Is there a platform independent way to list video input devices

Question

Before opening doing a capture by creating a VideoCapture object I want to display a list of available devices to select from. I believe this can be done in Windows using DirectShow and in Linux by checking the /dev/video* entries.

But I am wondering if there is any platform independent way I can get this list?

NOTE. I know I can enumerate the devices using VideoCapture.open and checking isOpen but I want to be able to display a meaningful name also and I don't think VideoCapture gives me that?

Have a look here: http://www.codepool.biz/multiple-camera-opencv-python-windows.html and https://stackoverflow.com/questions/8044539/listing-available-devices-in-python-opencv — Giancarlo Romeo, Apr 29 '20 at 20:03

score 1 · Answer 1 · answered Apr 30 '20 at 09:50

I understand that available devices means cameras connected to your computer.

Firstly, to be able to use VideoCapture with a camera; camera shouldn't have a driver. Generally, VideoCapture is available to use with simple cameras such as webcams, some usb cameras etc.
OpenCV doesn't have a property to count or list the available cameras which are connected. You can also check this post.
Just for counting cameras, you can also use a brute way like this:

Example:

VideoCapture cap;
    int device_counts = 0;
    while ( true ) {
        if ( !cap.open(device_counts++) ) {
            break;
        }
    }

But in my opinion, the best solution is that using a framework to achieve that. For example Qt Creator.

I meant to say I want to be able to display a meaningful name to the user and don't think the above approach allows that. Have updated the question — user79074, Apr 30 '20 at 10:18

Is there a platform independent way to list video input devices

1 Answers1

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