Access Webcam using Python

Question

I would like to access my webcam from Python.

I tried using the VideoCapture extension, but that didn't work very well for me. But the problem is that it's a bit slow with resolutions >320x230, and sometimes it returns None for no apparent reason.

Can you help me with a better way to access my webcam from Python?

Answer 1

OpenCV has support for getting data from a webcam, and it comes with Python wrappers by default, you also need to install numpy for the OpenCV Python extension (called cv2) to work

An example copied from Displaying webcam feed using opencv and python:

import cv2

cv2.namedWindow("preview")
vc = cv2.VideoCapture(0)

if vc.isOpened(): # try to get the first frame
    rval, frame = vc.read()
else:
    rval = False

while rval:
    cv2.imshow("preview", frame)
    rval, frame = vc.read()
    key = cv2.waitKey(20)
    if key == 27: # exit on ESC
        break
cv2.destroyWindow("preview")