Dennis Núñez

PhD (c) in AI and Neuroimaging. CEA / Inria / Université Paris-Saclay


Installing Raspicam on Raspberry Pi: C++ API for using Raspberry camera with/without OpenCV

IMPORTANT!! The Rasperry Pi camera is not an usb-webcam. Thus, OpenCV doesn’t work natively (forget cvCaptureFromCAM for example and all your wonderful apps you’ve thought up!). However, some nice apps (such as raspivid or raspistill) controls the pi camera using MMAL functions. The idea is to modify source code of such apps, use buffer memory of the camera to feed OpenCV image objects. Pretty easy (said like that). You can find some examples at:

- https://thinkrpi.wordpress.com/2013/05/22/opencv-and-camera-board-csi/.

- https://thinkrpi.wordpress.com/2013/05/22/opencvpi-cam-step-5-basic-use-display-a-picture/.

Another option to control the RPI camera is the Raspicam library, which allows to use the Raspberry Pi Camera under BSD License. Main Developer: Rafael Muñoz Salinas ( rmsalinas at uco dot es). Acknowledgement: thanks to Josh-Larson for his contribution.

Download at SourceForge:

- https://sourceforge.net/projects/raspicam/files/?.


Main features

- Provides class RaspiCam for easy and full control of the camera.

- Provides class RaspiCam_Still and RaspiCam_Still_Cv for controlling the camera in still mode.

- Provides class RaspiCam_Cv for easy control of the camera with OpenCV.

- Provides class RaspiCam_Still and RaspiCam_Still_Cv for controlling the camera in still mode.

- Provides class RaspiCam_Still and RaspiCam_Still_Cv for using the still camera mode.

- Easy compilation/installation using cmake.

- No need to install development file of userland. Implementation is hidden.

- Many examples.


Connect to RPI with SSH and Xephyr

First, on Ubuntu:

$ Xephyr -ac -br -keybd ephyr,,,xkbmodel=pc105,xkblayout=es -noreset -screen 1280x720 :1

Then, on RPI:

$ DISPLAY=:1 ssh -Y pi@10.42.0.246 $ startlxde


Compiling

Note: You should compile and install again after a new version of OpenCV is installed in your PC.

Download the file to your raspberry. Uncompress.

Then, compile:

$ cd raspicam-xx $ mkdir build $ cd build $ cmake ..

At this point you'll see something like:

-- CREATE OPENCV MODULE=1 -- CMAKE_INSTALL_PREFIX=/usr/local -- REQUIRED_LIBRARIES=/opt/vc/lib/libmmal_core.so;/opt/vc/lib/libmmal_util.so;/opt/vc/lib/libmmal.so -- Change a value with: cmake -D<Variable>=<Value> -- -- Configuring done -- Generating done -- Build files have been written to: /home/pi/raspicam/trunk/build

If OpenCV development files are installed in your system, then you see:

-- CREATE OPENCV MODULE=1

otherwise this option will be 0 and the opencv module of the library will not be compiled. Finally compile, install and update the ldconfig:

$ make $ sudo make install $ sudo ldconfig

After that, you have the programs raspicam_test and raspicam_cv_test (if opencv was enabled), under raspicam-xx/build/utils/. Run the programs to check that compilation is ok.


Using it in your projects

You can learn how to use the library by taking a look at the examples in the utils directory and by analyzing the header files. In addition, we provide a some simple examples on how to use the library.

First, create a directory for our own project. Then, go in and create a file with the name simpletest_raspicam.cpp and add the following code:

#include <ctime> #include <fstream> #include <iostream> #include <raspicam/raspicam.h> #include <unistd.h> using namespace std; int main ( int argc,char **argv ) { raspicam::RaspiCam Camera; //Cmaera object //Open camera cout<<"Opening Camera..."<<endl; if ( !Camera.open()) {cerr<<"Error opening camera"<<endl;return -1;} //wait a while until camera stabilizes cout<<"Sleeping for 3 secs"<<endl; sleep(3); //capture Camera.grab(); //allocate memory unsigned char *data=new unsigned char[ Camera.getImageTypeSize ( raspicam::RASPICAM_FORMAT_RGB )]; //extract the image in rgb format Camera.retrieve ( data,raspicam::RASPICAM_FORMAT_RGB );//get camera image //save std::ofstream outFile ( "raspicam_image.ppm",std::ios::binary ); outFile<<"P6\n"<<Camera.getWidth() <<" "<<Camera.getHeight() <<" 255\n"; outFile.write ( ( char* ) data, Camera.getImageTypeSize ( raspicam::RASPICAM_FORMAT_RGB ) ); cout<<"Image saved at raspicam_image.ppm"<<endl; //free resrources delete data; return 0; }

Then, compile:

$ g++ -I/usr/local/include/ -L/opt/vc/lib -g -o binary simpletest_raspicam.cpp -lraspicam -lmmal -lmmal_core -lmmal_util -o simpletest_raspicam

Finally, run the program:

$ ./simpletest_raspicam


OpenCV Interface

If the OpenCV is found when compiling the library, the libraspicam_cv.so module is created and the RaspiCam_Cv class available. Take a look at the examples in utils to see how to use the class. In addition, we show here how you can use the RaspiCam_Cv in your own project.

First, create a directory for our own project. Then, go in and create a file with the name simpletest_raspicam_cv.cpp and add the following code:

#include <ctime> #include <iostream> #include <raspicam/raspicam_cv.h> using namespace std; int main ( int argc,char **argv ) { time_t timer_begin,timer_end; raspicam::RaspiCam_Cv Camera; cv::Mat image; int nCount=100; //set camera params, CV_8UC1 grayscale, CV_8UC3 colored Camera.set( CV_CAP_PROP_FORMAT, CV_8UC1 ); //Open camera cout<<"Opening Camera..."<<endl; if (!Camera.open()) {cerr<<"Error opening the camera"<<endl;return -1;} //Start capture cout<<"Capturing "<<nCount<<" frames ...."<<endl; time ( &timer_begin ); for ( int i=0; i<nCount; i++ ) { Camera.grab(); Camera.retrieve ( image); if ( i%5==0 ) cout<<"\r captured "<<i<<" images"<<std::flush; } cout<<"Stop camera..."<<endl; Camera.release(); //show time statistics time ( &timer_end ); /* get current time; same as: timer = time(NULL) */ double secondsElapsed = difftime ( timer_end,timer_begin ); cout<< secondsElapsed<<" seconds for "<< nCount<<" frames : FPS = "<< ( float ) ( ( float ) ( nCount ) /secondsElapsed ) <<endl; //save image cv::imwrite("raspicam_cv_image.jpg",image); cout<<"Image saved at raspicam_cv_image.jpg"<<endl; }

Then, compile:

$ g++ -I/usr/local/include/ -g -o binary simpletest_raspicam_cv.cpp -lopencv_core -lopencv_highgui -lraspicam -lraspicam_cv -o simpletest_raspicam_cv

Finally, run the program:

$ ./simpletest_raspicam_cv


Resources

- https://www.uco.es/investiga/grupos/ava/node/40.

- https://thinkrpi.wordpress.com/2013/05/22/opencv-and-camera-board-csi/.