ovos-skill-camera

Camera Skill

Camera skill for OpenVoiceOS

Description

This skill allows you to take pictures using a connected webcam. You can configure various settings to customize its behavior.

Examples

• "Take a picture"

Settings

The settings.json file allows you to configure the behavior of the Camera Skill. Below are the available settings:

Setting Name	Type	Default	Description
video_source	Integer	0	Specifies the camera to use. 0 is the default system webcam.
play_sound	Boolean	true	Whether to play a sound when a picture is taken.
camera_sound_path	String	camera.wav	Path to the sound file to play when taking a picture.
pictures_folder	String	~/Pictures	Directory where pictures are saved.

Example settings.json

{
  "video_source": 0,
  "play_sound": true,
  "camera_sound_path": "/path/to/camera.wav",
  "pictures_folder": "/home/user/Pictures",
  "keep_camera_open": false
}

Additional Steps for Raspberry Pi Users

If you plan to use this skill on a Raspberry Pi, it requires access to the libcamera package for the Picamera2 library to function correctly. Due to how libcamera is installed on the Raspberry Pi (system-wide), additional steps are necessary to ensure compatibility when using a Python virtual environment (venv).

In these examples we use the default .venv location from ovos-installer, ~/.venvs/ovos, adjust as needed

Steps to Enable libcamera in Your Virtual Environment

1. Install Required System Packages
   Before proceeding, ensure that libcamera and its dependencies are installed on your Raspberry Pi. Run the following commands:

   sudo apt install -y python3-libcamera python3-kms++ libcap-dev
   

2. Modify the Virtual Environment Configuration
   If you already have a virtual environment set up, enable access to system-wide packages by modifying the pyvenv.cfg file in the virtual environment directory:

   nano ~/.venvs/ovos/pyvenv.cfg
   

   Add or update the following line:

   include-system-site-packages = true
   

   Save the file and exit.

3. Verify Access to libcamera
   Activate your virtual environment:

   source ~/.venvs/ovos/bin/activate
   

   Check if the libcamera package is accessible:

   python3 -c "import libcamera; print('libcamera is accessible')"
   

Why Are These Steps Necessary?

The libcamera package is not available on PyPI and is installed system-wide on the Raspberry Pi. Virtual environments typically isolate themselves from system-wide Python packages, so these adjustments allow the skill to access libcamera while still benefiting from the isolation provided by a venv.

Notes

• These steps are specific to Raspberry Pi users who want to utilize the Picamera2 library for camera functionality. On other platforms, the skill defaults to using OpenCV, which does not require additional configuration.
• Ensure that libcamera is installed on your Raspberry Pi before attempting these steps. You can test this by running:

  libcamera-still --version