Modifying a video stream in real time - c++

I need to access the pixel data from a video camera attached to my Windows PC in real time. Once accessed, I will modify it and output it as part of the video stream. In other words, I need to find the easiest way to modify a video stream in real time. I know about OpenCV and Matlab functionality, but I am wondering if anyone has found a simpler way to do this.

If you want to do this with C++, OpenCV, as long as it works with your camera, is one of the simplest ways there is. The code below is from the OpenCV documentation VideoCapture. The only trick is instantiating the VideoCapture instance. How much simpler can it be?
#include "opencv2/opencv.hpp"
using namespace cv;
int main(int, char**)
{
VideoCapture cap(0); // open the default camera
if(!cap.isOpened()) // check if we succeeded
return -1;
Mat edges;
namedWindow("edges",1);
for(;;)
{
Mat frame;
cap >> frame; // get a new frame from camera
cvtColor(frame, edges, COLOR_BGR2GRAY);
GaussianBlur(edges, edges, Size(7,7), 1.5, 1.5);
Canny(edges, edges, 0, 30, 3);
imshow("edges", edges);
if(waitKey(30) >= 0) break;
}
// the camera will be deinitialized automatically in VideoCapture destructor
return 0;
}
There is even a python version at Capture Video from Camera that looks very similar to the C++ version above.

Related

Picture and text on video capture

I would like to put an image on video and i'm wondering if it's possible in opencv without multithreading.
I would like to avoid it because in my project i am operating on RPI 0W(that's whyi don't want multithreading) .
i can't find anything about it on internet. I got some basic code in c++ . I'm new to open cv.
int main(){
VideoCapture cap(0);
if (!cap.isOpened())
{
cout << "error"<<endl;
return -1;
}
Mat edges;
namedWindow("edges", 1);
Mat img = imread("logo.png");
for (;;)
{
Mat frame;
cap >> frame; // get a new frame from camera
imshow("edges", WINDOW_AUTOSIZE );
imshow("edges", img);
imshow("edges", frame);
if (waitKey(30) >= 0) break;
}
}
In OpenCV showing two things in the same window overwrites the previous one which I think is happening in your case.
You can use OpenCV addWeighted() function or bitwise operations.
OpenCV has good documentation on this. You can find it here

OpenCV cheap stereo camera can't load both streams at once

I have purchased an ELP-1MP2CAM001 which shows up as two webcam devices on Windows. If I open the Windwos default "Camera" app and Skype I can display the feeds from both the left and right camera at the same time. I don't think therefore it is a USB Bandwidth issue with two cameras coming into the same port
I'm using fairly standard code (shown below) to open both of these feeds and it works successfully if I use two standard Microsoft HD3000 webcams instead of the single stereo camera.
I've tried a range of numbers inside the cap2() arguments so I don't think it's hiding at number 10 or anything weird like that.
My questions are:
There must be some sort of on board hub for the ELP cameras, do I need to do something different in OpenCV?
Could it be that both frames are accessible through cap(0)? This seems unlikely to me.
This questions says I don't need to do anything special? but obviously I'm missing something.
Any help on this would be great.
Code:
#include <opencv2/opencv.hpp>
using namespace cv;
int main(int, char**)
{
VideoCapture cap(0); // open the default camera
VideoCapture cap2(1); // open the default camera
cap.set(CV_CAP_PROP_FRAME_WIDTH, 240);
cap.set(CV_CAP_PROP_FRAME_HEIGHT, 120);
cap2.set(CV_CAP_PROP_FRAME_WIDTH, 240);
cap2.set(CV_CAP_PROP_FRAME_HEIGHT, 120);
if (!cap.isOpened()) // check if we succeeded
return -1;
if (!cap2.isOpened()) // check if we succeeded
return -1;
Mat frame;
Mat frame2;
namedWindow("Frame", 1);
namedWindow("Frame2", 1);
for (;;)
{
Mat frame;
cap >> frame; // get a new frame from camera
imshow("Frame", frame);
Mat frame2;
cap2 >> frame2;
imshow("Frame2", frame2);
if (waitKey(30) >= 0) break; // Finish on "esc" key
}
// the camera will be deinitialized automatically in VideoCapture destructor
return 0;
}
I have the same camera as this, and I ran into the same problem before. Try change the order of your code as below:
VideoCapture cap(0);
cap.set(CV_CAP_PROP_FRAME_WIDTH, 240);
cap.set(CV_CAP_PROP_FRAME_HEIGHT, 120);
VideoCapture cap2(1);
cap2.set(CV_CAP_PROP_FRAME_WIDTH, 240);
cap2.set(CV_CAP_PROP_FRAME_HEIGHT, 120);
I think it's a problem with USB bandwidth. In your code, you opened two cameras in full resolution at the beginning, then you change the resolution of two cameras.
When you call VideoCapture cap(0); // open the default camera, cap has resolution 1280*720. cap already occupied the bandwidth. Thereby, VideoCapture cap2(1); won't open camera cap2 sucessfully.
Hope it helps.
According to VideoCapture documentation, there is a function called cv::VideoCapture::grab:
The primary use of the function is in multi-camera environments, especially when the cameras do not have hardware synchronization. That is, you call VideoCapture::grab() for each camera and after that call the slower method VideoCapture::retrieve() to decode and get frame from each camera
You can try that, with:
cap.grab();
cap.retrieve(...);

Compare two image in real time with predefined image with real time capture image in Opencv c++

I am doing a project of Automatic fabric defect detection. In this i developed the algorithm using the [FFT][1] (Fast Fourier Transform) and its working fine in my Ubuntu 14.04 opencv c++. But now i want to develop this to real time there i have to capture image every 2s and have to process that image with my developed algorithm. I need ideas on how to capture images using webcam in opencv c++ and to process withat same image which is being captured. Please do help me if anyone knows of this. Thank you in advance.
You can follow the guidance which has given by OpenCV - They have provided enough examples such as following sample code. Following code is provided by OpenCV Dev team as sample.
#include "opencv2/opencv.hpp"
using namespace cv;
int main(int, char**)
{
VideoCapture cap(0); // open the default camera
if(!cap.isOpened()) // check if we succeeded
return -1;
Mat edges;
namedWindow("edges",1);
for(;;)
{
Mat frame;
cap >> frame; // get a new frame from camera
cvtColor(frame, edges, CV_BGR2GRAY);
GaussianBlur(edges, edges, Size(7,7), 1.5, 1.5);
Canny(edges, edges, 0, 30, 3);
imshow("edges", edges);
if(waitKey(30) >= 0) break;
}
// the camera will be deinitialized automatically in VideoCapture destructor
return 0;
}

C/C++ OpenCV video processing

Good day everyone! So currently I'm working on a project with video processing, so I decided to give a try to OpenCV. As I'm new to it, I decided to find few sample codes and test them out. First one, is C OpenCV and looks like this:
#include <opencv/cv.h>
#include <opencv/highgui.h>
#include <stdio.h>
int main( void ) {
CvCapture* capture = 0;
IplImage *frame = 0;
if (!(capture = cvCaptureFromCAM(0)))
printf("Cannot initialize camera\n");
cvNamedWindow("Capture", CV_WINDOW_AUTOSIZE);
while (1) {
frame = cvQueryFrame(capture);
if (!frame)
break;
IplImage *temp = cvCreateImage(cvSize(frame->width/2, frame->height/2), frame->depth, frame->nChannels); // A new Image half size
cvResize(frame, temp, CV_INTER_CUBIC); // Resize
cvSaveImage("test.jpg", temp, 0); // Save this image
cvShowImage("Capture", frame); // Display the frame
cvReleaseImage(&temp);
if (cvWaitKey(5000) == 27) // Escape key and wait, 5 sec per capture
break;
}
cvReleaseImage(&frame);
cvReleaseCapture(&capture);
return 0;
}
So, this one works perfectly well and stores image to hard drive nicely. But problems begin with next sample, which uses C++ OpenCV:
#include "opencv2/opencv.hpp"
#include <string>
using namespace cv;
int main(int, char**)
{
VideoCapture cap(0); // open the default camera
if(!cap.isOpened()) // check if we succeeded
return -1;
Mat edges;
//namedWindow("edges",1);
for(;;)
{
Mat frame;
cap >> frame; // get a new frame from camera
cvtColor(frame, edges, CV_RGB2XYZ);
imshow("edges", edges);
//imshow("edges2", frame);
//imwrite("test1.jpg", frame);
if(waitKey(1000) >= 0) break;
}
// the camera will be deinitialized automatically in VideoCapture destructor
return 0;
}
So, yeah, generally, in terms of showing video (image frames) there is practically no changes, but when it comes to using im** functions, some problems arise.
Using cvSaveImage() works out nicely, but the moment I try to use imwrite(), unhandled exception arises in regards of 'access violation reading location'. Same goes for imread(), when I'm trying to load image.
So, the thing I wanted to ask, is it possible to use most of the functionality with C OpenCV? Or is it necessary to use C++ OpenCV. If yes, is there any solution for the problem I described earlier.
Also as stated here, images initially are in BGR-format, so conversion needed. But doing BGR2XYZ conversion seems to invert colors, while RGB2XYZ preserve them. Examples:
images
Or is it necessary to use C++ OpenCV?
No, there is no necessity whatsoever. You can use any interface you like and you think you are good with it (OpenCV offers C, C++, Python interfaces).
For your problem about imwrite() and imread() :
For color images the order channel is normally Blue, Green, Red , this
is what imshow() , imread() and imwrite() expect
Quoted from there

Capture a picture from multiple webcams, using C++

I need a program to capture pictures from multiple webcams and save them automatically in Windows Vista. I got the basic code from this link. The code runs in Window XP, but when I tried using it on Vista it says "failed." Different errors pop up every time it is executed. Would it help if I used the SDK platform? Does anyone have any suggestions?
I can't test this on multiple webcams since I only have one, but I'm sure OpenCV2.0 should be able to handle it. Here's some sample code (I use Vista) with one webcam to get you started.
#include <cv.h>
#include <highgui.h>
using namespace cv;
int main()
{
// Start capturing on camera 0
VideoCapture cap(0);
if(!cap.isOpened()) return -1;
// This matrix will store the edges of the captured frame
Mat edges;
namedWindow("edges",1);
for(;;)
{
// Acquire the frame from cap into frame
Mat frame;
cap >> frame;
// Now, find the edges by converting to grayscale, blurring and then Canny edge detection
cvtColor(frame, edges, CV_BGR2GRAY);
GaussianBlur(edges, edges, Size(7,7), 1.5, 1.5);
Canny(edges, edges, 0, 30, 3);
// Display the edges and the frame
imshow("edges", edges);
imshow("frame", frame);
// Terminate by pressing a key
if(waitKey(30) >= 0) break;
}
return 0;
}
Note:
The matrix edges is allocated during
the first frame processing and unless
the resolution will suddenly change,
the same buffer will be reused for
every next frame’s edge map.
As you can see, the code is quite clean and readable! I lifted this from the OpenCV 2.0 documentation (opencv.pdf).
The code not only displays the image from the webcam (under frame) but also does real-time edge detection! Here's a screenshot when I pointed the webcam at my monitor :)
screenshot http://img245.imageshack.us/img245/5014/scrq.png
If you want code to just display the frames from one camera:
#include <cv.h>
#include <highgui.h>
using namespace cv;
int main()
{
VideoCapture cap(0);
if(!cap.isOpened()) return -1;
for(;;)
{
Mat frame;
cap >> frame;
imshow("frame", frame);
if(waitKey(30) >= 0) break;
}
return 0;
}
If the program works with UAC off or when running administrator, make sure the place you choose to save the results are in writable places like the user's my documents folder. Generally speaking root folders and the program files folder is read only for normal users.