nanocamera 0.1.4

A Python camera interface for the Jetson Nano

NanoCamera

A simple to use camera interface for the Jetson Nano for working with USB, CSI, IP and also RTSP cameras or streaming video in Python 3.

It currently supports the following types of camera or streaming source:

• Works with CSI Cameras (Tested and Works)
• Works with various USB cameras (Tested with Logitech USB camera)
• Works with RTSP streaming camera and video with hardware acceleration (only supports H.264 video codec)
• Works with IP Cameras(JPEG codec) or any MJPEG streaming source (Currently, supports CPU acceleration. TODO: Hardware acceleration)

Features

• It is OpenCV ready. Image file can be called directly with OpenCV imshow
• Image file is a numpy RGB array.
• Support different Camera Flip Mode (Counterclockwise, Rotate 180 degress, Clockwise - 90 degrees, Horizontal Flip, Vertical Flip)
• Can be used with multiple cameras.
• Support Frame rate enforcement. *Only available for USB, RTSP, and IP/MJPEG cameras.
• Frame rate enforcement ensures the cameras work at the given frame rate using gstreamer videorate plugin
• It is based on Accelerated GStreamer Plugins
• Should work with other Jetson boards like Jetson TX1, TX2 and others (Not tested)
• Support both Hardware and CPU acceleration.
• Easily read images as numpy arrays with image = camera.read()
• Supports threaded read - available to all camera types. To enable a fast threaded read, you will to enable the enforce_fps: enforce_fps = True

Requirements

This library requires OpenCV to be installed to work. If you don't have OpenCV, you can install one with pip:

pip3 install opencv-python 

Install

Installation is simple. Can be installed in two ways with Pip or Manually.

Pip Installation

pip3 install nanocamera 

Manual Installation

git clone https://github.com/thehapyone/NanoCamera
cd NanoCamera
sudo python3 setup.py install

Usage & Example

Using NanoCamera is super easy. Below we show some usage examples. You can find more in the examples.

Working with CSI Camera

For CSI Cameras, the camera_type = 0.

Find here for full CSI camera example

Python Example - Create CSI camera using default FPS=30, default image size: 640 by 480 and with no rotation (flip=0)

import nanocamera as nano
# Create the Camera instance for 640 by 480
camera = nano.Camera()

Customizing the width and height

import nanocamera as nano
# Create the Camera instance for No rotation (flip=0) with size of 1280 by 800
camera = nano.Camera(flip=0, width=1280, height=800, fps=30)

if image is inverted, set flip = 2

Working with USB Camera

For USB Cameras, set the camera_type = 1, and set the device_id as well. Find here for full USB camera example

Python Example - Create USB camera connected to /dev/video1

import nanocamera as nano
# Create the Camera instance for No rotation (flip=0) with size of 640 by 480
camera = nano.Camera(camera_type=1, device_id=1, width=640, height=480, fps=30)

You can see connected USB cameras by running :

ls /dev/video*

# for usb camera /dev/video2, the device_id will be 2

Working with RTSP streaming camera or streaming video

For RTSP source, set the camera_type = 2, and set the source as well. Find here for full RTSP camera example

Python Example - Create RTSP receiving camera client. RTSP location example: rtsp://192.168.1.26:8554/stream

# a location for the rtsp stream. Stream location without "rtsp://"
rtsp_location = "192.168.1.26:8554/stream"
# Create the Camera instance
camera = nano.Camera(camera_type=2, source=rtsp_location, width=640, height=480, fps=30)

Working with IP or any MJPEG streaming camera or video

For IP/MJPEG Cameras, set the camera_type = 3, and set the streaming source as well. Find here for full MJPEG camera example

Python Example - Create IP camera client connected to a camera streaming to http://192.168.1.26:80/stream

# a location for the camera stream. Stream location without "http://"
camera_stream = "192.168.1.26:80/stream"
# Create the Camera instance
camera = nano.Camera(camera_type=3, source=camera_stream, width=640, height=480, fps=30)

Frame Rate Enforcement

Enable frame rate enforcement i.e force the camera to work at the given frame rate

import nanocamera as nano
# enforce the capture frame rate with the enforce_fps=True
camera = nano.Camera(camera_type=1, device_id=1, width=640, height=480, fps=30, enforce_fps=True)

Reading Camera

Call read() to read the latest image as a numpy.ndarray. The color format is BGR8.

frame = camera.read()

A Simple program to read from the CSI camera and display with OpenCV

import cv2
#from nanocamera.NanoCam import Camera
import nanocamera as nano

if __name__ == '__main__':
    # Create the Camera instance
    camera = nano.Camera(flip=0, width=640, height=480, fps=30)
    print('CSI Camera is now ready')
    while True:
        try:
            # read the camera image
            frame = camera.read()
            # display the frame
            cv2.imshow("Video Frame", frame)
            if cv2.waitKey(25) & 0xFF == ord('q'):
                break
        except KeyboardInterrupt:
            break

    # close the camera instance
    camera.release()

    # remove camera object
    del camera

A Simple program to read from the IP/MJPEG camera and display with OpenCV

import cv2

# from nanocamera.NanoCam import Camera
import nanocamera as nano

if __name__ == '__main__':
    # requires the Camera streaming url. Something like this: http://localhost:80/stream
    # For IP/MJPEG camera, the camera_type=3.
    # This works with only camera steaming MJPEG format and not H.264 codec for now

    # a location for the camera stream
    camera_stream = "192.168.1.26:80"

    # Create the Camera instance
    camera = nano.Camera(camera_type=3, source=camera_stream, width=640, height=480, fps=30)
    print('MJPEG/IP Camera is now ready')
    while True:
        try:
            # read the camera image
            frame = camera.read()
            # display the frame
            cv2.imshow("Video Frame", frame)
            if cv2.waitKey(25) & 0xFF == ord('q'):
                break
        except KeyboardInterrupt:
            break

    # close the camera instance
    camera.release()

    # remove camera object
    del camera

See also

• Platooning Robot - Resources for building collaborative robots