How can I preview streaming images in tkinter with Allied Vision camera that uses Vimba SDK?
Question:
I want to display images from an Allied Vision camera inside a tkinter frame using OpenCV and the SDK for the camera, VimbaPython.
The only possible way to initialize the camera is with a Python with
statement:
with Vimba.get_instance() as vimba:
cams = vimba.get_all_cameras()
with cams[0] as camera:
camera.get_frame()
# Convert frame to opencv image, then use Image.fromarray and ImageTk.PhotoImage to
# display it on the tkinter GUI
Everything works fine so far. But I don’t only need a single frame. Instead, I need to continuously get frames and display them on the screen so that it is streaming.
I found that one way to do it is to call the .after(delay, function)
method from a tkinter Label widget.
So, after obtaining one frame, I want to call the same function to get a new frame and display it again. The code would look like that:
with Vimba.get_instance() as vimba:
cams = vimba.get_all_cameras()
with cams[0] as camera:
def show_frame():
frame = camera.get_frame()
frame = frame.as_opencv_image()
im = Image.fromarray(frame)
img = Image.PhotoImage(im)
lblVideo.configure(image=img) # this is the Tkinter Label Widget
lblVideo.image = img
show_frame()
lblVideo.after(20, show_frame)
Then this shows the first frame and stops, throwing an error saying that Vimba needs to be initialized with a with
statement. I don’t know much about Python, but it looks like when I call the function with the .after()
method it ends the with statement.
I would like to know if it is possible to execute this show_frame()
function without ending the with
. Also, I can’t initialize the camera every time because the program goes really slow.
Thank you
Answers:
I tried to read the frames in openCV and display them in tkinter label. I was able to do so using the below code:
import tkinter as tk
import cv2
from PIL import ImageTk, Image
video_path = "SAMPLE/STORED_VIDEO/PATH"
root = tk.Tk()
base_img = Image.open("PATH/TO/DEFAULT/LABLE/IMAGE")
img_obj = ImageTk.PhotoImage(base_img)
lblVideo = tk.Label(root, image=img_obj)
lblVideo.pack()
cap = cv2.VideoCapture(video_path)
if cap.isOpened():
def show_frame():
_, frame = cap.read()
im = Image.fromarray(frame)
img = ImageTk.PhotoImage(im)
lblVideo.configure(image=img)
lblVideo.image = img
lblVideo.after(1, show_frame) # Need to create callback here
show_frame()
root.mainloop()
Although this doesnot contain the with statement, you can try replacing the after()
callback inside the show_frame
function itself.
You need to use thread to run the capture code and pass the frames read via queue
. Then the main tkinter
application reads the queue
and show the frames periodically using .after()
.
Below is an example based on your posted code:
import threading
from queue import SimpleQueue
import tkinter as tk
from PIL import Image, ImageTk
from vimba import Vimba
def camera_streaming(queue):
global is_streaming
is_streaming = True
print("streaming started")
with Vimba.get_instance() as vimba:
with vimba.get_all_cameras()[0] as camera:
while is_streaming:
frame = camera.get_frame()
frame = frame.as_opencv_image()
im = Image.fromarray(frame)
img = ImageTk.PhotoImage(im)
queue.put(img) # put the capture image into queue
print("streaming stopped")
def start_streaming():
start_btn["state"] = "disabled" # disable start button to avoid running the threaded task more than once
stop_btn["state"] = "normal" # enable stop button to allow user to stop the threaded task
show_streaming()
threading.Thread(target=camera_streaming, args=(queue,), daemon=True).start()
def stop_streaming():
global is_streaming, after_id
is_streaming = False # terminate the streaming thread
if after_id:
lblVideo.after_cancel(after_id) # cancel the showing task
after_id = None
stop_btn["state"] = "disabled" # disable stop button
start_btn["state"] = "normal" # enable start button
# periodical task to show frames in queue
def show_streaming():
global after_id
if not queue.empty():
image = queue.get()
lblVideo.config(image=image)
lblVideo.image = image
after_id = lblVideo.after(20, show_streaming)
queue = SimpleQueue() # queue for video frames
after_id = None
root = tk.Tk()
lblVideo = tk.Label(root, image=tk.PhotoImage(), width=640, height=480)
lblVideo.grid(row=0, column=0, columnspan=2)
start_btn = tk.Button(root, text="Start", width=10, command=start_streaming)
start_btn.grid(row=1, column=0)
stop_btn = tk.Button(root, text="Stop", width=10, command=stop_streaming, state="disabled")
stop_btn.grid(row=1, column=1)
root.mainloop()
Note that I don’t have the camera and the SDK installed, the above code may not work for you. I just demonstrate how to use thread, queue and .after()
.
Below is a testing vimba
module (saved as vimba.py
) I use to simulate VimbaPython
module using OpenCV
and a webcam:
import cv2
class Frame:
def __init__(self, frame):
self.frame = frame
def as_opencv_image(self):
return self.frame
class Camera:
def __init__(self, cam_id=0):
self.cap = cv2.VideoCapture(cam_id, cv2.CAP_DSHOW)
def __enter__(self):
return self
def __exit__(self, *args):
self.cap.release()
return self
def get_frame(self):
ret, frame = self.cap.read()
if ret:
return Frame(frame)
class Vimba:
_instance = None
@classmethod
def get_instance(self):
if self._instance is None:
self._instance = Vimba()
return self._instance
def __enter__(self):
return self
def __exit__(self, *args):
return self
def get_all_cameras(self):
return (Camera(),)
I know this question is pretty old, but I ran into a similar problem with the Allied Vision cameras and found the solution to be relatively robust. So I hope this helps someone, even if not the OP.
An alternative to using with statements is using __enter__
and __exit__
(see sample here). With this, I created a class for the Vimba camera and during the __init__
I used these functions twice: once to initialize the Vimba instance, and once to open the camera itself. An example as follows…
vimba_handle = Vimba.get_instance().__enter__()
camera = vimba_handle.get_all_cameras()[0].__enter__()
I’ll include a longer snippet as code as well, but please note my purpose was slightly different the OP’s intent. Hopefully, it is still useful.
class VimbaCam:
def __init__(self, device_id=0):
# Variables
self.current_frame = np.array([])
self.device = None
self.device_id = device_id
self.vimba_handle = Vimba.get_instance().__enter__()
self.is_streaming = False
self.scale_window = 4
self.stream_thread = threading.Thread(target=self.thread_stream, daemon=True)
# Default settings
self.auto_exposure = "Off"
self.auto_gain = "Off"
self.acquisition = "Continuous"
self.exposure_us = 200000
self.fps = 6.763
self.gain = 0
self.gamma = 1
self.open()
def close(self):
if self.device is not None:
if self.is_streaming:
self.stop_stream()
time.sleep(1)
self.device.__exit__(None, None, None)
self.vimba_handle.__exit__(None, None, None)
def open(self):
cams = self.vimba_handle.get_all_cameras()
if not cams:
error_check(151, currentframe())
else:
self.device = cams[self.device_id].__enter__()
self.set_defaults()
self.start_stream()
def start_stream(self):
if self.device is not None:
self.is_streaming = True
self.stream_thread.start()
time.sleep(1)
def thread_stream(self):
while self.is_streaming:
current_frame = self.device.get_frame().as_opencv_image()
h, w, _ = current_frame.shape
self.current_frame = current_frame.reshape((h, w))
self.stream_thread = threading.Thread(target=self.thread_stream, daemon=True)
def stop_stream(self):
if self.device is not None:
self.is_streaming = False
def live_video(self):
if self.device is not None:
window_name = "Allied Vision"
h, w = self.current_frame.shape
w = int(w / self.scale_window)
h = int(h / self.scale_window)
cv2.namedWindow(window_name, cv2.WINDOW_NORMAL)
cv2.resizeWindow(window_name, w, h)
while 1:
cv2.imshow(window_name, self.current_frame)
cv2.waitKey(1)
if cv2.getWindowProperty(window_name, cv2.WND_PROP_VISIBLE) < 1:
break
cv2.destroyAllWindows()
def set_defaults(self):
if self.device is not None:
# Exposure time settings
self.device.ExposureAuto.set(self.auto_exposure)
self.device.ExposureTimeAbs.set(self.exposure_us)
# Gain settings
self.device.GainAuto.set(self.auto_gain)
self.device.Gain.set(self.gain)
# Gamma settings
self.device.Gamma.set(self.gamma)
self.device.AcquisitionMode.set(self.acquisition)
self.device.AcquisitionFrameRateAbs.set(self.fps)
# Try to adjust GeV packet size (available for GigE only)
try:
self.device.GVSPAdjustPacketSize.run()
while not self.device.GVSPAdjustPacketSize.is_done():
pass
except (AttributeError, VimbaFeatureError):
pass
# Color formatting (tries mono first, then color)
cv_formats = intersect_pixel_formats(self.device.get_pixel_formats(), OPENCV_PIXEL_FORMATS)
mono_formats = intersect_pixel_formats(cv_formats, MONO_PIXEL_FORMATS)
color_formats = intersect_pixel_formats(cv_formats, COLOR_PIXEL_FORMATS)
if mono_formats:
self.device.set_pixel_format(mono_formats[0])
elif color_formats:
self.device.set_pixel_format(color_formats[0])
if __name__ == "__main__":
dev = VimbaCam()
dev.live_video()
dev.close()
I want to display images from an Allied Vision camera inside a tkinter frame using OpenCV and the SDK for the camera, VimbaPython.
The only possible way to initialize the camera is with a Python with
statement:
with Vimba.get_instance() as vimba:
cams = vimba.get_all_cameras()
with cams[0] as camera:
camera.get_frame()
# Convert frame to opencv image, then use Image.fromarray and ImageTk.PhotoImage to
# display it on the tkinter GUI
Everything works fine so far. But I don’t only need a single frame. Instead, I need to continuously get frames and display them on the screen so that it is streaming.
I found that one way to do it is to call the .after(delay, function)
method from a tkinter Label widget.
So, after obtaining one frame, I want to call the same function to get a new frame and display it again. The code would look like that:
with Vimba.get_instance() as vimba:
cams = vimba.get_all_cameras()
with cams[0] as camera:
def show_frame():
frame = camera.get_frame()
frame = frame.as_opencv_image()
im = Image.fromarray(frame)
img = Image.PhotoImage(im)
lblVideo.configure(image=img) # this is the Tkinter Label Widget
lblVideo.image = img
show_frame()
lblVideo.after(20, show_frame)
Then this shows the first frame and stops, throwing an error saying that Vimba needs to be initialized with a with
statement. I don’t know much about Python, but it looks like when I call the function with the .after()
method it ends the with statement.
I would like to know if it is possible to execute this show_frame()
function without ending the with
. Also, I can’t initialize the camera every time because the program goes really slow.
Thank you
I tried to read the frames in openCV and display them in tkinter label. I was able to do so using the below code:
import tkinter as tk
import cv2
from PIL import ImageTk, Image
video_path = "SAMPLE/STORED_VIDEO/PATH"
root = tk.Tk()
base_img = Image.open("PATH/TO/DEFAULT/LABLE/IMAGE")
img_obj = ImageTk.PhotoImage(base_img)
lblVideo = tk.Label(root, image=img_obj)
lblVideo.pack()
cap = cv2.VideoCapture(video_path)
if cap.isOpened():
def show_frame():
_, frame = cap.read()
im = Image.fromarray(frame)
img = ImageTk.PhotoImage(im)
lblVideo.configure(image=img)
lblVideo.image = img
lblVideo.after(1, show_frame) # Need to create callback here
show_frame()
root.mainloop()
Although this doesnot contain the with statement, you can try replacing the after()
callback inside the show_frame
function itself.
You need to use thread to run the capture code and pass the frames read via queue
. Then the main tkinter
application reads the queue
and show the frames periodically using .after()
.
Below is an example based on your posted code:
import threading
from queue import SimpleQueue
import tkinter as tk
from PIL import Image, ImageTk
from vimba import Vimba
def camera_streaming(queue):
global is_streaming
is_streaming = True
print("streaming started")
with Vimba.get_instance() as vimba:
with vimba.get_all_cameras()[0] as camera:
while is_streaming:
frame = camera.get_frame()
frame = frame.as_opencv_image()
im = Image.fromarray(frame)
img = ImageTk.PhotoImage(im)
queue.put(img) # put the capture image into queue
print("streaming stopped")
def start_streaming():
start_btn["state"] = "disabled" # disable start button to avoid running the threaded task more than once
stop_btn["state"] = "normal" # enable stop button to allow user to stop the threaded task
show_streaming()
threading.Thread(target=camera_streaming, args=(queue,), daemon=True).start()
def stop_streaming():
global is_streaming, after_id
is_streaming = False # terminate the streaming thread
if after_id:
lblVideo.after_cancel(after_id) # cancel the showing task
after_id = None
stop_btn["state"] = "disabled" # disable stop button
start_btn["state"] = "normal" # enable start button
# periodical task to show frames in queue
def show_streaming():
global after_id
if not queue.empty():
image = queue.get()
lblVideo.config(image=image)
lblVideo.image = image
after_id = lblVideo.after(20, show_streaming)
queue = SimpleQueue() # queue for video frames
after_id = None
root = tk.Tk()
lblVideo = tk.Label(root, image=tk.PhotoImage(), width=640, height=480)
lblVideo.grid(row=0, column=0, columnspan=2)
start_btn = tk.Button(root, text="Start", width=10, command=start_streaming)
start_btn.grid(row=1, column=0)
stop_btn = tk.Button(root, text="Stop", width=10, command=stop_streaming, state="disabled")
stop_btn.grid(row=1, column=1)
root.mainloop()
Note that I don’t have the camera and the SDK installed, the above code may not work for you. I just demonstrate how to use thread, queue and .after()
.
Below is a testing vimba
module (saved as vimba.py
) I use to simulate VimbaPython
module using OpenCV
and a webcam:
import cv2
class Frame:
def __init__(self, frame):
self.frame = frame
def as_opencv_image(self):
return self.frame
class Camera:
def __init__(self, cam_id=0):
self.cap = cv2.VideoCapture(cam_id, cv2.CAP_DSHOW)
def __enter__(self):
return self
def __exit__(self, *args):
self.cap.release()
return self
def get_frame(self):
ret, frame = self.cap.read()
if ret:
return Frame(frame)
class Vimba:
_instance = None
@classmethod
def get_instance(self):
if self._instance is None:
self._instance = Vimba()
return self._instance
def __enter__(self):
return self
def __exit__(self, *args):
return self
def get_all_cameras(self):
return (Camera(),)
I know this question is pretty old, but I ran into a similar problem with the Allied Vision cameras and found the solution to be relatively robust. So I hope this helps someone, even if not the OP.
An alternative to using with statements is using __enter__
and __exit__
(see sample here). With this, I created a class for the Vimba camera and during the __init__
I used these functions twice: once to initialize the Vimba instance, and once to open the camera itself. An example as follows…
vimba_handle = Vimba.get_instance().__enter__()
camera = vimba_handle.get_all_cameras()[0].__enter__()
I’ll include a longer snippet as code as well, but please note my purpose was slightly different the OP’s intent. Hopefully, it is still useful.
class VimbaCam:
def __init__(self, device_id=0):
# Variables
self.current_frame = np.array([])
self.device = None
self.device_id = device_id
self.vimba_handle = Vimba.get_instance().__enter__()
self.is_streaming = False
self.scale_window = 4
self.stream_thread = threading.Thread(target=self.thread_stream, daemon=True)
# Default settings
self.auto_exposure = "Off"
self.auto_gain = "Off"
self.acquisition = "Continuous"
self.exposure_us = 200000
self.fps = 6.763
self.gain = 0
self.gamma = 1
self.open()
def close(self):
if self.device is not None:
if self.is_streaming:
self.stop_stream()
time.sleep(1)
self.device.__exit__(None, None, None)
self.vimba_handle.__exit__(None, None, None)
def open(self):
cams = self.vimba_handle.get_all_cameras()
if not cams:
error_check(151, currentframe())
else:
self.device = cams[self.device_id].__enter__()
self.set_defaults()
self.start_stream()
def start_stream(self):
if self.device is not None:
self.is_streaming = True
self.stream_thread.start()
time.sleep(1)
def thread_stream(self):
while self.is_streaming:
current_frame = self.device.get_frame().as_opencv_image()
h, w, _ = current_frame.shape
self.current_frame = current_frame.reshape((h, w))
self.stream_thread = threading.Thread(target=self.thread_stream, daemon=True)
def stop_stream(self):
if self.device is not None:
self.is_streaming = False
def live_video(self):
if self.device is not None:
window_name = "Allied Vision"
h, w = self.current_frame.shape
w = int(w / self.scale_window)
h = int(h / self.scale_window)
cv2.namedWindow(window_name, cv2.WINDOW_NORMAL)
cv2.resizeWindow(window_name, w, h)
while 1:
cv2.imshow(window_name, self.current_frame)
cv2.waitKey(1)
if cv2.getWindowProperty(window_name, cv2.WND_PROP_VISIBLE) < 1:
break
cv2.destroyAllWindows()
def set_defaults(self):
if self.device is not None:
# Exposure time settings
self.device.ExposureAuto.set(self.auto_exposure)
self.device.ExposureTimeAbs.set(self.exposure_us)
# Gain settings
self.device.GainAuto.set(self.auto_gain)
self.device.Gain.set(self.gain)
# Gamma settings
self.device.Gamma.set(self.gamma)
self.device.AcquisitionMode.set(self.acquisition)
self.device.AcquisitionFrameRateAbs.set(self.fps)
# Try to adjust GeV packet size (available for GigE only)
try:
self.device.GVSPAdjustPacketSize.run()
while not self.device.GVSPAdjustPacketSize.is_done():
pass
except (AttributeError, VimbaFeatureError):
pass
# Color formatting (tries mono first, then color)
cv_formats = intersect_pixel_formats(self.device.get_pixel_formats(), OPENCV_PIXEL_FORMATS)
mono_formats = intersect_pixel_formats(cv_formats, MONO_PIXEL_FORMATS)
color_formats = intersect_pixel_formats(cv_formats, COLOR_PIXEL_FORMATS)
if mono_formats:
self.device.set_pixel_format(mono_formats[0])
elif color_formats:
self.device.set_pixel_format(color_formats[0])
if __name__ == "__main__":
dev = VimbaCam()
dev.live_video()
dev.close()