Files
dora-webcam/README.md
T
cristhian dc3960809a
validate / validate (push) Successful in 59m16s
build with uv, and preview locally instead of a second dataflow
The build command was `pip install .`, which is what upstream and the dora docs
use because `--uv` rewrites it. Spelling it `uv pip install .` means the
dataflow never installs through pip at all, whether or not `--uv` was passed.
The cost is that the node then needs a virtualenv to install into, so it must
be run with `--uv`; the README says so.

The second dataflow is gone. It existed to wire this node into dora-image-view
just to see the frames, which pulled another repository over the network and
needed a tag there. PREVIEW=true now opens a local window of the frames as they
are published, so checking a camera, an encoding or a flip needs this
repository alone. It shows the frame after the flip and the resize, so what is
on screen is what is sent, and it never opens under CI, where there is no
display.

That a source node can display its own output overlaps with what a viewer node
does. The overlap is the point: the alternative was a second repository in the
loop before you can tell whether a camera works.
2026-09-15 06:09:12 -03:00

122 lines
4.1 KiB
Markdown

# dora-webcam
Dora node that captures frames from a webcam and publishes them as
`std/media/v1/Image`. A source for a vision pipeline: it takes a tick and produces
frames.
Based on [`opencv-video-capture`](https://github.com/dora-rs/dora-hub/tree/main/node-hub/opencv-video-capture)
from dora-hub, brought up to the dora 1.0 node contract, narrowed to Linux camera
selection, and changed to publish the typed Arrow image struct rather than a flat
buffer plus metadata.
## Usage
Add to your dataflow:
```yaml
nodes:
- id: camera
git: ssh://git@gitea.liria.cl:5001/liria/dora-webcam.git
tag: v0.1.0
build: uv pip install .
path: dora-webcam
inputs:
tick: dora/timer/millis/33
outputs:
- image
```
Run the dataflow with `--uv` (`dora run dataflow.yml --uv`): the build command is
`uv pip install .`, so the node gets its own managed environment and never installs into
an ambient one.
### Runnable dataflow
[`dataflow.yml`](dataflow.yml) is the camera on its own, and is what CI runs:
```bash
dora run dataflow.yml --uv
```
Nothing consumes the frames, so to actually see them set `PREVIEW`:
```bash
PREVIEW=true dora run dataflow.yml --uv
```
A window opens showing the frames as they are published. Press `q` to stop. That is
enough to check a camera, an encoding or a flip without wiring a second node — which is
why there is one dataflow here rather than one per consumer.
For a real pipeline, wire `image` into a viewer such as `dora-image-view` from your own
dataflow.
## Output
| Output | Payload | Metadata |
|---|---|---|
| `image` | `std/media/v1/Image` struct | none — the struct describes itself |
The struct carries `width: UInt32`, `height: UInt32`, `encoding: Utf8` and
`data: LargeBinary`, so a receiver needs nothing from the message metadata. For a
compressed encoding, `width` and `height` are the image's dimensions, not the length of
`data`.
## Inputs
| Input | Description |
|---|---|
| `tick` | Publishes one frame. Wire to `dora/timer/millis/N`; the node stops when it closes. |
## Environment variables
| Variable | Default | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| `CAMERA_ID` | unset | Substring of a `/dev/v4l/by-id/` entry. Wins over `CAPTURE_PATH`. |
| `CAPTURE_PATH` | `0` | Device path (`/dev/video1`) or index. A numeric string is an index. |
| `IMAGE_WIDTH` | native | Requested capture width; frames are also resized to it. |
| `IMAGE_HEIGHT` | native | Requested capture height; frames are also resized to it. |
| `ENCODING` | `bgr8` | One of `bgr8`, `rgb8`, `yuv420`, `jpeg`/`jpg`/`jpe`, `png`, `bmp`, `webp`. |
| `JPEG_QUALITY` | `95` | Quality 0-100, used only by the JPEG encodings. |
| `FLIP` | unset | `VERTICAL`, `HORIZONTAL` or `BOTH`. |
| `PREVIEW` | unset | `true` opens a window of the published frames; `q` stops the node. |
| `CAPTURE_FRAMES` | `0` | Stop after this many frames. 0 runs until the tick closes. |
Resizing only happens when both `IMAGE_WIDTH` and `IMAGE_HEIGHT` are set.
`CAMERA_ID` is worth preferring on a robot: a by-id name is stable across reboots and
across which USB port the camera is in, and an index is not.
`CI=true` makes a failed read publish a labelled black frame instead of raising, which
is what lets the dataflow run on a machine with no camera. It is not a configuration
knob.
## Build
```bash
uv sync
```
Every dependency ships prebuilt wheels for linux-x86_64, linux-aarch64 and macos-arm64,
so the node installs with no system packages and no compiler.
**Requirements:** dora 1.0+ (verified with `dora-cli 1.0.1`), Python 3.11+, `uv`, and a
V4L2 camera. `PREVIEW` also needs a display. On a bare Linux image `opencv-python` needs
the libGL shared libraries (`libgl1`, `libglib2.0-0`), which it links at import time.
## Test
```bash
uv run pytest
```
Unit tests over device resolution, encoding and the image struct; they need neither a
camera nor a dataflow. The headless `dataflow.yml` run covers the wiring and the event
loop.
## Camera selection on other platforms
Selecting by `CAMERA_ID` reads `/dev/v4l/by-id/`, so it is Linux only. Upstream also
enumerates cameras through macOS `system_profiler` and Windows PowerShell; that is not
carried here. `CAPTURE_PATH` works everywhere.