ascii-camera

ASCII Camera 📹✨

╔══════════════════════════════════════════╗
║            🎥 ASCII CAMERA 📹           　║
║        Real-time Retro Video Art         ║
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Transform your webcam feed into retro ASCII art in real-time! ASCII Camera brings back the nostalgic charm of text-based graphics while showcasing your creativity in the terminal.

Features

🎥 Real-time conversion: Live webcam feed to ASCII art
🌈 Colorful output: Support for colored ASCII art with ANSI escape codes
⚡ High performance: Optimized for smooth real-time rendering
🎛️ Customizable: Multiple ASCII character sets and color schemes
📏 Adaptive resolution: Automatically adjusts to your terminal size
🔧 Easy to use: Simple command-line interface

Installation

From PyPI (recommended)

pip install ascii-camera

From source

git clone https://github.com/masashimorita/ascii_camera.git
cd ascii_camera
pip install -e .

Usage

Basic usage

ascii-camera

With custom options

# High detail ASCII characters
ascii-camera --charset detailed

# Colored output
ascii-camera --color

# Custom resolution
ascii-camera --width 80 --height 24

# Different FPS
ascii-camera --fps 15

# Retro green terminal theme
ascii-camera --color --theme matrix

Available options

• --width, -w: Terminal width (default: auto-detect)
• --height, -h: Terminal height (default: auto-detect)
• --fps: Frames per second (default: 12)
• --charset: ASCII character set (simple/detailed/block)
• --color: Enable colored output
• --theme: Color theme (matrix/amber/cyan/rainbow)
• --camera: Camera device index (default: 0)
• --help: Show help message

ASCII Character Sets

• Simple: .:-=+*#%@ (10 levels)
• Detailed: .,'~!;<>+*xvXGM#8@ (16 levels)
• Block: ░▒▓█ (4 levels, bold look)

Color Themes

• Matrix: Classic green-on-black terminal
• Amber: Retro amber terminal
• Cyan: Cool cyan blue
• Rainbow: Dynamic color mapping

Requirements

• Python 3.8+
• OpenCV (opencv-python)
• NumPy
• Colorama (for Windows color support)
• Webcam/camera device

How it works

• Capture: Uses OpenCV to grab frames from your webcam
• Process: Converts each frame to grayscale and resizes to terminal dimensions
• Map: Maps pixel brightness values to ASCII characters
• Display: Renders the ASCII frame in your terminal with optional colors
• Repeat: Continues the process for real-time video

Troubleshooting

Camera not found

# Try different camera indices
ascii-camera --camera 1
ascii-camera --camera 2

Performance issues

# Lower FPS for better performance
ascii-camera --fps 8

# Smaller resolution
ascii-camera --width 60 --height 20

Terminal compatibility

• Works best with modern terminals that support ANSI escape codes
• For Windows: Use Windows Terminal, ConEmu, or enable ANSI support

Contributing

Contributions are welcome! Please feel free to submit a Pull Request.

License

MIT License - see LICENSE file for details.

Inspiration

Inspired by classic ASCII art and retro terminal aesthetics. Perfect for developers who love the intersection of modern technology and nostalgic computing.