Using OpenCV with RasPiCam and python

Question

Has any one been able to get OpenCV to directly play video from the RasPiCam board using python?

I've seen some projects involving workarounds, but what I'm interested in is being able to use the RasPiCam board with OpenCV as if it were a USB cam.

Ideally, I'd like to do something like this:

import cv2.cv as cv
capture = cv.CreateCameraCapture(-1) 
#some other code to actually display the video

Answer 1

You will be able to access to the raspi camera like other V4L2 device using :

• the official kernel V4L2 driver bcm2835-v4l2

sudo modprobe bcm2835-v4l2

• the unofficial userspace V4L2 driver for the Raspberry Pi Camera Module

uv4l --driver raspicam --auto-video_nr

• Ryan: Excellent. Exactly what I was looking for. Thanks so much.

Answer 2

If you like reading, this guys tutorial is pretty comprehensive. http://thinkrpi.wordpress.com/opencv-and-pi-camera-board/

• Ryan: I looked at that tutorial, but it seems to me like that is geared for using OpenCV with C, not python. It wasn't clear to me after reading it how the tutorial would be useful for using OpenCV with python.
• mrwhale: Yeah my bad.. sorry clearly didn't read your Question probably :S