Overview

Meltingplot RPi Camera is a Python project designed to interface with a Raspberry Pi camera module. It captures images and videos, processes them, and provides various functionalities for image analysis and manipulation.

Features

• Capture images and videos

• Image processing and analysis

• Integration with Raspberry Pi camera module

• Easy-to-use interface

Installation

To install the required dependencies, run:

sudo apt update
sudo apt upgrade -y
sudo apt install -y python3-picamera2
python3 -m venv --system-site-packages venv
source venv/bin/activate
pip install meltingplot.rpi_camera
rpi-camera install

Usage

To start streaming images, run:

sudo rpi-camera start

or as a service:

sudo systemctl start rpi-camera

Viewing the Camera Feed

You can view the camera feed by opening http://<ip_address> in your web browser.

• To access the live stream, go to http://<ip_address>:8081/.

• To capture a snapshot, visit http://<ip_address>/snapshot or http://<ip_address>/picture/1/current/.

Embedding in Another Website

The stream drops straight into an <iframe> or an <img> on another site — no configuration needed, because the server sends neither X-Frame-Options nor a frame-ancestors policy:

<img src="http://<ip_address>/webcam">

Drawing the stream into a <canvas> is different: without CORS the canvas becomes tainted and getImageData() / toDataURL() throw. Allow the embedding site’s origin under System > Embed on other websites (CORS) in the camera’s web UI — the change takes effect immediately and survives a restart. The same setting is available on the command line:

rpi-camera start --cors-origin https://ops.example.com   # or '*' for any site
rpi-camera install --cors-origin https://ops.example.com # bake it into the service

A value saved in the web UI wins over the command-line one.

and load the stream with crossorigin on the embedding page:

<img id="cam" crossorigin="anonymous" src="http://<ip_address>/webcam">
<canvas id="view" width="1920" height="1080"></canvas>
<script>
  const cam = document.getElementById('cam');
  const ctx = document.getElementById('view').getContext('2d');
  setInterval(() => ctx.drawImage(cam, 0, 0), 100);  // pixels are now readable
</script>

The same setting makes fetch() work against /snapshot and the /api/ endpoints, so a remote dashboard can read the camera state and drive the controls. --cors-origin takes a comma-separated list of origins, or * for any origin; it is off by default. Note that a page served over HTTPS cannot embed this camera at all — browsers block the mixed http:// content.

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please fork the repository and submit a pull request.

License

This project is licensed under the Apache 2.0 License. See the LICENSE file for more details.

Contact

For any questions or inquiries, please contact Tim at info@meltingplot.net