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I want to create a webcam streaming app that records webcam stream for, say about 30 seconds, and save it as myFile.wmv. Now To get live camera feed I know this code :-

import cv2
import numpy as np
c = cv2.VideoCapture(0)

while(1):
    _,f = c.read()
    cv2.imshow('e2',f)
    if cv2.waitKey(5)==27:
        break
cv2.destroyAllWindows()

But I have no idea off how to record for a given number of seconds and save it as a file in its current directory,

Please someone point me to the right direction

Thanks

Hellfire Charchit Pb
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2 Answers2

1

ABOUT TIME

Why do not use the python time function? In particular time.time() Look at this answer about time in python

NB OpenCV should have (or had) its own timer but I can not tell you for sure if it works in current versions.

ABOUT RECORDING/SAVING

Look at this other answer

Community
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marcoresk
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0

OpenCV allows you to record video, but not audio. There is this script I came across from JRodrigoF that uses openCV to record video and pyaudio to record audio. I used it for a while on a similar project; however, I noticed that sometimes the threads would hang and it would cause the program to crash. Another issue is that openCV does not capture video frames at a reliable rate and ffmpeg would distort the video when re-encoding.

https://github.com/JRodrigoF/AVrecordeR

I came up with a new solution that records much more reliably and with much higher quality. It presently only works for Windows because it uses pywinauto and the built-in Windows Camera app. The last bit of the script does some error-checking to confirm the video successfully recorded by checking the timestamp of the name of the video.

https://gist.github.com/mjdargen/956cc968864f38bfc4e20c9798c7d670

import pywinauto
import time
import subprocess
import os
import datetime

def win_record(duration):
    subprocess.run('start microsoft.windows.camera:', shell=True)  # open camera app

    # focus window by getting handle using title and class name
    # subprocess call opens camera and gets focus, but this provides alternate way
    # t, c = 'Camera', 'ApplicationFrameWindow'
    # handle = pywinauto.findwindows.find_windows(title=t, class_name=c)[0]
    # # get app and window
    # app = pywinauto.application.Application().connect(handle=handle)
    # window = app.window(handle=handle)
    # window.set_focus()  # set focus
    time.sleep(2)  # have to sleep

    # take control of camera window to take video
    desktop = pywinauto.Desktop(backend="uia")
    cam = desktop['Camera']
    # cam.print_control_identifiers()
    # make sure in video mode
    if cam.child_window(title="Switch to Video mode", auto_id="CaptureButton_1", control_type="Button").exists():
        cam.child_window(title="Switch to Video mode", auto_id="CaptureButton_1", control_type="Button").click()
    time.sleep(1)
    # start then stop video
    cam.child_window(title="Take Video", auto_id="CaptureButton_1", control_type="Button").click()
    time.sleep(duration+2)
    cam.child_window(title="Stop taking Video", auto_id="CaptureButton_1", control_type="Button").click()

    # retrieve vids from camera roll and sort
    dir = 'C:/Users/michael.dargenio/Pictures/Camera Roll'
    all_contents = list(os.listdir(dir))
    vids = [f for f in all_contents if "_Pro.mp4" in f]
    vids.sort()
    vid = vids[-1]
    # compute time difference
    vid_time = vid.replace('WIN_', '').replace('_Pro.mp4', '')
    vid_time = datetime.datetime.strptime(vid_time, '%Y%m%d_%H_%M_%S')
    now = datetime.datetime.now()
    diff = now - vid_time
    # time different greater than 2 minutes, assume something wrong & quit
    if diff.seconds > 120:
        quit()
    
    subprocess.run('Taskkill /IM WindowsCamera.exe /F', shell=True)  # close camera app
    print('Recorded successfully!')


win_record(2)
mjdargen
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