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c++linuxwindowsmacosopencv
wirher
wirher

Reputation: 976

How to distinguish OpenCV cameras?

I am writing C++ class for managing multiple cameras and reading frames from them. Let's say it is wrapper for OpenCV. Currently I am finding cameras by trying to create devices from 0-10 range and If there is output I know that I've found working camera. I can always save internal IDs of those cameras to distinguish them but what If another camera is plugged in? It may break the order of IDs. So is there any way to distinguish OpenCV cameras for example by getting their hardware IDs?

Upvotes: 0

Views: 465

Answers (1)

Greg Kramida
Greg Kramida

Reputation: 4224

I know this doesn't help you much, but the short answer is "No, OpenCV doesn't currently provide that capability."

According to the doc, any hardware ids are not properties you can retrieve using the get method or any other.

Having said that, if you're very intent on using OpenCV, I would still test the behavior of OpenCV 2.4.10 on various platforms and using various middleware and see how it behaves. If you get a consistent behavior, then you can run with it, but be somewhat ready for it to break in the future. What would work for you is that OpenCV is using various middleware in the backend, such as V4L, Qt, etc., and these are well-maintained and more-or-less consistent.

In retrospect, I would stay away from OpenCV's video interface altogether right now for commercial software, unless you're okay with the situation I described. Beware that OpenCV 3.0 videoio library is unstable at this point and has open bug reports.

Upvotes: 2

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