS: Linux (macOS/Windows may work for USB cameras but are less tested)
  • Core dependencies:
    • hex_util_runtime ≥ 0.0.0, < 0.1.0
    • opencv-python ≥ 4.10.0

Optional device support (install via extras):

Extra Purpose
berxel Berxel RGB‑D: berxel_py_wrapper ≥ 2.0.182
realsense Intel RealSense RGB‑D: pyrealsense2 ≥ 2.56.5.9235
all berxel + realsense (all optional cameras)

Install from PyPI

For those who don't need examples, you can install the package from PyPI.

  • Full install: includes all optional cameras (Berxel, RealSense)

    pip install hex_driver_camera[all]
    
  • Core install: only the core package (dummy + USB cameras)

    pip install hex_driver_camera
    
  • Install with a specific extra (e.g., only RealSense):

    pip install hex_driver_camera[realsense]
    

Install from Source

For those who need examples, you can install the package from source code with examples.

Note: We use uv to manage the Python environment. Please install it first.

  1. Clone and install in editable mode. The venv.sh script expects uv.

    git clone https://github.com/hexfellow/hex_driver_camera.git
    cd hex_driver_camera
    ./venv.sh
    
    • ./venv.sh — creates .venv, installs hex_driver_camera with [all] and example dependencies.
    • ./venv.sh --min — installs the core package only (no optional camera extras). Some examples will not run.
    • ./venv.sh --pkg-only — installs the package only, skips example-related dependencies.
  2. Activate before running examples:

    source .venv/bin/activate
    

📑 API

See API for details of all camera classes and parameters.

💡 Example

See Example for usage examples of each camera type.

📚 Citation

If you want to cite this project in your work, you can use the following BibTeX entry:

@software{hex_zmq_servers,
  author    = {Dong, Zhaorui and Chen, Zejun},
  title     = {Hex ZMQ Servers: A ZeroMQ-Based Embodied AI Communication Framework},
  year      = {2025},
  publisher = {Zenodo},
  version   = {v1.0.0},
  doi       = {10.5281/zenodo.18309960},
  url       = {https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.18309960}
}

📄 License

Apache License 2.0. See LICENSE.

🌟 Star History

Star History Chart

👥 Contributors

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