pyfakewebcam

An API for writing RGB frames to a fake webcam device on Linux!

Compatible with Python2.7 and Python3.x

Author: John Emmons Email: [email protected]

Disclaimer: I wrote this project when I was a university student. I now employed full time so I don't have time to keep things update or add new features :(. Please feel free to fork!

installation

# use pip to get the latest stable release
pip install pyfakewebcam

use git to install the latest version
git clone https://github.com/jremmons/pyfakewebcam.git
cd pyfakewebcam
python setup.py install

dependencies

# python
pip install numpy

linux
apt-get install v4l2loopback-utils
linux (optional)
apt-get install python-opencv # 10x performance improvement if installed (see below)
apt-get install ffmpeg # useful for debugging

performance

When I run the

examples/example.py

If your goal is to run at 30Hz (or slower) and ~26 milliseconds of delay is acceptable in your application, then opencv may not be necessary.

usage

Insert the v4l2loopback kernel module.

modprobe v4l2loopback devices=2 # will create two fake webcam devices

Example code.

# see red_blue.py in the examples dir
import time
import pyfakewebcam
import numpy as np

blue = np.zeros((480,640,3), dtype=np.uint8)
blue[:,:,2] = 255
red = np.zeros((480,640,3), dtype=np.uint8)
red[:,:,0] = 255
camera = pyfakewebcam.FakeWebcam('/dev/video1', 640, 480)
while True:
camera.schedule_frame(red)
time.sleep(1/30.0)

camera.schedule_frame(blue)
time.sleep(1/30.0)

Run the following command to see the output of the fake webcam.

ffplay /dev/video1