ecal-camera-samples

The ecal-camera-samples is a set of projects around sending and receiving image data with eCAL.

After installation, you have 2 components available:

1. A sender application ecal_camera_snd (C++) that publishes the data of a webcam device to an eCAL topic, and a Python version achieving the same thing, called webcam_grabber.
2. A monitor plugin (C++) that can display the image data in the eCAL Monitor

Python Setup

It's recommended to start the webcam-grabber in a virtual environment. Then install all necessary requirements

pip install -r ./requirements.txt

Additionaly, install the python wheel matching your python version, and operating system. E.g. if you are using Python 3.11 64bit on a Windows operating system, and eCAL 5.12.1, run

pip install ./ecal5-5.12.1-cp311-cp311-win_amd64.whl

The eCAL wheels can be downloaded from the Github releases page here.

C++ Setup - How to install prebuilt binaries

1. Install eCAL (obviously 😉)

2. Go to the release page and pick the version matching your OS and eCAL Version

3. Windows: Copy the content of the zip archive to the bin directory of your eCAL Installation, probably at C:\eCAL\bin\

   Ubuntu: Install the dependencies and the downloaded .deb installer:

   sudo apt install ecal libqt5multimedia5-plugins
   sudo dpkg -i ecal-camera-samples*.deb

C++ Setup - How to build it yourself

Windows

1. Install dependencies:

   • eCAL
   • Qt 5.15.2 msvc2015_x64
   • CMake

2. Configure with CMake and build the Project

   mkdir _build
   cd _build
   cmake .. -DCMAKE_PREFIX_PATH=C:/Qt/5.15.2/msvc2015_64
   
   cmake --build . --config Release

Ubuntu

1. Install dependencies:

   Add the eCAL PPA like described here: https://eclipse-ecal.github.io/ecal/getting_started/setup.html#fa-ubuntu-automatically-install-ecal-from-a-ppa

   sudo apt install ecal \
                    qtmultimedia5-dev \
                    libqt5multimedia5-plugins \
                    qtwayland5 \
                    protobuf-compiler \
                    libprotoc-dev \
                    libhdf5-dev \
                    cmake

2. Configure with CMake and compile

   mkdir _build
   cd _build
   cmake .. -DCMAKE_BUILD_TYPE=Release
   
   cmake --build .

Usage

eCAL Camera Sender (C++)

This application captures the stream from a specified camera and publishes it via eCAL. Optionally, the resolution of the image as well as a maximal framerate can be specified.

Usage:

ecal_camera_snd [topicName] [cameraName] [OPTIONAL_resolutionWidth] [OPTIONAL_resolutionHeight] [OPTIONAL_maxFps]

Command Line:

topicName:        Name of the eCAL Topic to publish to
cameraName:       Path to camera. Call --list-cameras to list
                  available cameras. 
resolutionWidth:  Image width (optional) 
resolutionHeight: Image height (optional) 
maxFps:           Maximal framerate (optional)

--help:           Print this help
--list-cameras:   List all available cameras

Example:

ecal_camera_snd compressed_image_protobuf /dev/video0 640 480 10

eCAL Camera sender (Python)

Run the python script webcam-grabber.py. You will be able to see the published data in eCAL Monitor.

python .\ecal_camera_send_python\ecal_camera_send\webcam-grabber.py --help
usage: webcam-grabber.py [-h] [--camera-id CAMERA_ID] [--compressed] [--topic-name TOPIC_NAME]

optional arguments:
  -h, --help            show this help message and exit
  --camera-id CAMERA_ID
                        Which camera to use for feed
  --compressed          send compressed image instead of raw image
  --topic-name TOPIC_NAME
                        topic name to publish

eCAL Monitor Plugin

After running cmake --install on the monitor plugin, you can view the published camera image in the eCAL Monitor GUI in the detailed view under the Camera Receiver tab.