Java Webcam Capture

This library allows you to use your build-in or external webcam directly from Java.

Features

Simple, thread-safe and non-blocking API,
No additional software required,
Supports multiple platforms (Windows, Linux, Mac OS, etc) and various architectures (32-bit, 64-bit, ARM),
Stream images from build-in or USB-connected PC webcams,
Stream images from IP / network cameras (as MJPEG or JPEG),
Detect motion,
All required JARs Available in Maven Central,
Can re-stream images as MJPEG,
Available as standalone ZIP binaries with all dependencies included,
Supports additional video grabbing drivers (such as OpenIMAJ, LTI-CIVIL, JMF, FMJ, OpenCV, VLC, IP Camera),
Ready to use Swing component designed to display image from webcam / IP / network camera,

Download

Below is the newest stable version ZIP containing main project JAR with additional documents, examples and all required 3rd-party dependencies:

Latest stable version - webcam-capture-0.3.10-RC6-dist.zip

Other releases:

Previous stable version - webcam-capture-0.3.9-dist.zip
Latest SNAPSHOT version - webcam-capture-0.3.10-SNAPSHOT-dist.zip
List of all releases ever made - click

Maven

For those who use Maven and would like to add Webcam Capture dependency in their own projects.

Official Release

<dependency>
	<groupId>com.github.sarxos</groupId>
	<artifactId>webcam-capture</artifactId>
	<version>0.3.9</version>
</dependency>

Release Candidate

<repository>
	<id>SarXos Repository</id>
	<url>http://www.sarxos.pl/repo/maven2</url>
</repository>

<dependency>
	<groupId>com.github.sarxos</groupId>
	<artifactId>webcam-capture</artifactId>
	<version>0.3.10-RC6</version>
</dependency>

Snapshot Version

<repository>
	<id>Sonatype OSS Snapshot Repository</id>
	<url>http://oss.sonatype.org/content/repositories/snapshots</url>
</repository>

<dependency>
	<groupId>com.github.sarxos</groupId>
	<artifactId>webcam-capture</artifactId>
	<version>0.3.10-SNAPSHOT</version>
</dependency>

If you would like to use the newest SNAPSHOT version, please be aware - sometimes it can be unstable. Add the above repository and dependency into your pom.xml.

Contribution

If you have strong will, spare time, knownledge or even some small amount of money you would like to spent for good purpose you can help developing this awesome Webcam Capture API and make it even better! Several kinds of contributions are very welcome:

Star Project

If you think this project is great, you would like to help, but you don't know how - you can become project's stargazer. By starring you're making project more popular. Visit this link if you would like to learn more about how notifications and stars works on Github.

Report Bug or Feature

If you've found a bug or you've came-up with some fantastic feature which can make Webcam Capture a better API to use, don't hesitate to create new issue where you can describe in details what the problem is, or what would you like to improve.

Perform Tests

Since Webcam Capture use some part of native code, it's very hard to cover all supported operating systems. I'm always testing it on 64-bit Ubuntu Linux, Windows XP and Vista (both 32-bit), but I have no possibility to test on Raspberry Pi, Mac OS and 32-bit Linux. Please help and test on those systems if you have such possibility.

Write Code

If you know Java or C++ you can help developing Webcam Capture by forking repository and sending pull requests. Please visit this link if you don't know how to contribute to other's code at Github.

Donate

People have expressed a wish to donate a little money. Donating won't get you anything special, other than a warm feeling inside, and possibly urge me to produce more freely available material for Webcam Capture project. You can donate via PayPal, just click donate button available below - it will redirect you to the secured PayPal page where you can provide donation amount (there is no minimal value).

Hello World

Code below will capture image from your default webcam and save it in hello-world.png file:

Webcam webcam = Webcam.getDefault();
webcam.open();
ImageIO.write(webcam.getImage(), "PNG", new File("hello-world.png"));

More Examples!

Below is the list of pretty basic examples. All can be found in the project source code. Please note that some of those examples are using the newest API which possibly has not yet been released. In such a case please make sure you are using the newest Webcam Capture SNAPSHOT version.

And here are some more advanced examples, few with quite fancy GUI.

Capture Drivers

Imagine situation when you depend on some framework, but suddenly have to drop it and use different one (e.g. replace archaic JMF with newest GStreamer). By doing this one have to rewrite significant piece of code because new framework is completely incompatible with previous one. Here Webcam Capture API comes to help you! This library has been created to remove the burden of situation when you would like to write your application with intention to replace capturing framework somewhere in the future.

Webcam Capture API defined WebcamDriver interface which has been already implemented in several capturing drivers build on top of well-known frameworks used to work with multimedia and cameras. Complete list can be found below.

By default, Webcam Capture library uses default driver which consists of small, refined part of awesome OpenIMAJ framework wrapped in thread-safe container which allows it to be used in multithreaded applications. However there are more ready-to-use drivers which can be used as a replacement or addition to the default one. By utilizing those drivers Webcam Capture can be extended with various new features (e.g. IP camera support).

List of additional capture drivers includes:

Driver Name	Stable	Central	Description
ipcam	yes	yes	IP / network camera driver
gstreamer	yes	no	Driver for GStreamer framework
openimaj	yes	no	Driver for OpenIMAJ framework
v4l4j	yes	no	Driver for V4L4j project
jmf	yes	yes	Driver for JMF / FMJ frameworks
lti-civil	yes	yes	Driver for LTI-CIVIL library
javacv	no	no	Driver for JavaCV library
vlcj	no	no	Driver for VLCj library
ffmpeg-cli	exp	no	Driver for FFmpeg CLI tool

Central = Maven Central Repository
exp = experimental

History

I initially started working on Webcam Capture as a simple proof-of-concept after I read Andrew Davison's fantastic book entitled Killer Game Programming (which is also available online). Thank you Andrew! Later I found that there is a complete mess in Java APIs allowing you to capture images from webcams. Once you choose specific API you cannot change it without modifying large parts of the code. I decided to change this situation and write general purpose wrapper for various different APIs (like JMF, OpenCV, OpenIMAJ, LTI-CIVIL, VLC). In such a way, Webcam Capture as we know it today, was brought to life. Today you can change underlying frameworks just by replacing webcam driver (one line code change). If there is no driver for particular framework, it's very easy to write it yourself.

License

Permission is hereby granted, free of charge, to any person obtaining a copy of this software and associated documentation files (the "Software"), to deal in the Software without restriction, including without limitation the rights to use, copy, modify, merge, publish, distribute, sublicense, and/or sell copies of the Software, and to permit persons to whom the Software is furnished to do so, subject to the following conditions:

The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all copies or substantial portions of the Software.

THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED "AS IS", WITHOUT WARRANTY OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO THE WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND NONINFRINGEMENT. IN NO EVENT SHALL THE AUTHORS OR COPYRIGHT HOLDERS BE LIABLE FOR ANY CLAIM, DAMAGES OR OTHER LIABILITY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION OF CONTRACT, TORT OR OTHERWISE, ARISING FROM, OUT OF OR IN CONNECTION WITH THE SOFTWARE OR THE USE OR OTHER DEALINGS IN THE SOFTWARE.

nicklvsa/webcam-capture