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My intention:

  • Stream webcam feed to a webpage.
  • Have buttons that talk to a Python program.

I'm planning on using OpenTLD (AKA Predator) to get information about a moving speaker via webcam. Then I will send the coordinates to Python, which will do calculations, and send it via the serial connection (using pyserial) to an Arduino that'll move a motor which moves a camera.

I'd like a web interface for remote preview/manual control of the Arduino, via talking to the Python controller/program.

I'm looking for something that runs on Ubuntu that allows the webcam stream to be displayed and commands to be sent to a Python program.

Peter Mortensen
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Joel Garboden
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1 Answers1

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I would suggest the following:

  1. Capture and write to file:
  2. Read file and calculate coordinates
  3. Use Python or any other language to send the signals over serial.

You might need to incorporate some feedback aspect for proper control. For capturing and writing to files, there should be range of programs. Many programs are capable of taking snapshots and writing to files (same name or separate ones) instead of video which you can exploit. I can't recollect the name, but I remember using one such program on Ubuntu.

Peter Mortensen
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Neel Mehta
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  • Hm, using files as intermediary would be simple. How would performance be? Needs to be real-time. – Joel Garboden Aug 22 '11 at 17:32
  • What about a web app? Service? To host flash or something to preview video stream and allow buttons. Apache with java(script) and flash perhaps? – Joel Garboden Aug 22 '11 at 17:36
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    IF you are looking at realtime performance, try using circular buffers for buffering instead of writing to file. It may cause packet loss but guarantees good realtime performance. – Neel Mehta Aug 23 '11 at 21:09